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Kentucky Early Childhood Standards help answer the question of what young children should learn—they describe the knowledge, skills, and dispositions that Kentucky hopes children will gain during the years before kindergarten. | |
The Kentucky Early Childhood Standards help educators provide experiences for children that prepare them to meet Kentucky’s definition of school readiness. | |
Kentucky defines school readiness by the ability of each child to enter school ready to engage in and benefit from early learning experiences that best promote the child’s success. | |
Who should use Early Childhood Standards? | |
The state of Kentucky says that the Early Childhood Standards are "a resource for educators in child care, family child care homes, Head Start, pre-kindergarten programs, part-day informal programs, and any other setting where children spend time. They are also a useful resource for specialists who work with children in a variety of roles, such as home visitors, early interventionists, speech/language pathologists, and other professionals. | The Early Childhood Standards are shared goals for children’s learning, no matter where they are served or who is supporting their development.” | |
How should Early Childhood Standards be used? | |
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The Early Childhood Standards are a guide for planning learning experiences and for monitoring children’s progress as they develop and learn.
They can be used to:
- Learn about age-appropriate expectations for skills children typically demonstrate at different ages.
- See typical “next steps” for how children make progress in the skills, and set learning goals and plan learning experiences for children.
- Gauge whether children are “on track” in terms of what is typical for their age and if they are making progress toward their learning goals.
- Guide decisions about selecting a curriculum and/or assessments, as the curricula and assessments used in early childhood settings should address the areas of development and learning that are included in the Early Childhood Standards.
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Approaches to Learning: The way a child initiates and engages in learning experiences.
It’s important to understand that:
- Every child learns differently.
- Each child’s approach to learning is unique.
- Some children may be reserved and thoughtful when first engaging in learning experiences while others eagerly join in new activities.
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Technology: Recognizing the increased/prevalent use of digital technologies, the Technology Standards will provide guidance for families and early educators on the purposeful and developmentally appropriate ways to use technologies in an interactive, social way.
Operating technology with care means:
- Digital literacy – knowing how to use tools
- Digital citizenship - using tools safely
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Throughout the updated standards language was added to provide more diverse examples and to address different abilities, changes were made to the sequence of some behaviors for more accurate alignment of the developmental, additional behavior examples were added to better demonstrate some components of the developmental continuum, and changes were made to some behavior descriptions to portray more observable behaviors. | |
Domains for Birth to Three Years | | |
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- Social Emotional Development
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Domains for Three and Four Year Olds | | |
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- Language and Early Literacy
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Technology Standard 1: Uses technology with care to engage with others and learn about the world.
Benchmark 1.1:
- Operates basic technology equipment with care.
- Manipulates technology equipment.
- Follows rules for safe use of the computer and other technology equipment.
Benchmark 1.2:
- Uses technology to learn information and accomplish a task.
- Uses technology to explore, create and innovate.
- Uses technology to communicate.
- Uses technology to investigate a topic of interest.
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If you are interested in learning more about the KY Early Childhood Standards, please contact your Family Child Care Specialist for additional training opportunities. | |
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As you explore the new Standards, you may find more resources are readily available to assist in implementing the standards.
These resources include Family Guides that provide activity ideas for each standard, a Dual Language Learners Appendix which includes websites that provide dual language learning, and a partnership page which provides links and descriptions to each partner’s page.
If you need any assistance accessing these resources, please contact your Family Child Care Specialist.
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The Family Guides are a companion to the Kentucky Early Childhood Standards. The Family Guides align directly to the Standards and the best practices of Kentucky Educational Television (KET)’s Let’s Learn Kentucky.
A full Family Guide can be found at: https://kyecac.ky.gov/families/Family-Guides/Pages/default.aspx.
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The Dual Language Learner Appendix is a resource available to help guide educators and families to teach young children who are learning more than one language. Topics discussed within the appendix include basic concepts, working with families of dual-language learners, using the standards, and websites that are beneficial when working with dual-language learners.
You can find these websites listed below:
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WIDA is a national website that provides language development resources for educators working with Dual Language Learners. The resources include language standards, assessments, and professional resources such as “Early Years Can Do Descriptors” which are examples of what two- to five-year-old DUAL LANGUAGE LEARNERs can do at various stages of language development. | | |
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Head Start Early Learning & Knowledge Center (ECLKC) is a national website that provides information on a variety of topics, including Dual Language Learners and the role of culture in children’s development in the “Dual Language Learners Toolkit”.
Resources can be found under the Culture and Language heading.
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NAEYC houses a website titled, “Dual Language Learners” that provides links to a variety of resources. | | |
Colorin Colorado is a national multimedia project that offers bilingual, research-based information, activities and advice for educators and families of Dual Language Learners. | |
Upcoming Professional Development Training | |
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The WKU Family Child Care Network of Kentucky will be be providing quarterly face-to-face Saturday Sessions throughout the western part of Kentucky starting this August.
These sessions will give you an opportunity to meet other Family Child Care Providers and receive 4 to 6 hours of training in one day.
Our Summer Saturday Conference will take place in Elizabethtown, KY on August 20, 2022.
Morning Session
Creative Expression with Infants and Toddlers
Time: 9:30am -11:30pm EST - 2 Hours
Cost: $10.00
Afternoon Session
Inclusive Physical Activities
Time: 12:30pm - 2:30pm EST - 2 Hours
Cost: $10.00
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Other August training sessions are now available for registration.
We will be offering two 2-hour independent study, Health, Safety, and Nutrition and The Stressed Child. Independent studies are online and work at your own pace. You may sign up for these sessions anytime in August. You have two weeks to complete the training.
We are also offering a series of live Zoom Strengthening Business Practices sessions for Owners/Directors.
The topics include:
- Financial Reports and Internal Controls for Center-Based Child Care Providers
- Budgeting, Projections, and Planning
- Staff Recruitment and Retention for Center-based Child Care Programs
- Marketing Your Program
Additionally, there are currently four free CPR/First Aid sessions available for registration. These are hybrid sessions. The session content is online and the skills check is in person. Trainings are available in Bowling Green, KY and Glasgow, KY.
View the WKU FCCN Training Calendar for more information and to register.
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Kentucky Family Child Care Convention
March 10th & 11th, 2023
Cost: FREE for Kentucky Family Child Care Network
Conscious Discipline equips educators to integrate social-emotional learning, discipline and self-regulation so they spend less time policing behavior and more time teaching vital life skills. Mark you calendars and join us at the 2023 Kentucky Family Child Care Convention!
Friday March 10, 2023
6:00pm-7:00pm - Networking and Dinner
7:00pm-9:00pm - Plenary (3 training hours)
Saturday March 11, 2023
9:00am-3:30pm - Conscious Discipline (6 training hours)
Lunch provided
Be on the lookout for more information!
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A publication of the WKU Family Child Care Network | | | | |
