Introduction to Early Childhood Education II

Course Description

Introduction to Early Childhood Education II is an overview of facilities, equipment, program planning and family involvement, using educational objectives and lesson plans in the preschool. It includes field experiences.

Within the SCNS taxonomy, CHD is the Child Development and Early Childhood Education prefix. Daytona State publishes this at 3 credits, offered Spring, giving approximately 45 contact hours.

The inclusion of field experience is the most important thing about this course. Early childhood education is a practical discipline, and time in a real classroom — watching how a skilled teacher sets up a room, moves children through a day, and speaks to a parent at pick-up — teaches things no text conveys.

Family involvement is named alongside programme planning deliberately. A preschool teacher's relationship with families is not an adjunct to the work; it substantially determines how well the child does, and it is a professional skill that has to be learned rather than assumed.

Daytona State does not publish a lecture and laboratory split for its CHD courses, but the prefix convention is consistent: every published CHD course at this institution runs at 3 credits and 45 contact hours — 15 hours per credit (CHD1220, CHD1430, CHD2320, CHD2334 and CHD2801 are all published at that rate).

Learning Outcomes

Required Outcomes

• Describe the components of an early childhood facility and their purposes.
• Evaluate a classroom environment against quality indicators.
• Describe equipment and materials appropriate to each age group.
• Arrange a learning environment to support independence and engagement.
• Describe learning centres and their function.
• Write measurable educational objectives.
• Plan a lesson appropriate to a stated objective and age group.
• Plan a daily schedule with appropriate balance and pacing.
• Plan transitions deliberately and manage them well.
• Describe programme planning across a week and a term.
• Describe the role of families in early childhood programmes.
• Communicate with families respectfully and effectively.
• Describe strategies for family involvement and their barriers.
• Conduct a family conference at an introductory level.
• Describe cultural responsiveness in working with families.
• Participate professionally in a field placement.
• Apply developmentally appropriate practice to planning and interaction.
• Observe children accurately and record observations factually.
• Adapt activities for children with differing abilities and needs.
• Maintain active supervision and apply safety practice.
• Recognise indicators of abuse or neglect and report as required.
• Communicate professionally with families and colleagues.
• Apply ethical standards in work with young children.
• Reflect on your practice and identify improvements.

Optional Outcomes

• Describe accreditation and quality rating systems.
• Describe budgeting for classroom materials.
• Describe outdoor learning environments.
• Describe inclusive environment design.
• Describe technology use with young children.
• Begin building a professional portfolio.

Major Topics

Required Topics

• Facilities and their purposes
• Evaluating a classroom environment
• Age-appropriate equipment and materials
• Arranging the learning environment
• Learning centres
• Writing objectives
• Lesson planning
• Daily schedule and pacing
• Managing transitions
• Programme planning
• The role of families
• Communicating with families
• Family involvement strategies
• Family conferences
• Cultural responsiveness
• Professional conduct in placement
• Developmentally appropriate practice
• Observation and recording
• Adapting for differing needs
• Active supervision and safety
• Recognising and reporting abuse
• Communicating with families
• Professional ethics
• Reflective practice

Optional Topics

• Accreditation and quality rating
• Classroom budgeting
• Outdoor environments
• Inclusive design
• Technology with young children
• Professional portfolio

Resources & Tools

• NAEYC (naeyc.org) — the National Association for the Education of Young Children; the position statement on developmentally appropriate practice is the field's foundational document and much of it is free.
• Florida Department of Children and Families — Child Care (myflfamilies.com) — free; the authority on screening, training, ratios, and licensing requirements in Florida.
• Florida Abuse Hotline — 1-800-96-ABUSE — know this number.
• Council for Professional Recognition (cdacouncil.org) — the CDA credential, its requirements, and its portfolio process.
• Florida Early Learning and Developmental Standards — free; what children are expected to know and do by age, and the basis for planning.
• Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework — free and widely used well beyond Head Start programmes.
• Zero to Three (zerotothree.org) — free resources on infant and toddler development, and unusually good on the science.
• Your placement centre and its teachers — the most valuable resource in the programme. Watch how experienced teachers manage a room; almost none of it is written down.
• A notebook for observations — the habit of writing down what you actually saw, before interpreting it, is the foundation of the whole discipline.

Career Pathways

• Preschool teacher — SOC 25-2011.
• Childcare worker — SOC 39-9011.
• Preschool and childcare centre director — SOC 11-9031; the usual progression, and it requires additional credentials.
• Teacher assistant / paraprofessional — SOC 25-9045, including in public school pre-kindergarten.
• Florida Voluntary Prekindergarten (VPK) programmes — a large state-funded sector with its own credential requirements.
• Head Start and Early Head Start.
• Family child care home operation — self-employment with its own licensing requirements.
• Early intervention and inclusion support.
• Infant and toddler specialisation — distinct skills and persistently short-staffed.
• Transfer to a bachelor's in early childhood or elementary education — ⚠ teaching in a public school classroom requires state certification and a bachelor's degree; confirm which of these courses transfer as major credit.
• ⚠ Pay in early childhood is low relative to the responsibility and the training required. That is a real and well-documented feature of the field, and it is worth knowing before committing — as is the fact that credentials, age-group specialisation, and moving into public school or director roles are the routes that improve it.

Special Information

⚠ Talking with families — the skill nobody warns you is hard

• Most new teachers find family communication the hardest part of the job, and it is rarely taught directly.
• Build the relationship before you need it. A parent who knows you and trusts you receives difficult news completely differently from one who has only ever exchanged a greeting.
• Lead with something positive and specific — not generic praise, but something you actually noticed their child do.
• Describe behaviour, not character. "He hit another child twice today" is a fact; "he's aggressive" is a label a parent will resist and remember.
• ⚠ Do not diagnose. You may share observations and suggest an assessment; you may not tell a parent their child has a condition, and doing so causes real harm.
• Listen more than you explain. Parents know their child far better than you do, and asking what they see at home frequently resolves what puzzled you.
• Assume families are doing their best in circumstances you may not know about.
• Be honest about problems early. A concern raised gently in week three is a conversation; the same concern first raised in week twenty is a betrayal of trust.
• Respect confidentiality absolutely — including in the car park and including with other parents.

