Know

Just like adults, children are affected by their environments. It is our job to ensure classrooms and other learning spaces for children make them feel welcome, secure, and ready to learn. Classroom and program learning environments and materials should be organized yet flexible and responsive to children's changing needs. This will help maximize children's engagement and learning.

As you learned in Lesson 1, cognitive development is all about thinking and learning. When children imitate caregivers’ actions, that is cognitive development. When they pretend to be a storekeeper or a mommy, that’s cognitive development. When they read books during quiet time, that’s cognitive development. When they discover something new, that’s cognitive development. When they sing songs, that’s cognitive development.

Environments and Materials That Promote Children's Cognitive Development

In their own courses, staff members have learned the importance of meaningfully planning environments and materials as well as strategies for meeting the needs of individual learners. You should work with Training & Curriculum Specialists to reinforce learning as staff members may need support in knowing how and when to use the strategies they have learned. As highlighted in Lesson Two in this course (Cognitive Development: Helping Staff Members Understand Child Development), it is critical to understand the needs of children with IEPs or IFSPs, but it is equally important to understand that all children and youth need individualization. 

As you learned in Lesson Three (Cognitive Development: Interactions that Support Learning), it is also important to help staff reflect on their beliefs and values, as well as their assumptions. To support staff members as they reflect, you should be prepared to ask questions and guide discussions. It can also be valuable to engage in reflection activities along with staff. We all have assumptions that come from our life experiences and how we were raised. If we can accept these assumptions, then we can reflect on how our they present themselves in our work. When we are aware of our beliefs and values, we can consciously and actively work to behave in respectful and supportive ways.

Environments and Materials That Address the Needs of All Learners

There are many things you can do, along with the coach, to support staff in helping all children meet important learning goals. Encourage staff to gather information about each child to learn what each child can do well and what seems to be hard. Your staff will also need to know child and youth preferences and motivators. Gathering information will help them know the skills and strategies that are likely to help a particular child in their care.

Universal Design for Learning (UDL; CAST, 2018) is one strategy you can share. UDL helps all people learn and be successful in their environments. There are examples of universal design all around us: audio books, curb cutouts for strollers and wheelchairs, keyless entry on cars, and electric can openers. Many of these tools were developed for people with disabilities, but they make life easier for all of us. Using the concept of UDL, staff can support all children, including children with disabilities in their learning environment by:

• Using adaptive toys and eating utensils
• Using picture schedules
• Adapting seating arrangements
• Providing multiple ways for children to learn information (e.g., reading a book, watching a video, using the internet to research a topic)
• Using materials in children’s home languages
• Sharing vocabulary words with school-age children before reading them a story

The Figure below shows three Universal Design for Learning guidelines and offers examples of each.

Supervise & Support

Management Practices That Support High-Quality Learning Environments and Materials

Take time to model the following behaviors that support efforts to promote children's learning.

• Spend time observing in classrooms or programs. Make special notes about children you see struggling. Also be sure to note children who need an additional challenge.
• Hold high expectations for all staff members when it comes to children and youth outcomes by setting learning goals for all age groups.
• Seek out knowledge of the backgrounds and preferences of the families you serve and ensure those preferences are integrated throughout environments and materials.
• Talk to staff members about the ways they support children's learning by designing meaningful environments and using developmentally appropriate materials. Recognize their accomplishments and encourage them when they are struggling. Be a resource for staff members and help them find ways to reach each child.
• Provide community based resources such as guest speakers; support attendance to workshops and conferences for staff members.
• Use multiple data sources such as classroom observations to evaluate and provide feedback on how effectively staff are designing environments and choosing materials.
• Ensure professional development plans have identified goals for meaningful environment design based on classroom observations.
• Recognize skilled staff members who demonstrate an understanding of the significance of environments and materials and have them mentor less experienced staff members.