As early care and education professionals, you are charged with constant creation: working to introduce new and innovative ways to educate and interact with young children in your classroom. Smart Start Georgia has compiled the following tips that may spark inspiration in this pursuit. For additional ideas, please visit Smart Start Georgia's Resources and Links page to access a variety of Web sites dedicated to enhancing early learning opportunities for children.

GENERAL CLASSROOM TIPS

• Recognize that each child is unique.
• Be warm, loving and responsive.
• Respond to a child's cues and clues.
• Talk, read and sing to the children.
• Allow infants to develop at their own pace in their own time. Encourage, but don't rush, motor development.
• Keep the group size small.
• Make sure your environment has a variety safe challenges that encourage movement and allow the child to explore space.
• Show your interest in and excitement at each toddler's attempts to communicate.
• Use distraction or redirection to calm or avoid disputes.
• Talk with parents about how their infant interacts with other people. An infant might react quite differently when he or she is with his or her parents and not in a child care setting.
• Use routines (diaper change, arrival and departure, waking from a nap) as the time to provide individual time for each child.

CHILD HEALTH AND SAFETY TIPS

Following are common items to keep in your classroom’s first aid kit. Please do not limit your first aid kits to these items only, but keep these handy as they are commonly used.

• Acetaminophen (Tylenol®)
• Ibuprofen (Advil®, Motrin®)
• Adhesive Tape
• Antibiotic ointment (Neosporin®)
• BAND-AIDS® in varying shapes and sizes (butterfly, oval, standard, etc.)
• Elastic bandages (for sprains)
• Disposable rubber gloves
• Hydrocortisone cream
• Important phone numbers (physician, Georgia poison center, etc.)
• Paper and pencil (to write down instructions from a physician or nurse advice line)
• Sewing needle and matches (matches used to sterilize the needle before removing splinters)
• Sunscreen
• Thermometer
• Tweezers

ENCOURAGING GROWTH and DEVELOPMENT

• Provide toys in a variety of colors, textures and sizes, including rattles, differently textured balls, and soft toys. Watch to see what interests the young child and then encourage play.
• Put fun toys inside boxes to persuade children to stretch, reach and crawl towards and into safe places. Clean cardboard boxes make great "toy extenders."
• Play music at planned, specific times and dance to it. You can begin by holding and softly bouncing with younger infants. As they grow older, you can hold onto their waists and gently bounce them. When they are big enough to balance on their legs, you can hold onto their hands as they bounce themselves.
• Place some of their favorite toys in different parts of the room and ask them to bring the toys back to you. When first introducing the activity, do it with them.
• Provide a variety of materials to manipulate such as buckets to fill and dump, wooden blocks, nesting toys, puzzles, cooking utensils and pots and pans.
• Instead of flash cards, use the real thing. Use your face for words like, "nose," "eyes," "eyebrows," "chin" and "mouth." Use the baby's body for words like "foot," "hand," "elbow" and "knee." Read simple board books together to introduce the baby to objects not in your immediate environment.

DEVELOPMENT

Early care professionals have an opportunity each day to help babies grow and develop in four major areas:

• Physical—The development and growth of the child's body, muscles and senses. Muscle development, sometimes called motor development, occurs in both large and small muscles. The large muscles are used for actions like walking or bending, while small muscles are used for actions like pointing, picking up objects or writing.
• Cognitive—The ability to think, listen, understand others and follow directions. This includes reasoning skills, cause and effect and problem-solving skills.
• Language—The ability to listen, understand, and use sounds and words for self-expression and communication.
• Social/Emotional—Awareness of self, how the child interacts with peers and adults, and how the child understands the world around him or her.

To learn more about the characteristics of each stage of development and guidelines for suggested activities and materials to help children reach their learning goals, visit Better Brains for Babies.

CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL NEEDS (INCLUSION)

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) prohibits child care programs from discriminating against children, employees or parents based on the fact that a person has a disability.

An inclusive child care program places children with disabilities into a typical learning environment and enables them to participate in all daily activities with typically developing children. Any supports or services needed for the children with disabilities are brought to them in the classroom.

The Inclusion Project is an directive of the fourteen statewide members of the Georgia Association of Child Care Resource&Referral Agencies to create high quality inclusive child care for all children. The Inclusion Project offers a lending system of toys, books, puzzles and resource books for parents and child care providers of children with special needs. For more information, contact your local Child Care Resource and Referral Agency (CCRRA).

Tips for Educators of Children with Special Needs

• Select activities that contribute to building skills and self-confidence.
• Activities should be meaningful; your child needs to feel that the family appreciates his or her efforts.
• Keep instructions clear and simple.
• Set routines and discuss desired outcomes and plan routines.
• Minimize distractions such as television and establish specific places for work that are distraction-free.
• Be patient and offer helpful reminders.
• Reward efforts and good work with positive feedback, praise, or prizes.
• Don't bribe with gifts and don't make promises that depend on factors outside of your control.
• Be consistent with discipline and praise.
• Keep a sense of humor and maintain a positive outlook.
• Seek out other parents with whom you can share experiences and gain new information.

EFFECTIVE DISCIPLINING

• Know that discipline should teach, not punish; it is setting limits both firmly and kindly.
• Understand that children express themselves differently.
• Show respect for your child so that he or she will learn respect for others.
• Reinforce positive behavior.
• Learn about stages of child development and what is appropriate behavior for each stage so that you will know what behavior to expect at different ages.
• Prepare your child for new situations, so that he or she will feel confident and secure.
• Encourage exploration and curiosity, but keep your child safe.
• Create dependable and predictable routines for your child.
• Know that when your infant or toddler tests your limits, they’re doing this out of curiosity and eagerness to learn—not to make you angry.
• Avoid calling your child negative names when discussing bad behavior.
• Avoid labeling your child. Instead, label the behavior.
• Try to understand what your child is communicating and respond appropriately.
• Redirect your child's attention when he or she is doing something you don't like.
• Spanking, hitting or shouting may stop behavior immediately, but it does not help a child understand that the behavior is not acceptable. Instead, it may teach that violence is the way to settle issues.