⚠ Developmentally appropriate practice is the organising idea — and it is more demanding than it sounds

• An activity is appropriate when it fits what the child can do now and stretches them a little — not when it fits their age on paper.
• Three things determine appropriateness: what is typical for the age, what is true of this child, and what is meaningful in their family and culture. All three, together.
• Children of the same age differ enormously, and a group of four-year-olds will span a wide developmental range. Planning for the average serves few of them.
• Play is how young children learn, and it is not a break from learning. An adult who converts every activity into instruction removes the mechanism.
• Process over product. What the child did and discovered matters more than whether the result looks like the example — and twenty identical craft outcomes is a sign the adults did the work.
• Observe before you plan. Good planning follows from watching what children are actually interested in and capable of.
• Scaffold rather than rescue. Offer the smallest help that lets the child continue, and withdraw it as they manage.
• Adapt for children with differing needs as a normal part of planning, not as an exception.
• Expectations that are too high produce frustration; too low produce boredom, and both look like behaviour problems.

⚠⚠ Supervision and safety — the failures that actually happen

• Active supervision means you can see and hear every child, all the time. Being in the room is not supervision, and this is the single most common contributor to serious incidents.
• ⚠ Transitions are when children are lost. Moving between rooms, going outside, coming back in, arrival and departure — count the children, by name, at every transition and at regular intervals.
• Never leave a child unattended, including in a vehicle, a bathroom, or asleep out of sight.
• Know your ratios and maintain them, including when a colleague steps out.
• Allergies can be fatal. Know every child's allergies, know where the medication is, know how to use it, and treat food brought from home as a hazard requiring a plan.
• Choking is a leading cause of death in young children. Know which foods are high-risk for which ages, supervise eating, and hold current paediatric first aid and CPR.
• Safe sleep practice for infants — on the back, on a firm surface, nothing else in the crib — and it applies every time, including for naps.
• Check playgrounds and equipment before use, and know the surfacing and fall-height requirements.
• Handwashing and illness exclusion policies are how outbreaks are prevented in a setting where they spread very fast.
• Release only to authorised adults, and check identification when you do not know the person — however awkward it feels.
• Report incidents and near misses honestly, including your own errors.

⚠⚠ In Florida, everyone is a mandatory reporter of child abuse — including you

• Florida law requires any person who knows, or has reasonable cause to suspect, that a child is abused, abandoned, or neglected to report it. Unlike many states, Florida's duty is not limited to designated professions — it applies to everyone.
• The report goes to the Florida Abuse Hotline: 1-800-96-ABUSE (1-800-962-2873), available at all times, and also by web and fax.
• ⚠ You report suspicion, not proof. It is not your job to investigate, to confirm, or to decide whether the threshold is met — and attempting to investigate can compromise a later inquiry and put a child at greater risk.
• Report directly. Telling a supervisor may be your centre's procedure, but it does not discharge your personal legal duty — if you have the suspicion, the obligation is yours.
• Failure to report is an offence, and knowingly making a false report is also an offence.
• Good-faith reporters are afforded legal protection, and reports can be made without the reporter's name in most circumstances — though giving your name assists the investigation.
• Document what you observed, factually and immediately — what you saw or heard, in plain description, with the date and time. Not conclusions, and not what you inferred.
• Know the indicators — physical, behavioural, and developmental — and know that a single indicator rarely means anything while a pattern may mean a great deal.
• ⚠ Rule 11 applies. Reporting duties, thresholds, and procedures are statutory and can change. Verify current requirements and follow your employer's procedure alongside your personal duty.

⚠⚠ Working with young children in Florida requires screening and specific training

• Child care personnel in Florida are subject to Level 2 background screening — fingerprint-based state and federal criminal history checks — before working with children, and rescreening on a cycle.
• ⚠ Certain offences are permanently disqualifying. If you have any criminal history at all, establish your eligibility before investing in this programme — raise it early and privately with the programme, because finding out at placement is far worse.
• The Department of Children and Families sets mandatory training requirements for child care personnel, including introductory training that must be completed within a defined period of employment, plus ongoing in-service hours.
• ⚠ Coursework and DCF training are not automatically the same thing. Some college coursework may substitute for some DCF requirements and some may not — confirm with the programme and with DCF what your courses will and will not satisfy.
• The Child Development Associate (CDA) credential is separately awarded and widely required or preferred; it involves documented experience, training hours, a portfolio, an observation, and an examination.
• The Florida Staff Credential and related credentials have their own requirements and are frequently what an employer actually asks for.
• Ratios and supervision requirements are set by rule and are inspected; they differ by age group and by setting.
• ⚠ Rule 11 applies. Screening, training, ratio, and credential requirements change. Verify with DCF and with your programme rather than relying on this guide.

How Florida course levels affect transfer

The first digit of an SCNS number denotes the year of offering, not transferability. Courses at the 1000 and 2000 levels transfer transparently between Florida public institutions, and 3000 to 4000 is unproblematic since both are upper division. The boundary that actually matters is 2000 to 3000, where lower-division credit generally cannot satisfy an upper-division requirement.

CHD1820 is 3 credits and approximately 45 contact hours, offered Spring at Daytona State.

⚠ Level 2 background screening is required before working with children in Florida, and certain offences are permanently disqualifying — establish your eligibility before investing in this pathway.