Michelle Ong CHD 298 Ann-Marie Lanius February 22, 2014 Standard 4 The National Association for the

Education of Young Children (NAEYC) Professional Standard 4 addresses Developmentally Effective Practices and Strategies. As an educator I need to take several things into consideration while planning and implementing a curriculum. Understanding the needs and abilities of the children takes precedence over everything. I need to differentiate my teaching and teach to the age and stage of development of each child. It is necessary to understand the learning styles of the students in order to make them successful in acquiring skills. Methods of teaching will vary based on the needs of the children and understanding the needs of the children will often times reduce behavioral issues; therefore, creating a more positive learning environment. The artifact I chose to best represent my knowledge in this area is from my CHD205 Guiding Behavior Course. I identified strategies that can help make a students day successful and how to modify the curriculum or environment to meet the needs of all students on any given day . It is titled, Its the Little Things. Modeling is a key component in this standard as well as understanding learning styles, behavior management, and differentiated instruction. In order to set the tone of the day, family interaction is necessary. As a teacher, I need to reach out to families and find out how a childs night and morning were. If a child is having a particularly hard morning, adjustments may be needed to help that child get through the day on a positive note. Additionally, if a child is going through a life changing event, I need to consider how it may impact their social and emotional well-being. Extending the concept of working with the whole child, it is important to understand cultural norms and family traditions as well. As I look back on my Guiding Behavior class, as well as my work experience it is necessary to understand the concept of the whole child when developing a curriculum, content, and strategies used to implement it. The NAEYC standard is the foundation of the early childhood classroom and how we set the tone for learning. You can come up with any curriculum or lesson plan you want but, it means nothing if you dont develop it with the age and stage of development and the social and emotional needs of the student. Since we work with the whole child, our interactions must include the family. We even need to differentiate our interactions with parents since they are as individual and diverse as our students. Understanding the family and their values helps to understand the individual children we work with. This is especially crucial when we are coming up with strategies of learning that need to respect the cultural beliefs of the family.