A New Monthly Feature for Parents and Parent Educators:

Parent Talk, with child development specialist, Carolyn Kiefer, MS

Idaho Early Learning Guidelines: a new resource for parents

Where do you get good parenting advice—the “what to do’s” of raising a child? Relatives? magazines? websites? (friends who have pets rather than children? oops!) Bookstores have whole sections laden with books about raising brighter/spirited/shy/creative/girls/boys. There’s some crazy stuff out there! Our own family relationships usually shape our expectations, routines, and ideas about what is a “good” child and discipline. Our upbringing also leads to oaths about “I’ll never say that to my child!”-- and sometimes we find ourselves saying and doing those things later. As parents we are at once inundated and left wondering about what is reasonable to expect from a child, and “the stages”.

Now there is a reliable resource for parents of young children: the new Idaho Early Learning eGuidelines. The Guidelines are a web-based, foundational document about child development from birth through five (parts go to age 8). The information is about what children can be expected to know and do at a variety of age ranges. They were developed by a team of over 40 “seasoned” Idaho early childhood professionals. The information is based on research and “best practice”, and organized into 5 Domains:

Domain 1: Approaches to Learning and Cognitive Development

Domain 2: Physical Well-being, Health, and Motor Development

Domain 3: Social and Emotional Development

Domain 4: General Knowledge (math, science, social studies, etc)

Domain 5: Communication, Language and Literacy

Each Domain contains a number of Goals—64 in all. Goals are divided into a series of age ranges with the developmental growth for each age and typical child behaviors and the caregiver/parent’s responses to support the growth. Be sure to read About the Early Learning eGuidelines, which gives the background information and framework for the document, as well as helpful information about how to navigate the website.

The Early Learning eGuidelines are a web-based resource so we can continue to update them with new research, web-links and make them widely available. There is a powerful search feature, so you can find information easily. They are organized so you can read each goal across the whole age span, or can read about a specific age with all of the goals. The Guidelines are “printer friendly”, but deliberately set so a person can’t just hit”Print” for the whole document -- it is about 1000 pages!

The Early Learning eGuidelines are already in use in early childhood education classes at Idaho universities and colleges. They are part of child care professional development training and quality initiatives. The eGuidelines are also a resource for the Strengthening Families curriculum from the Idaho Children’s Trust Fund and Idaho STARS. While the level of writing is not easy for some parents and caregivers, it was designed to be a rich foundational resource. Plans are “in the works” to write some simple parent/ caregiver friendly printed materials.

So another resource, more experts, more advice-- but you, as parents, are the people who know your unique, wonderful child best! The whole point of more information is to support your efforts to nurture your child well. I’ve found in my many years as a mother, teacher and researcher that growth and development have never been a quick, tidy processes for parents or children. It takes huge amounts of love, respect, patience, thought, humor, and support. My very best wishes to you as you live this amazing, sometimes bewildering, adventure of Parenthood!