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) and the Division for Early Childhood (DEC) of the Council for Exceptional Children. For the purposes of this course, we have also made connections between the course competencies and WIDA’s Guiding Principles for Language Development.

Course Competency 1

Examine the connections between language acquisition theories and instructional approaches for language learning in early childhood education programs.

NAEYC Professional Standards and Competencies

Standard I: Child Development and Learning in Context

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 IV: Developmentally, Culturally, and Linguistically Appropriate Teaching Practices

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 V: Knowledge, Application, and Integration of Academic Content in the Early Childhood Curriculum

5b: Understand pedagogical content knowledge—how young children learn in each discipline—and how to use the teacher knowledge and practices described in Standards 1 through 4 to support young children’s learning in each content area.

DEC Recommended Practices

INS11: Practitioners provide instructional support for young children with disabilities who are dual language learners to assist them in learning English and in continuing to develop skills through the use of their home language.

INS12: Practitioners use and adapt specific instructional strategies that are effective for dual language learners when teaching English to children with disabilities.

WIDA Guiding Principles

Principle 3: Multilingual learners’ language development and learning occur over time through meaningful engagement in activities that are valued in their homes, schools, and communities.

Principle 4: Multilingual learners’ language, social-emotional, and cognitive development are inter-related processes that contribute to their success in school and beyond.

Principle 6: Multilingual learners use and develop language through activities which intentionally integrate multiple modalities, including oral, written, visual, and kinesthetic modes of communication.

Principle 9: Multilingual learners use their full linguistic repertoire, including translanguaging practices, to enrich their language development and learning.

Course Competency 2

Apply knowledge of first and second language development to identify and implement individualized, specific strategies that promote the growth and abilities of children who are multilingual learners, birth to age five.

NAEYC Professional Standards and Competencies

Standard I: Child Development and Learning in Context

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.

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.

Standard IV: Developmentally, Culturally, and Linguistically Appropriate Teaching Practices

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.

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 V: Knowledge, Application, and Integration of Academic Content in the Early Childhood Curriculum

5b: Understand pedagogical content knowledge—how young children learn in each discipline—and how to use the teacher knowledge and practices described in Standards 1 through 4 to support young children’s learning in each content area.

DEC Recommended Practices

INS11: Practitioners provide instructional support for young children with disabilities who are dual language learners to assist them in learning English and in continuing to develop skills through the use of their home language.

INS12: Practitioners use and adapt specific instructional strategies that are effective for dual language learners when teaching English to children with disabilities.

WIDA Guiding Principles

Principle 2: Multilingual learners’ development of multiple languages enhances their knowledge and cultural bases, their intellectual capacities, and their flexibility in language use.

Principle 3: Multilingual learners’ language development and learning occur over time through meaningful engagement in activities that are valued in their homes, schools, and communities.

Principle 4: Multilingual learners use and develop language when opportunities for learning take into account their individual experiences, characteristics, abilities, and levels of language proficiency.

Principle 6: Multilingual learners use and develop language through activities which intentionally integrate multiple modalities, including oral, written, visual, and kinesthetic modes of communication.

Principle 7: Multilingual learners use and develop language to interpret and access information, ideas, and concepts from a variety of sources, including real-life objects, models, representations, and multimodal texts.

Course Competency 3

Examine the intersectionality between children who are multilingual learners and children with disabilities to identify and implement effective strategies you can use to support them in the learning setting

NAEYC Professional Standards and Competencies

Standard I: Child Development and Learning in Context

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.

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.

Standard IV: Developmentally, Culturally, and Linguistically Appropriate Teaching Practices

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 V: Knowledge, Application, and Integration of Academic Content in the Early Childhood Curriculum

5c: Modify teaching practices by applying, expanding, integrating, and updating their content knowledge in the disciplines, their knowledge of curriculum content resources, and their pedagogical content knowledge.

DEC Recommended Practices

INS11: Practitioners provide instructional support for young children with disabilities who are dual language learners to assist them in learning English and in continuing to develop skills through the use of their home language.

INS12: Practitioners use and adapt specific instructional strategies that are effective for dual language learners when teaching English to children with disabilities.

WIDA Guiding Principles

Principle 4: Multilingual learners use and develop language when opportunities for learning take into account their individual experiences, characteristics, abilities, and levels of language proficiency.

