In your work as an educator and a professional in early learning, many parents will turn to you for advice about important questions related to their child’s development, and ask for resources or ideas for how to support learning at home. It can be helpful to have a few resources available that you can quickly and easily share with parents, either in a hand-out or attached to an email.
In this article, we share a list of helpful resources on developmental milestones and appropriate activities for parents to try with their little ones at home. Each of the resources below are evidence-backed and come from reputable sources in the field of early learning.
1. Tandem’s lists of child development milestones: Tandem is a Bay Area organization that engages the community to ensure that parents and educators have the resources, skills, and confidence they need to support children’s learning and to build skills for kindergarten readiness. Tandem’s website includes a list of developmental milestones, each in an easy-to-print, one page PDF that can be displayed in your classroom and shared with parents. Below is a link to each of the milestone handouts.
2. CSEFEL Making the Most of Playtime: CSEFEL (The Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning) is a collaborative project involving faculty and staff from the following institutions: Vanderbilt University, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of South Florida, Georgetown University, University of Colorado at Denver, and Zero to Three. The project was designed to strengthen the capacity of Head Start and child care programs to improve the social and emotional outcomes of young children. In the handout, Making the Most of Playtime, the article dives into the development of play skills for infants and toddlers and gives parents the tools to to make the most of playtime with their children.
3. Zero to Three’s Positive Parenting: the 7 Essential Life Skills for Children: Zero to Three supports a strong start in life for babies and toddlers by ensuring that every child has the opportunity to benefit from the family and community connections critical to well-being and development. In this printable resource, Positive Parenting and the Seven Essential Life Skills for Children, parents can learn about how parenting and child development intersect so that parents can nurture the skills that children will need for success throughout life. This document outlines 7 life skills that children need to be successful while outlining how the parent and child relationship can support the building of these essential skills.
