Appendix A

What Is Physical Development and Why Is It Important?

Introduction

Physical development depends on a combination of maturation and learning. For example, a child might have the physical skills needed to ride a tricycle, but needs to learn through instruction or modeling to use her skills to pedal. Children's physical development progresses from head to toe (cephalocaudal), so most children control head movements first. Next, they develop control of their torsos and arms, and finally their legs. Large muscle skills usually appear before those involving small muscles because physical development progresses from the center outward (proximodista). Muscle control normally begins closest to the body center and moves outward as the child matures.

Physical development-the gradual gaining of control over large and small muscles-includes acquiring large muscle skills such as sitting, crawling, walking, running, and throwing and small muscle skills such as holding, pinching, and flexing fingers and toes. In addition, coordinated movement such as eye-hand coordination (the ability to direct finger, hand, and wrist movements) is also an important part of physical development. Eye-hand coordination is used to accomplish small muscle tasks such as fitting a piece in a puzzle or threading a needle. Our senses-especially sight, sound, and touch-help coordinate the movement of our large and small muscles.

• Large muscle skills involve movement of the whole body or large parts of the body. Examples include rolling over, crawling, climbing stairs, running, jumping, riding a tricycle, and pushing or pulling a wagon. The sequence of large muscle development is usually the same for all children. However, each child has his or her own pace for growth and learning.
• Small muscle skills involve the body's small muscles, particularly those in hands and feet. When children can coordinate hands, fingers, and wrists, they can hold a crayon or paintbrush, thread beads on a string, and use a computer. Strength in the small muscles is needed to cut with scissors and use tools. Control and agility are required for buttoning, zipping, holding utensils, and other tasks. Eye-hand coordination-directing finger, hand, and wrist movements to accomplish small muscle tasks-allows children to perform tasks such as building with Legos or feeding themselves.

Although the age when children accomplish a skill varies from child to child, the pattern rarely does. Most children follow the same sequence of development as they achieve physical skills. For example, babies learn to crawl before they learn to walk. However, each child reaches physical developmental milestones according to his or her own time clock. For example, one infant can roll over at five months; another masters this skill at six months.

Self-Esteem

Physical development is closely related to self-esteem. We develop views of ourselves and attitudes about attempting new tasks on the basis of how we feel about our bodies and what we think we can or cannot do physically. Children who have had many successful experiences using their small and large muscle skills tend to feel that they are competent. They are likely to continue to attempt new tasks without worrying about failure.

Learning Style/Temperament

In addition, a child's temperament and learning style can affect his or her physical development. For example, a child who is eager to face challenges is likely to develop physical skills more quickly than a child who is reluctant to try new things.

Physical development seems to take place without much guidance from parents and other adults since, to a large extent, it is biologically preordained. Most children do not have to be reminded to practice physical skills. Infants gleefully kick their legs and reach for objects. Toddlers push, pull, shake, dump, pour, and turn over anything they can get their hands or feet on. Most preschool children delight in running and climbing as well as in building and knocking down.

Adult Input

Appropriate experiences and interactions will help children achieve their full physical potential. Adults can encourage and support physical development in the following ways:

• Provide well-balanced meals and snacks that meet children's nutritional needs.
• Create safe environments in which children can play, explore, and use their growing physical skills.
• Encourage children to use their physical skills by crawling, hopping, walking, jumping, and otherwise moving their bodies.
• Encourage children to practice using their muscles in routines such as dressing or canying groceries and through use of toys and materials.

What Is Cognitive Development and Why Is It Important?

Introduction

Cognitive development is the process of learning to think and to reason. Children naturally develop cognitive skills as they explore and investigate everything in their environment. A baby crawling in the grass is likely to become fascinated with the smallest of caterpillars-something we, as adults, might not notice. For her, it is not enough to see the caterpillar; she has to touch it, pick it up, examine it closely, even smell or try to taste it. By using all of her senses, the infant develops a concrete understanding of caterpillars. When she is older and hears the word caterpillar, she will learn a label for this object. On another day, when she sees a worm, this child might say, Look at the caterpillar! Although technically she is incorrect, she sees that a worm and a caterpillar have characteristics in common. She is developing cognitive skills.

Children continue to develop and refine their cognitive skills as they grow. With experience, they add new information in an orderly way to what they have learned. While a toddler may believe that all things that crawl in the grass are caterpillars, an older child can observe the differences between worms, caterpillars, and snakes.

