• elaborated reminiscing: helping a child tell and retell the story of a past event, adding more details with each retelling
  • interactive reading: stopping at many points during the reading to engage children in related conversation that helps them follow the story, draw connections between the book and their own experiences, and learn more; also called dialogic reading
  • math talk: talk about number, amount, order, size, shape, pattern, direction, sequence, and other mathematical concepts as well as mathematical questions such as “How many altogether?” “What’s missing?” “How many more do we need?”
  • number sense: an intuitive understanding of numbers and how they relate to each other, as well as how they are affected by addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division
  • Picture Communication System (PECS): a picture-based communication intervention that teaches children with autism spectrum disorder and related challenges to initiate communications
  • scaffold: to provide a support or boost that helps a child master a new challenge or concept or take a skill to a new level
  • STEM: science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, as integrated fields of inquiry

Wrap Up

Now you're ready to implement the best practices you’ve learned with the toddlers in your program. Complete the second half of the Self-Assessment to discover how much your skills may have improved.

Congratulations! Whether your progress was subtle or dramatic, you've undoubtedly increased your understanding and strengthened your skills. But this is just the beginning—there are many ways to improve and support your children’s learning experience. Look for more informative self-paced tutorials in the Professional Development section of this website.

For a summary of best practices, download the Best Practices (PDF). To see the standards this module correlates to, download the Learning Guidelines and Standards (PDF).

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