Teacher/Caregiver Considerations |
Environmental Considerations |
Birth to 8 Months |
- Talk to infants about what is occurring during routines, such as diapering and feeding
- Respond to children’s babbling and cooing
- Take note of how infants respond to your voice, others voices, loud noises, and new sounds
- Take note of how infants indicate or communicate their needs
- Engage infants with books, name the objects in pictures and tell simple stories
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- Provide interesting things for infants to look at and watch
- Include multiple times throughout the day for infants to reach and explore a variety of books, toys and materials
- Provide appropriate books designed for young infants, including plastic, board, and cloth ones
- Include a variety of books with bright pictures and simple print
- Provide opportunities for sharing books, pictures and songs
- Provide interesting things for infants to track with their eyes, grasp, and release
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8 to 18 Months |
- Provide multiple language experiences - read, sing, ask questions, repeat rhymes
- Notice infants’ cues to help them understand how to get their needs met, such as picking up a child when he or she stretches out their arms
- Take note of infants’ interest in language
- Provide commentary of your own actions, as well as those of the infant
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- Make language experiences meaningful by including information from home
- Provide interesting objects and materials and plan many opportunities to talk about them
- Provide a variety of materials for scribbling and painting
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18 to 24 Months |
- Provide opportunities to share books one-on-one, in small groups, and in large groups throughout the day
- Establish eye contact when talking with young children, allowing them to see your face as you are speaking
- Talk with parents and families about early literacy development and encourage reading at home
- Incorporate children’s home language in conversations and activities, as much as possible
- Encourage toddlers to ask questions
- Provide multiple opportunities for pretend play
- Model writing and discuss what you are putting on paper
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- Provide opportunities and materials to encourage dramatic play, both indoors and outdoors
- Provide comfortable and sufficient spaces within the environment for children to enjoy books
- Make sure books are within easy reach for toddlers
- Create books from photos of familiar objects and people
- Provide a wide-variety of books throughout the classroom
- Provide materials, space, and time for pretend play
- Provide materials and opportunities for drawing, painting, and scribbling, both inside and outside.
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Two-Year-Olds |
- Model good grammar, and gently correct grammar errors by simply repeating what children say correctly
- Read books with inflection
- Learn about children’s interests and provide books related to them
- Tell stories and encourage children to do the same
- Ask open-ended questions and provide time to children to respond
- Repeat and extend children’s responses and utterances
- Make reading time special
- Ask children to tell you about their drawings and writing
- Engage in pretend play with children
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- Plan and provide comfortable spaces that encourage conversations both indoors and outdoors
- Provide a variety of books, such as storybooks, picture books, books about nature, books about the way things work, etc.
- Label objects in the environment with both pictures and print
- Rotate materials and props to encourage dramatic play throughout the year
- Provide a variety of types of paper and writing tools
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