Piaget

Much of what we know about cognitive development comes from the work of the Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget, who carefully studied young children to find out how they think. From his observations, he concluded that children progress through distinct stages in which they think in certain characteristic ways. Through careful observations, experiments, and years of questioning and listening to young children, including his own, Piaget documented that young children think in ways that are different from the ways adults think. Whereas adults use logic and reasoning, young children are not capable of this higher level of thinking. They learn by doing: manipulating concrete, real things to develop an understanding of concepts. For example, they learn about counting when they make two equal rows that contain the same number of beads. Counting out loud is not enough. Young children must have real things to handle. Many early childhood professionals have observed these processes in their work with young children.
 
Pattern of Learning

Learning is acquired in steps. Just as an infant crawls before learning to walk, so too does a child move gradually from concrete to abstract thinking. Piaget outlined four stages of cognitive development; the first two take place during the early childhood years.

Sensorimotor period: The first stage of development extends from birth to approximately age two. Babies build intelligence by reacting physically to what they sense. They use all their senses to learn basic skills and concepts. Babies follow the mobiles above their heads with their eyes; they turn their heads toward the sounds coming from a music box; they sniff at the mashed bananas on their spoons; they put play dough in their mouths to learn from their taste buds what it is like; and they crumple aluminum foil to feel its texture.

As infants use their senses to explore the world around them, they develop thinking skills. For example:

• When a six-month-old swats at the mobile above her crib and causes it to flutter, she begins to understand cause and effect.
•  When a ten-month-old plays a game of peek-a-boo with his father, he is learning object permanence-that something continues to exist even when it is hidden from sight. This is a new thought process for very young babies.
•  When a seven-month-old no longer sees the rattle you hid under the blanket, she forgets about it because she does not yet understand that a rattle still exists even when she cannot see it.
•  Older infants also learn how to use objects to get things they want. A fifteen-month-old, for example, will reach for a string on a toy to pull it closer to him. This learning is called meansend because a baby purposefully does something (a means) to reach a certain goal (end).

Children begin to use concept terms such as big and small (size), square and round (shape), light and heavy (weight), late and early (time), long and short (height), smooth and rough (texture), and so on. These literacy and numerical skills prepare children for aca demic learning that takes place in elementary school.

Just as toddlers and preschoolers use words to symbolize meaning, during dramatic play, they use items to symbolize other real objects-blocks can become musical instruments, a pot a hat, and sand a cup of tea. At this age, children also have excellent memories.

Preoperational children express their thoughts in seemingly magical ways-Thunder is the sound of angels bowling! If we use adult standards to look at these thought patterns, they seem rather inflexible and illogical. Essentially, the children are relying on appearances rather than ideas. They can focus on only one aspect of an object at a time-a person can be their teacher, but this same person cannot be somebody else's wife. Children see things primarily from one point of view: their own. That is why trees and marbles have feelings, just like they do. Assigning human feelings and characteristics to objects is called animism. Impossibilities such as talking animals or superpowers are taken at face value. Since children at this stage of development do not really understand where their knowledge comes from, inconsistencies in logic are not a problem,

The final two stages of cognitive development, concrete operations and formal operations involve children beyond the ages of children in Head Start.

Concrete operations stage involves children from about the ages of six-and-a-half to eleven. These children use logic and make multiple classifications. For instance, an animal can be a dog and a collie; and someone can be both a home visitor and a mother.

 Formal operations, the last stage, typically begins at about age eleven. These children think as adults do. They can logically solve problems, imagine things that are contrary to fact, and think in metaphors.

Recent research, including that conducted by Howard Gardner, on how humans learn to think has led to new ways of defining intelligence. Gardner describes intelligence as more than just verbal and math skills. Each child has unique abilities that are described in terms of potential for achievement in seven areas.

Gardner lists these seven areas of multiple intelligences as:

Logical-analysis and mathematical reasoning. Children with strong potential in this area might easily solve problems such as comparing the volume of different containers at the water table.

Linguistic-appreciating the rhythms and meanings of words and using language well. Children with strong potential in this area might enjoy listening to poems and stories or develop large vocabularies.

Musical-appreciating different forms of music and producing and appreciating rhythm, pitch, and timbre. Children with strong potential in this area might enjoy hearing different kinds of music or using rhythm instruments.

