Toddler Competency Standards

Toddler Competency Standards
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Toddler Competency Standards
1 To establish and maintain a safe and healthy learning environment.
Functional Area 1: Safety
The caregivers' role is to ensure that children are in a safe environment as they play and engage in learning activities. As a caregiver, I will ensure that the environment the children play in meets the rules and regulations for children's safety set by the government. I will also pay attention to details to ensure that children are not engaging in activities that could put them to harm. When playing in a poorly organized place, children are likely to cause harm to themselves or others. I will also ensure that I inspect all the playing toys and equipment used by kids to play for any damage and inspect the food preparation room to ensure that nothing they consume under my care causes them harm.
Functional Area 2: Healthy
I will ensure that children remain healthy by teaching them the importance of washing their hands regularly to eradicate germs from their hands. I will also ensure they are engaged in exercising and that they eat healthy food and snacks. By eating healthy snacks, the child's health is protected, and this helps eradicate cases of obesity, which is rampant among children. I will also ensure that the children and their parents are informed about the importance of having a healthy diet, and I will ascertain that all the snacks given to the children under my care are healthy.
Functional Area 3: The Learning Environment
Children mostly learn and discover new things as they play with their peers. Therefore, I will ensure that children are engaged in games that promote exploration and creativity and that they form good relationships that make them love school. Additionally, I will make sure children explore their environment and learn new things by encouraging them to ask questions.
2 To enhance and promote physical and intellectual competency
Functional Area 4: Physical
Physical development in early childhood is promoted by engaging in activities that enhance gross and fine motor skills. Therefore, I will ensure that children have a safe environment that allows them to run and jump to promote their gross motor skills. I will also ensure that children are engaged in activities such as cutting, painting, and gluing to promote their fine motor skills. Having a safe environment that ensures that children are unharmed as they play around and learn is a primary objective for the caregivers.
Functional Area 5: Cognitive
Creating a foundation for critical thinking skills in children involves engaging them in activities that encourage curiosity and exploration. I will therefore ensure that children are engaged in numeric activities of counting, and this will give promote curiosity to learn at an early age. I will also engage the children in various measuring activities, which are essential in developing their math skills.
Functional Area 6: Communication
Children learn how to communicate their feelings and thoughts at an early age using both verbal and non-verbal means as they play with their peers and engage with adults around them. Therefore, I will ensure that the children I provide care for learn how to communicate their anger and frustration through words instead of acting inappropriately. I will also ensure that children engage in activities such as singing, which enables them to learn various things by pointing and touching. This will enhance their communication skills.
Functional Area 7: Creative
For children to express their creativity, they should be engaged in multiple activities such as drawing, singing, dancing, and activities that enhance learning about sound and language. As a result, sensorimotor exploration among children is highly encouraged. Therefore, I will ensure that children at their young age move about regularly as they explore a wide variety of classroom activities and encourage them to engage in new activities.
3 To support social and emotional development and provide positive guidance
Functional Area 8: Self
As a child is developing, it is critical that they move from an egocentric nature to an ability to recognize other people's feelings and needs. Thus, I will incorporate a need for the preschool children to see that other people's feelings are also important. Additionally, I will use the Montessori model to build each child's autonomy and independence. I will encourage each individual to work on an activity independently and encourage them to appreciate ...