Category: Illinois Early Learning Guidelines: For Children Birth to Age Three (IELG)

Standard: Children demonstrate the ability to use creativity, inventiveness, and imagination to increase their understanding and knowledge of the world. Children are active learners when exploring their environment. They first observe the world around them. They pay attention to sounds, colors, movement, and engage in interactions with their caregivers. As they grow, children become more…

Standard: Children demonstrate the ability to remain engaged in experiences and develop a sense of purpose and follow-through. Children use sensory exploration and social interaction to learn about their world. While young children do not have the capacity to attend to objects or people for very long periods of time, they are building this skill…

Standard: Children demonstrate a willingness to participate in new experiences and confidently engage in risktaking. Children build their confidence through their relationships with nurturing and responsive caregivers. Caregivers who are attuned to children’s needs and respond consistently and promptly, nurture feelings of self-worth in children. Children learn to feel that they are important, and they…

Standard: Children attempt a variety of strategies to accomplish tasks, overcome obstacles, and find solutions to tasks, questions, and challenges. Children build the foundation for problem-solving skills through nurturing relationships, active exploration, and social interactions. In infancy, children learn that their actions and behaviors have an effect on others. For example, children cry to signal…

Standard: Children demonstrate interest and eagerness in learning about their world. Children are born with a natural interest in the people and objects found in their environment. After all, they are seeing things for the first time! Children use all of their senses to take in all this new information and use their developing skills…

Children are born ready to learn, and the first three years are the time when children develop the habits in how they approach and explore their world.1 Depending on the quality of their early experiences, children either form healthy or unhealthy attitudes toward learning. Children’s earliest relationships, cultural and societal contexts, and individual influences directly…

Standard: Children demonstrate the emerging ability to recognize risky situations and respond accordingly. In the first few years of life, children depend on their caregivers to keep them safe and healthy for proper development. Children are beginning to grow in their capacity to recognize potentially unsafe or unhealthy situations, but will need a lot of…

Standard: Children demonstrate a basic awareness of and use scientific concepts. Children learn about science concepts through the exploration of both their indoor and outdoor environment. They use all of their five senses to take in new information and actively learn about their world. As newborns, children use observation to make sense of their surroundings.…

Standard: Children demonstrate awareness of quantity, counting, and numeric competencies. Children have an early awareness of number concepts. In infancy, children begin to learn about quantity through interactions with their environment and their caregivers. They begin to demonstrate the understanding of “more” through body language. For example, children may lean their head forward during mealtimes…

Standard: Children demonstrate the ability to use knowledge, previous experiences, and trial and error to make sense of and impact their world. Children use imitation, cause and effect, and trial and error to build their logic and reasoning skills. Children learn these skills through everyday interactions with their caregivers. From very early on, children discover…

Standard: Children demonstrate the ability to convey ideas and emotions through creative expression. Creative expression refers to how children use music, movement, building, and play to express themselves. From a very early age, children demonstrate an interest in sounds, colors, objects, and textures. In infancy, children engage in sensory exploration; they mouth different objects to…

Standard: Children demonstrate the understanding of concepts, experiences, and ideas through symbolic representation. Children learn about objects, actions, and people through observations, interaction, and exploration. They take information in through all of their senses to build a basic understanding of the world around them. By eight months of age, children develop object permanence—they know that…