Content Area IIE: Promoting Personal and Social Development

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Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Level 4
Level 5

Level 1

• Engages in everyday conversation with infants, toddlers, and young children.
• Treats children as individuals with their own strengths and needs.
• Recognizes that periods of stress, separation, and transition may affect children’s personal and social development.
• Shares children’s excitement in discoveries, exploration, and manipulation of items in the environment.

Level 2

• Affirms children’s worth and growing identity as individuals.
• Works to ensures continuity of care, especially for infants and toddlers (e.g., each infant is assigned and learns to identify a primary caregiver).
• Shows respectful and matter-of-fact attitude when diapering, undressing, feeding, and nurturing (e.g., instead of using words like stinky, dirty, or messy, say “Let’s get you a fresh diaper” or “We need to wash your hands now”).
• Handles children gently and goes as slowly as circumstances permit during diapering, dressing, feeding, or putting children down for sleep.
• Avoids talking about children to other staff as though children are not present or can’t hear (e.g., does not say “Elana’s being naughty – can you deal with her so I can feed Ben?”).
• Helps children learn to communicate and get along with others.
• Models recognizing, naming, and expressing feelings.
• Models and encourages feelings of empathy and mutual respect among children and adults.
• Helps children through periods of stress, separation, and transition.
• Helps children feel valued as members of the group.
• Emphasizes cooperation in games and activities and provides many opportunities for cooperative play.
• Intervenes when necessary to help children develop socially.
• Is sensitive to varying cultural values and expectations about the child as a member of a family and an ethnic or social group.
• Models curiosity and information seeking.
• Supports children’s sustained efforts at activities and problem solving.
• Tells infants, toddlers, and young children what will happen next (e.g., I’m going to change your diaper now; in a little while we’re going to clean up our toys; it’s almost time to clean up our toys; let’s pick up our toys now).
• Shows support for and acceptance of individual children and their families.

Level 3

• Works to create a community in the program or home setting and encourages children to include others who may be isolated.
• Guides children in understanding and expressing their feelings and those of others.
• Guides children in asserting themselves in positive ways and helping others.
• Helps children learn and practice empathy and respect for the feelings and rights of others.
• Encourages shy or quiet children to interact with others while respecting their personality style and temperament.
• Learns the individual eating and sleeping rhythms of infants and toddlers and their preferences for comforting and approaching new people and experiences.
• When possible, offers toddlers and young children two acceptable choices to promote autonomy and reduce oppositional behavior.
• Develops positive relations with families and recognizes the child is an integral part and extension of the family.

Level 4

• Provides physical environments, schedules, and routines that promote self-control and self-regulation.
• Designs and provides a curriculum that emphasizes and enhances development of social skills, relationships, and friendships.
• Guides children through problem solving and conflict resolution interactions.
• Serves as a constant and reliable listener and supporter for each child as a loveable person, even when his/her behavior seems to push adults away.
• Creates environments that offer an appropriate amount of stimulation and opportunities to choose new as well as familiar activities.
• Provides sufficient time for children to engage in sustained activities.
• Provides an environment of psychological safety where children are encouraged to experiment without fear of making mistakes.
• Recognizes atypical personal and social development and initiates appropriate referral strategies.
• Works to support and reinforce families for their primary role in children’s personal and social development.

Level 5

• Analyzes and applies current theory on attachment and promoting social development.
• Identifies and communicates to others specific strategies for interacting with children with challenging behaviors.
• Communicates to others the process for developing curriculum that promotes social and emotional development and positive approaches to learning.