Spatial-accurately seeing the physical world and being able to understand and make changes in it, as in the visual arts. Children with strong potential in this area might build complex structures or easily put together puzzles.

Bodily Kinesthetic-using the whole body, including both fine and gross motor skills, to solve problems and create products. Children with strong potential in this area might get very involved in movement activities or use tools to take apart a clock or radio.

Interpersonal-understanding and responding appropriately to the moods, temperaments, motivations, and desires of other people. Childrenwith strong potential in this area might be the leaders in dramatic play or show a younger child how to do something.

Intrapersonal-knowing one's strengths, weaknesses, desires, and intelligences, and using the knowledge productively. Children who have strong potential in this area might teach themselves to read or write or work on a long-term project.

Self-Esteem
 
A very important factor in children's cognitive development is that children have the self-confidence and motivation to explore, to try out ideas, to solve problems, and to take on new challenges. Helping children develop and use their cognitive skills is a crucial part of what we do at Head Start. If you can help children begin to see themselves as good learners, you will prepare them for school and for life. Adults can encourage and support cognitive development in the following ways:

• Encouraging children to solve their own problems
• Extending children's thinking by asking questions
• Offering children simple choices when the decision is theirs
• Commenting on children's good ideas
• Providing a safe, interesting environment that encourages exploration and experimentation

What Is Social Development and Why Is It Important?

Definition

Social development is the process of children getting to know and value the people in their lives. It involves being able to establish and maintain relationships, develop social skills, and get along with other children. Social development includes learning to share, cooperate, take turns, and negotiate with others.

Interacting with Others

Children's relationships with other people begin in infancy when as babies they respond to the familiar voice, smell, and touch of a parent or primary caregiver. It continues when as toddlers they learn to play alongside each other. Then, as preschoolers, children learn to negotiate, giving up some individual desires for the greater rewards that come from working and playing with others.

Impact of Play

Children develop social skills by interacting with family members and primary caregivers, by watching and copying adult behaviors, and by playing. Play, an important vehicle for children's social development, has been tied to later success in school. At each stage of development, play takes on different characteristics.

• Infants' play can be almost anything they do-smiling back at some one, kicking a pillow, crawling under a table, wiggling toes and waving fingers, beating a bowl with a spoon, and touching a person's hair or face. They learn about taking turns when adults teach them games such as peek-a-boo or roll a ball back and forth. Around the age of eighteen months, children begin using pretend play. For example, a child of this age might pretend to put a doll to bed or to talk on the phone.
• Toddlers tend to play alone, sometimes with an older child or adult. Eventually, they will play next to each other while using the same materials. At this stage, toddlers develop a sense of self that includes determining what belongs to them and what belongs to others. Therefore, it is difficult for them to share, as they may see their belongings as an extension of themselves. Toddlers also like dramatic play, recreating familiar activities such as taking care of babies, cooking, dressing, leaving, and coming back.
• Most preschoolers play cooperatively-organizing their own play around a theme, defining roles, making up rules, and assigning jobs. They may work toward a common goal, such as building a road. This type of play encourages children to learn to share, listen to other people, take turns, compromise, consider other people's feelings, use self-control, and overcome fears. Preschoolers also use dramatic play to try out negative feelings-they can be mean and nasty because they are just pretending.

How preschoolers experience dramatic play varies according to their age and stage of development.

• Three-year-olds may not realize that they made a conscious decision to pretend. They run from monsters and scary creatures, collect and gather things, pack suitcases, and make plans. They may never carry out these plans or go anywhere with their packed suitcases.
• Most four-year-olds know when they are pretending. They use dressup clothes and create more complex roles and scenarios.
• Five-year-olds create complex scenarios in which they pretend to be real or fantasy characters. They may use pretend play to express anxiety or conquer fears-I don't want to move to a new house or I'm afraid it will hurt when I get a shot at the doctor's.

An important part of social development is learning how to make and keep a friend. Every child needs at least one special friend to talk to, play with, and to care about. It is also important for children to learn that disagreements are a part of friendship. With encouragement from adults, they can learn to express their views, discuss and resolve their conflicts, and continue being friends.