Course Competency 4

Identify considerations early learning professionals should take into account when administering screening and assessments to children who are multilingual learners and/or interpreting results.

NAEYC Professional Standards and Competencies

Standard III: Child Observation, Documentation, and Assessment

3a: Understand that assessments (formal and informal, formative and summative) are conducted to make informed choices about instruction and for planning in early learning settings.

3b: Know a wide range of types of assessments, their purposes, and their associated methods and tools.

3c: Use screening and assessment tools in ways that are ethically grounded and developmentally, ability, culturally, and linguistically appropriate in order to document developmental progress and promote positive outcomes for each child.

3d: Build assessment partnerships with families and professional colleagues.

DEC Recommended Practices

A3: Practitioners use assessment materials and strategies that are appropriate for the child’s age and level of development and accommodate the child’s sensory, physical, communication, cultural, linguistic, social, and emotional characteristics.

A4: Practitioners conduct assessments that include all areas of development and behavior to learn about the child’s strengths, needs, preferences, and interests.

A5: Practitioners conduct assessments in the child’s dominant language and in additional languages if the child is learning more than one language.

A6: Practitioners use a variety of methods, including observation and interviews, to gather assessment information from multiple sources, including the child’s family and other significant individuals in the child’s life.

A7: Practitioners obtain information about the child’s skills in daily activities, routines, and environments such as home, center, and community.

A9: Practitioners implement systematic ongoing assessment to identify learning targets, plan activities, and monitor the child’s progress to revise instruction as needed.

WIDA Guiding Principles

Principle 4: Multilingual learners’ language, social-emotional, and cognitive development are inter-related processes that contribute to their success in school and beyond.

Principle 5: Multilingual learners use and develop language when opportunities for learning take into account their individual experiences, characteristics, abilities, and levels of language proficiency.

Principle 8: Multilingual learners draw on their metacognitive, metalinguistic, and metacultural awareness to develop effectiveness in language use.

Course Competency 5

Describe the cultures and languages represented in your community, ways they are interconnected, and the importance of sustaining them.

NAEYC Professional Standards and Competencies

Standard I: Child Development and Learning in Context

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 VI: Professionalism as an Early Childhood Educator

6d: Engage in continuous, collaborative learning to inform practice.

WIDA Guiding Principles

Principle 1: Multilingual learners’ languages and cultures are valuable resources to be leveraged for schooling and classroom life; leveraging these assets and challenging biases help develop multilingual learners’ independence and encourage their agency in learning.

Principle 10: Multilingual learners use and develop language to interpret and present different perspectives, build awareness of relationships, and affirm their identities.

Course Competency 6

Identify strategies you can use to partner with families who speak more than one language

NAEYC Professional Standards and Competencies

Standard II: Family–Teacher Partnerships and Community Connections

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.

DEC Recommended Practices

F1: Practitioners build trusting and respectful partnerships with the family through interactions that are sensitive and responsive to cultural, linguistic, and socio-economic diversity.

F4: Practitioners and the family work together to create outcomes or goals, develop individualized plans, and implement practices that address the family’s priorities and concerns and the child’s strengths and needs.

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.

F8: Practitioners provide the family of a young child who has or is at risk for developmental delay/disability, and who is a dual language learner, with information about the benefits of learning in multiple languages for the child’s growth and development.

WIDA Guiding Principles

Principle 1: Multilingual learners’ languages and cultures are valuable resources to be leveraged for schooling and classroom life; leveraging these assets and challenging biases help develop multilingual learners’ independence and encourage their agency in learning.

Course Competency 7

Explore ways you can advocate for children who are multilingual learners.

NAEYC Professional Standards and Competencies

Standard VI: Professionalism as an Early Childhood Educator

6a: Identify and involve themselves with the early childhood field and serve as informed advocates for young children, families, and the profession.

6e: Develop and sustain the habit of reflective and intentional practice in their daily work with young children and as members of the early childhood profession.

DEC Recommended Practices

F9. Practitioners help families know and understand their rights.

F10. Practitioners inform families about leadership and advocacy skill-building opportunities and encourage those who are interested to participate.

References

• Division for Early Childhood of the Council for Exceptional Children (2014, April). DEC Recommended Practices.
• National Association for the Education of Young Children. (2020). Professional standards and competencies for early childhood educators.
• WIDA (2020). WIDA English language development standards framework, 2020 edition.