Keyword: Problem Solving
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Teaching Your Child to Problem Solve
Families juggle so many tasks every day. Often one of these tasks is supervising young children as they play and solve problems that come up when they try to play alone (e.g., “she’s not sharing” or “he hit me”). In fact, doing this can often prolong or make completing other tasks, such as laundry and…
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Problem Solving
This section describes how infants and toddlers learn to solve problems and consider the results of their actions.
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Make a Mess and Explore STEAM
This tool kit provides ideas and resources to help you plan engaging and developmentally appropriate STEAM activities for young children.
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Process Play and STEAM: Getting Started
On this podcast, we are joined by Michelle Patt, an early childhood educator, consultant, and writer. Her work emphasizes STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) learning through exploration and experimentation. She writes about the integration of art and science into preschool classroom activities to encourage children’s problem solving and innovation. Michelle is preschool supervisor at…
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Cognitive Development
This section of the guidelines describes how infants and toddlers learn to think and reason. As they develop cognitive skills, they build understanding about the world around them. Their memory skills, spatial skills, and reasoning skills increase.
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Try and Try Again (audio)
This podcast, based on a blog written by Dr. Rebecca Swartz, provides information about how adults can help young children develop persistence to try and try again when they encounter everyday challenges. To see the main text of the podcast, you can read the original blog post. Related IEL Resources Blog: Try and Try Again
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Try and Try Again
Families, teachers, and caregivers want young children to be successful. It can be hard to watch a child struggle or become frustrated.
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Helping Young Children Develop Friendships
This list contains a variety of resources associated with helping young children develop friendships.
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Sibling Relationships
This list contains a variety of resources associated with sibling relationships for young children.
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Helping Young Children Resolve Conflicts
This list contains a variety of resources associated with helping young children resolve conflicts.
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You Made It
This video takes place in the gross motor room of a university laboratory child care and preschool. This room is used for gross-motor activities by all classrooms in the center during inclement weather. Max (21 months) is trying to get up the climber, and the teacher helps him get to the top.
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Two Trains
Sadie (26 months) pulls two trains across the carpet and sits down on the teacher’s lap. Sadie and the teacher are talking about the two trains while Daniel watches. Daniel reaches down to take the handle of one of the trains, to which Sadie objects. The teacher then asks Sadie to give one of her…
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A Tower Together
The teachers provided balance in both supporting Anna and allowing her space to work through situations independently. She followed Anna’s reactions and did not intervene too early.
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Tea Party
Through a progression of short clips taken over a span of 30 minutes, this video focuses on Hudson (at 30 months, the oldest in the class) gathering items, stuffed animals, and dolls; arranging them on a couch; and (briefly) enjoying his tea party with his stuffed animals.
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The Step
The teacher provides Alicia with support to move the bolster and supervises her so she can safely use it as a step.
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Roll Them Up
This interaction shows the teacher trying to decipher what Jayden is trying to do and what he wants.
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Over Here
This interaction shows young children working together to build a block tower and the teacher providing them with support, both in completing the task and to minimize frustration or conflicts.
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The Duck
This clip demonstrates a young toddler’s ability to connect a picture on a toy with a word and a sign she had been taught.
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I Don’t Like That
This video takes place in a toddler room of a university laboratory child care and preschool. Jordan (29 months) has put on sunglasses, and Sadie (25 months) walks up and stands very close to him. He tells her “I don’t like that,” but she stays close to him. The nearby teacher steps in and tells…
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Blue or Purple
This is a nice example of the caregiver reading the cues of the child and assisting them through an interaction that had the potential for conflict.
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All Done
This video takes place in a toddler room of a university laboratory child care and preschool. Daniel (25 months) and Mia (23 months) are standing at the Lego table. A teacher is helping Mia ask Daniel to share the blanket he is using when he is done. The teacher provides her with words to use,…
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Two on a Trike
Prompting young children with words to use to solve social problems is an effective teaching tool.
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Sara Measures
The teacher placed several car parts in the sensory table for the children to explore. Paper, pencils, tape measures, and screwdrivers were provided as tools that the children could choose to use in their explorations.
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One Morning at the Construction Table
When children build something, they often address physics problems related to keeping the structure together.
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Magnets and Cars
The teacher took the 3- and 4-year-olds to visit the automotive lab next door to the classroom. The next day she asked the children to predict what parts of a car would attract a magnet.
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Constructing a Cradle
Several families of children in Judy Cagle’s mixed-age prekindergarten class were expecting babies. In response to this new interest, Mrs. Cagle took them to visit the maternity ward at a nearby hospital.
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Bullying Hurts Everyone
Children have the right to feel safe—and adults have a responsibility to provide a safe environment for them.
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Keep Up the Good Work
Here are some ways you can help them stay with tasks and try hard to complete them even when the job is tough.
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Insight as Part of Teaching Young Children
Many of a teacher’s decisions are based on routines and the normal schedule of activities that require little if any analysis or reflection.
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Play Right—Don’t Bite!
Why do children bite? And how can we change this behavior?
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Fuss Management: Planning Ahead to Prevent Tantrums
Some simple steps can reduce the chances that your toddler or preschooler will “pitch a fit” when you run errands together.
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Fuss Management: Comforting the Irritable Child
When you take a calm, problem-solving approach, you help your child learn to calm himself when he is irritable.
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Path to Math: Word Problems for Preschoolers
Children as young as 3 may enjoy solving simple word problems.
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Path to Math: More Word Problems for Preschoolers
Do you know a preschooler who easily solves simple word problems that involve adding and taking away?