By the time children enter kindergarten, most have acquired a wide range of social skills that will serve them well in school and life. For example, most children know how to:

• Share happy experiences and feelings
• Make friends
• Be kind and generous to others
• Show affection
• Help someone (such as help another child tie her shoes)
• Wait for a turn and share toys and materials
• Join a conversation or activity
• Use words to express strong feelings such as frustration or anger
• Cooperate with others to do a job or in a play situation

Summary

Children's social development during the early years affects their ad justment to life. Their abilities to play, relate to others, and learn are strongly influenced by their relationships with other people, such as family, friends, and Head Start staff. Positive interactions during these years will help children succeed throughout their lives. Adults can encourage and support social development in the following ways:

• Invite children to assist in completing a task.
• Play with children to teach them how to play and to model behaviors.
• Provide many opportunities, adapting them as necessary, to learn through play.
• Observe and assist children who have difficulty being accepted by the group.
• Encourage children to help each other.
• Model positive ways to interact with others.

What is Emotional Development and Why is it Important?

Emotional development, which refers to the feelings children have about themselves, people in their lives, and the environment in which they live, is closely tied to social development. Children with a strong sense of self and high self-esteem are likely to value and seek interactions and relation ships with others. Feeling good about oneself generally leads to feeling good about being with other people. As children develop emotionally, they learn the words that describe different feelings and how to express them in ways that are accepted by their community and culture.

Infants

Emotional development begins when infants bond with the adults- family members and caregivers-who nurture and care for them. This primary attachment allows children to develop a sense of trust. Late in the first year of life, as feelings of attachment grow very strong, children may feel anxious around strangers and get upset when separated from the important people in their lives. These strong feelings may look like insecurity, but actually, they are evidence that the children appreciate and value interactions with other human beings.
 

Toddlers

Toddlers are active beings whose deeply felt emotions tend to swing from one extreme to the other. Happiness and joy can quickly give way to sadness and anger. Toddlers tend to express their feelings physically-jumping, running, hitting, or throwing. Their language and thinking skills have not developed to the point where they can use words to express themselves. Toddlers' emotional development is also affected by their conflicting desires to be both dependent and independent. They are struggling to be separate people, but do not know how to do this and still retain the good feelings they get from being close to their adult care givers.
 

Preschoolers

Preschoolers also have strong emotions. They can be very excited, scared, happy, angry, or afraid of real or imagined dangers such as monsters or the birth of a sibling. Most preschoolers, however, have learned to control their behaviors and can name their feelings, rather than act on them. Preschoolers are also developing a sense of identity-recognizing that they are boys or girls and belong to a family, community, and culture. In addition, they are becoming more aware of the behaviors expected and valued by adults and others in society. They also can help to make and follow a few simple rules and take great pride in using self-control rather than giving in to their impulses.

Developmental Milestones

Dr. Stanley Greenspan has defined five early milestones that are the foundation for children's ongoing emotional development. Addressing these milestones begins in early childhood. Children who master them are likely to be successful-in school, at home, and in their relationships with peers. The chart on page D-4, The Foundation for Children's Emotional Development,summarizes the five milestones and how children use the skills gained through accomplishing these milestones in current and future relationships and situations.

Although children typically reach the first four emotional milestones described by Greenspan during the first three years of life, some preschoolers may have not mastered them. As you review the information in the chart, you can easily see that children who have not reached the milestones are likely to have difficulty developing a sense of self, gaining self control, and participating in Head Start activities. Head Start staff can work with children and their families to provide the kinds of relationships and experiences that allow children to regulate their own behavior; feel warm and close to others; communicate nonverbally; and create mental images of their needs, feelings, and desires. As noted, Greenspan views these milestones as the foundations for emotional development and success in school and life.

Developing a Sense of Self and Self-Esteem

A sense of self is awareness of one's personal identity-physical characteristics, gender, interests, strengths, likes and dislikes, family, culture, and ethnicity. It is closely tied to self-esteem-positive feelings about identity, values, and competence. Children develop a sense of self as they begin to identify themselves as members of a gender, family, culture, ethnic group, and community. Self-esteem grows when children experience satisfaction from doing a good job, mastering a challenge, and learning to accept and appreciate other people as well as themselves. Children with a sense of self and high self-esteem feel strong enough to do things on their own; connected to friends, family, and community; and respected and valued by others.

Early Childhood Stages

Erik Erikson, a theorist who is closely associated with emotional development, focuses on eight stages through which people pass as they develop from birth through old age. Three stages occur during early childhood. If development occurs at a normal pace, trust develops in infancy, independence in toddlerhood, and initiative during the pre- school years. Each stage focuses on a conflict that the individual must handle. The conflicts are never fully resolved-continuing to arise even in adulthood. However, if individuals handle these conflicts successfully, they are likely to continue coping with them in positive ways. Successful passage through these stages contributes greatly to self-esteem.

