Infant/Toddler Learning Foundations too

In addition to developing "preschool learning foundations" (a catalog of things that typically developing children can do at ages three and four, see previous post), the California Department of Education is also developing "infant/toddler learning foundations" covering development in four domains: social/emotional, cognitive, language, and motor and perceptual. As with the preschool foundations, the CDE has posted a draft on their web site and plans to gather input on them at four public hearings and through the Internet.

The public hearings are the same days and locations as the public hearings on the preschool foundations; the preschool meetings are from 9 to 12 in the morning, the infant/toddler meetings are from 1 to 3 in the afternoon. The hearings will be at the state Department of Education in Sacramento May 11 and at county offices of education in Fresno (May 16), San Mateo (May 17) and LA (May 22).

There will also be a way to provide feedback on the web site in May. However it doesn’t look like they’re planning the kind of regional input sessions around the state that they are holding for the preschool foundations.

For more on the infant/toddler foundations, including links to the draft foundations, go to http://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/cd/re/itfoundations.asp

Why you should participate
All the foundations are based on "the research." However, as many people pointed out in the first meetings on the preschool foundations, most of the research has been done on children in white Anglo middle class mainstream families. Meanwhile, much recent research has also shown that development is powerfully shaped by interaction with the environment. To me that suggests that some of the current orthodoxy about what’s "typical development" might not fully reflect the behavior and development of children in other cultures.

So what that means, folks, is that people who have real-life experience with the diverse young children in California have very valuable information to share with the CDE as it develops its concepts of what’s typical development. Please check out these foundations and contribute your experience and insights so that they truly reflect the development of all California’s young children.