Standards Alignment
Courses from the EarlyEdU Alliance® center on a set of competencies that describe what students should know and be able to do as a result of participating in the course. Each competency corresponds to standards and practices identified by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), Child Development Associate (CDA) Credentialing Program, and the Division for Early Childhood (DEC) of the Council for Exceptional Children.
Course Competency 1
Demonstrate knowledge of brain development and the developmental progressions of children birth to age 5 in physical, language, social-emotional, and cognitive areas.
| NAEYC Professional Standards and Competencies | CDA Standards | DEC Recommended Practices |
|---|---|---|
|
1a: Understand the developmental period of early childhood from birth through age 8 across physical, cognitive, social and emotional, and linguistic domains, including bilingual/multilingual development. |
Standard II: To advance physical and intellectual competence Standard III: To support social and emotional development and to provide positive guidance |
INT4. Practitioners promote the child’s cognitive development by observing, interpreting, and responding intentionally to the child’s exploration, play, and social activity by joining in and expanding on the child’s focus, actions, and intent. |
Course Competency 2
Identify children’s developmental progressions as expressed through their behavior in their environments.
| NAEYC Professional Standards and Competencies | CDA Standards | DEC Recommended Practices |
|---|---|---|
|
1b: Understand and value each child as an individual with unique developmental variations, experiences, strengths, interests, abilities, challenges, approaches to learning, and with the capacity to make choices. 4b: Understand and use teaching skills that are responsive to the learning trajectories of young children and to the needs of each child, recognizing that differentiating instruction, incorporating play as a core teaching practice, and supporting the development of executive function skills are critical for young children. |
Standard II: To advance physical and intellectual competence Standard III: To support social and emotional development and to provide positive guidance Standard V: To ensure a well-run, purposeful program that is responsive to participant needs |
INS1. Practitioners, with the family, identify each child’s strengths, preferences, and interests to engage the child in active learning. A7. Practitioners obtain information about the child’s skills in daily activities, routines, and environments such as home, center, and community. |
Course Competency 3
Identify and create learning activities and environments, and plan adult–child interactions that support children’s developmental progressions in physical, language, social-emotional, and cognitive domains.
| NAEYC Professional Standards and Competencies | CDA Standards | DEC Recommended Practices |
|---|---|---|
|
1d: Use this multidimensional knowledge—that is, knowledge about the developmental period of early childhood, about individual children, and about development and learning in cultural contexts—to make evidence-based decisions that support each child. 4c: Use a broad repertoire of developmentally appropriate, culturally, and linguistically relevant, anti-bias, evidence-based teaching skills and strategies that reflect the principles of universal design for learning. |
Standard II: To advance physical and intellectual competence Standard III: To support social and emotional development and to provide positive guidance |
E1. Practitioners provide services and supports in natural and inclusive environments during daily routines and activities to promote the child’s access to and participation in learning experiences. E3. Practitioners work with the family and other adults to modify and adapt the physical, social, and temporal environments to promote each child’s access to and participation in learning experiences. INS2. Practitioners, with the family, identify skills to target for instruction that help a child become adaptive, competent, socially connected, and engaged and that promote learning in natural and inclusive environments. INT1. Practitioners promote the child’s social-emotional development by observing, interpreting, and responding contingently to the range of the child’s emotional expressions. |
Course Competency 4
Demonstrate an understanding of the key roles that individual differences and family, program, and socio-cultural contexts play in development.
| NAEYC Professional Standards and Competencies | CDA Standards | DEC Recommended Practices |
|---|---|---|
|
1c: Understand the ways that child development and the learning process occur in multiple contexts, including family, culture, language, community, and early learning setting, as well as in a larger societal context that includes structural inequities. |
Standard II: To advance physical and intellectual competence Standard III: To support social and emotional development and to provide positive guidance Standard IV: To establish positive and productive relationships with families Standard VI: To maintain a commitment to professionalism |
TC1. Practitioners representing multiple disciplines and families work together as a team to plan and implement supports and services to meet the unique needs of each child and family. |
Course Competency 5
Apply strategies to build positive relationships with and between children and families.
| NAEYC Professional Standards and Competencies | CDA Standards | DEC Recommended Practices |
|---|---|---|
|
2a: Know about, understand, and value the diversity of families. 2b: Collaborate as partners with families in young children’s development and learning through respectful, reciprocal relationships and engagement. |
Standard IV: To establish positive and productive relationships with families |
INS13. Practitioners use coaching or consultation strategies with primary caregivers or other adults to facilitate positive adult-child interactions and instruction intentionally designed to promote child learning and development. F5. Practitioners support family functioning, promote family confidence and competence, and strengthen family-child relationships by acting in ways that recognize and build on family strengths and capacities. F6. Practitioners engage the family in opportunities that support and strengthen parenting knowledge and skills and parenting competence and confidence in ways that are flexible, individualized, and tailored to the family’s preferences. TC2. Practitioners and families work together as a team to systematically and regularly exchange expertise, knowledge, and information to build team capacity and jointly solve problems, plan, and implement interventions. |
