Wise teachers of infants and toddlers know how concerned, helpful, empathic, cooperative, and friendly--that is, how prosocial--very young children can be. Teachers see older infants crawl or toddle over to "friends" arriving later in the morning and greet them as if they had not seen them in weeks. Teachers and families know that these young…

It is important for teachers to make the activities they present, including games, opportunities to promote children's development in one or more domains. Teachers need to select games that are developmentally appropriate. It is relatively simple to modify traditional games, such as Musical Chairs or Simon Says, to be cooperative instead of…

Well-informed teachers of young children recognize the importance of children's social development. The development of social skills lays a critical foundation for later academic achievement as well as work-related skills. Social development is such a key issue with young children that a number of methods to address social skills have been…

Discusses the advantages of using developmentally appropriate guidance as a method of classroom management. Contrasts this method with traditional classroom discipline and clarifies the distinction between misbehavior and mistaken behavior. Analyzes the three levels of mistaken behavior and suggests that adults who approach children as individuals…