Trust

For example, a conflict that arises in infancy is trust versus mistrust. Infants develop a sense of trust when the adults who care for them let them know that they are valued human beings. This leads to positive feelings about self and the rest of the world. A sense of trust allows infants to explore their environment, try activities, develop skills, and learn how to interact with other people.

Independence

A sense of trust is essential to the development of independence, whichgenerally occurs during toddlerhood. The conflict in this stage centers on independence versus shame and doubt. As toddlers begin developing self-control, a healthy sense of shame helps them understand and adhereto the limits set by adults. Too much shame can be unhealthy and cause toddlers to doubt their abilities and fall to seek and use independence:

On the other hand, when toddlers feel independent, they want to do things for themselves, make decisions, and explore the world. Their sense of trust in their parents or other adults allows them to feel safe enough to try new things. They may say No a lot, but this is a way to test limits, rather than intentionally misbehave. Toddlers struggle with conflicting needs-to be cared for and to do things for themselves. During this stage, most toddlers learn to use the toilet-a major emotional and physical accomplishment.

Initiative

A sense of independence is essential to the development of initiative, which generally occurs during the preschool years. The conflict that children deal with during this stage focuses on learning to think and act on their own without losing control versus feeling guilty because they tried to be independent. Children begin to develop a conscience during this period as they learn what are acceptable and unacceptable behaviors. Also, during this stage, children identify themselves as boys or girls and begin to understand what it means in their culture to be male or female.

Adult Input

You can encourage and support emotional development by:

• Respecting children: listening to their feelings and responding appropriately
• Sharing some of your own feelings when appropriate
• Encouraging children to use words to express how they feel
• Stating what you think children are feeling when they are having trouble expressing their emotions.

The Foundation for Children's Emotional Development

 

Typical Age	Emotional Milestone	Children Use This Skill to:
3 to 4 Months	Security and the ability to look, listen, and be calm. Children focus on what they touch, see, and hear without losing control. They like being with parents and caregivers; develop a regular schedule for sleeping and eating; look at and listen to their environment; and enjoy life.	Listen to instructions (such as how to clean up) without looking away or thinking about something happening outside the window Focus on tasks and during conversations Choose what they want to do and what materials to use Succeed in school
4-6 Months	Relating: ability to feel warm and close to others. This is based on the trust that normally develops as a baby learns she can depend on parents and caregivers. In the early years, most learning comes from relationships with others-this is a foundation for learning. For example, a child learns cause and effect when a cry brings a parent to his side or a smile makes someone smile back.	Work independently Easily join a group at play Make friends Understand abstract concepts
6-18 Months	Intentional two-way communication without words. Children learn that facial expressions and body language are signs of thoughts and feelings. Children use this information to decide how to respond.	Observe nonverbal cues, read people's expectations, desires, and feelings, and respond-cry at a frown, try to join in play Point at something they want Distinguish a look that says, Come join me, from one that says, I don't want to play with you Understand the actions of peers
18-36 Months	Emotional ideas. Children create mental pictures of what they want, need, or feel.	Name their feelings: l am angry!, rather than crying, hitting, or having a tantrum Control their actions and impulses and think before acting
2-1/2 to 4 Years	Emotional thinking. Children link categories of ideas and feelings to learn how one relates to another. This understanding of cause-and-effect is the foundation for all future thinking. For example, children use this when learning to read and to explore arithmetic concepts.	Link two feelings that occur at different times and understand how one causes the other Handle frustration Set aside immediate gratification for future rewards Work hard at a difficult task

 

Enhancing Children's Development

Although scientists and researchers have studied and defined how children typically develop in four separate domains, development in one domain almost always affects development in another. For example, learning to ride a tricycle is a physical skill; however, gaining this skill also involves problem solving and experimentation. The child who masters this skill is likely to feel competent and proud of this new ability. However, if trike-riding is a very popular activity, she may also have to use her social skills to negotiate her turn or follow the group's rules for taking turns using the tricycles. When props such as firefighter hats and traffic signs are available, the child can explore new avenues for dramatic play. Therefore, acquiring this new physical skill can contribute to development in other areas.

Many things adults do to encourage children's growth and development affect more than one area. Rather than offer suggestions tied to a single area, the following strategies are likely to encourage growth and development of the whole child. You can try these developmentally appropriate practices and share them with the children's families.

