The Council is excited to announce that later this year we will release the newly-revised third edition of the landmark textbook Essentials for Child Development Associates Working with Young Children.  The new Essentials will provide all of the most current research, information, ideas and strategies needed by entry-level early childhood professionals.  The textbook will be organized around each of the thirteen Functional Areas, along with new information about reflection, intentionality, observation, documentation and other key topics of interest to contemporary teachers and caregivers.

In our last article we reflected on “Functional Area 2 – Healthy”.  Please see, below, the many reflective responses we received about this topic from members of the national CDA community.  This month, we focus on…

Learning Environments

Here is an advanced sneak peek of “Chapter 3: Learning Environment” for you to reflect on…

Young children’s environments set the stage for life-long learning.  How you set them up and manage them steer children toward mastering the social, emotional, cognitive, physical and language skills they need. The environment includes the physical space of your classroom, both indoors and out. It also includes the materials and equipment that fill that space as well as their arrangement and display. In addition, the people who interact with children - caregivers, parents, and other volunteers – are all part of the environments in which young children spend their days.