Infant Activities

Some practices that respond to infants' developmental needs include the following:

• Get to know each infant's unique personality, body rhythms, and moods.
• Play with infants and give them opportunities to play with other children and to play by themselves.
• Read to infants and play games with them.
• Vary the environment: move infants to different parts of a room or outdoors and provide new play materials so they do not get bored.
• Feed infants when they are hungry, and burp them afterwards.
• Hold infants often, not just when they are crying.
• Change infants promptly after they are wet or soiled, talking and playing with them as you change their diapers.
• Respond to infants' cries quickly and warmly.
• Talk to infants in caring and soft tones, sing to them, and respond to their babbles and attempts to communicate.
• Provide a comfortable place for infants to sleep when they are tired.
• Provide interesting things, at infant's eye level, to look at, listen to, and play with.
• Provide a safe, stimulating environment where infants can move and use their senses (sight, touch, hearing, taste, smell) to explore.
• Praise and applaud infants' efforts and accomplishments.
• Provide opportunities for infants to help and to do things for themselves-carry a blanket outside, wipe up a spill, pull off their socks, hold a clean diaper while being changed.

Here are some practices that respond to toddlers' developmental needs:

• Create and maintain a safe and interesting environment so that children can explore freely.
• Respond quickly and calmly to toddlers' cries-they need your help.
• Set clear limits to help toddlers learn what is acceptable behavior, and enforce the limits consistently. For example, if climbing on the table was off-limits yesterday, it is also off-limits today.
• Provide opportunities for toddlers to say No! by asking them questions such as: Do cats wear boots? Are apples purple?
• Offer toddlers clear, simple choices (what color socks to wear, an apple or a banana for snack) so they can feel a sense of control over their lives.
• Accept toddler's mistakes when they are learning to do things for themselves (such as using the toilet or pouring a drink); involve them in the cleanup.
• Provide lots of support, while at the same time allowing for toddlers' needs to do things for themselves.
• Involve toddlers in daily routines by providing child-sized tools such as brooms, pitchers, and sponges and storing them within reach.
• Recognize that most toddlers are not ready to share: model sharing, praise toddlers when they do share, and be patient- this skill develops over time.
• Provide places for toddlers to store their personal possessions. This allows them to develop a sense of ownership, which helps them feel secure enough to share with others.
• Encourage toddlers' growing communication skills-get down on their level, talk to them in soft and caring tones, describe what they might be feeling, read to them, and ask them lots of open-ended questions to extend their thinking.
• Offer toddlers frequent, sincere praise for their efforts and accomplishments.
• Stop toddlers who are out of control. Stay with the child until he or she has calmed down and can listen to your words.
• Respond quickly to stop a toddler who is hitting or kicking another child. Tell the toddler to use words to communicate with the other child. For example: Use your words to tell Theresa that you want her to....

Here are some practices that respond to preschoolers' developmental needs:

• Involve children in establishing a few simple rules; then enforce these consistently.
• Follow a schedule that is flexible enough to allow children to carry a task through to completion.
• Encourage children to do many things for themselves (dressing, washing face and hands, solving problems).
• Encourage children to help others (carrying equipment, tying shoe laces, learning a new computer program).
• Involve children in routines and transitions (getting your coat from the closet, filling paint containers, wiping a spill).
• Ask children lots of open-ended questions to encourage both thinking and language development.
• Provide sincere encouragement for children's efforts and accomplishments.
• Listen patiently as children express thoughts and feelings.
• Give children many opportunities to make decisions about what they want to do, which materials to use, or with whom they would like to play.
• Allow children to pursue their interests at their pace so they can develop the literacy and numeric skills for use in elementary school when they will be ready to focus on academic subjects such as arithmetic, reading, and writing.
• Set up a system fortaking turns (a sign-up sheet, a timer, clothes pins on a card on the wall next to an interest area) so children can see when it will be their turn.
• Provide outlets for children to express their strong feelings by using clay or play dough, playing in water, punching holes in paper, and painting.
• Provide a variety of activities and materials that promote exploration and problem solving. Encourage children to collect and sort leaves and pebbles, guess what will sink and float in water, and use blocks to create roads and buildings.

Appropriate Toys and Materials by Stage of Development

Some Good Toys and Play Materials for Infants

Some Good Toys and Play Materials for Toddlers