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Professional Standards & Competencies Resource Library
The Professional Standards and Competencies for Early Childhood Educators outline the essential knowledge, skills, and practices that are foundational to high-quality early childhood education. These standards define what early childhood educators should know and be able to do in order to support the learning and development of young children from birth through age 8. They serve as a guiding framework for professional development, practice, and evaluation within the field of early childhood education.
Understanding and implementing these standards is crucial for educators as they help ensure the delivery of equitable, inclusive, and high-quality education that promotes the well-being and success of all children. By adhering to these standards, educators also contribute to the profession's commitment to continuous improvement and accountability.
Please note that while the collection of resources has been organized and tagged according to the Professional Standards and Competencies, only the most applicable competencies have been prioritized for searching and tagging purposes.
For NAEYC resources in the library, you can find policies related to reproducing, distributing, or otherwise using content here. For all other resources, please follow appropriate practices for using/citing sources.
Directions for Using the Professional Standards and Competencies Resource Library
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The PS&Cs Resource Library allows you to peruse ALL of the many resources available (by default) or you can utilize the provided filter and narrow down your search to target specific resources.
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By using the filtering categories, you are able to narrow your search to particular professional standards, one or more of the 22 key competencies, various ECE topics, a variety of age ranges, specific types of resources such as articles or videos or even find resources available in languages other than English.
The robust filters even allow you to choose multiple choices across categories or within the same category to further narrow your search!
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Once you have opened the various filter categories provided in the filter tool, you will notice that “all” is highlighted and checked in each category by default. This means the filter tool will not filter out any of those options within that category. If you wish to narrow your search, you simply click on one or more of the other options within the various filtering categories. Clicking will check that option. Checked options will be utilized for your search!
To remove an option, simply click it again to remove the check from the checkbox.
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The search feature is similar to any other search engine on a website. It can be used for a specific key word or phrase. Although the search may be helpful and is provided, the more robust filter tool may ultimately be more helpful in focusing and narrowing your search for resources.
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Naturally, broken links will occur. Sometimes the resource has been moved to a new web address and other times it has been temporarily or permanently removed. We welcome you to report any broken links you find here. We will do our best to replace the link when possible or remove the resource if it is no longer available.
**As of Feb. 2025, certain webpages and resources, particularly from agencies/organizations/projects that receive federal funds, have been at least temporarily removed in order to comply with federal mandates related to the Trump Administration’s Executive Orders. We will continue to monitor these resource links and update them if and when new links are available.
Start Your Search--Resource Library
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Start Your Search--Resource Library *
Sort quickly through the hundreds of available resources by using the filter tool on the left to populate the specific resources you need!
Related Services: Common Supports for Students with Disabilities
Related Services: Common Supports for Students with Disabilities
This module offers a description of related services and an overview of the benefits they provide to students with disabilities in the general education classroom. It highlights five commonly used related services (physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech-language pathology services, social work services, and psychological services) and briefly highlights many of the other related services as identified through IDEA (est. completion time: 1 hour).
Organization/Author: Iris Center, Vanderbilt Peabody College
Type of Resource: Module
Publication Date: Unknown
ECTA Family Capacity-Building Online Module
ECTA Family Capacity-Building Online Module
Family capacity-building is an approach that can be used to promote parents' use of any type of early childhood practice, and includes strategies to engage parents in activities to build their competence and confidence in providing learning opportunities for their child. This online module provides an introduction to this framework.
Organization/Author: ECTA Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center
Type of Resource: Module
Publication Date: Unknown
Early Childhood Recommended Practice Module 5: Families
Early Childhood Recommended Practice Module 5: Families
This free, online module offers content related to supporting children’s learning and development through quality adult-child and child-child interactions. Objectives target what family-centered practices are, how to build the capacity of families, and strategies for building trusting partnerships with families. A companion Learning Guide provides additional resources for faculty and professional development providers to use in addressing the content of the module.
Organization/Author: Early Childhood Recommended Practices Module
Type of Resource: Module
Publication Date: Unknown
CONNECT Module 2: Transition
These modules are designed for faculty and professional development providers to use in their professional development. Instructor Guides, in the form of dashboards, are included. Students learn about practices to help support children and families as they transition among programs in the early care and education system.
Organization/Author: CONNECT: The Center to Mobilize Early Childhood Knowledge and DEC
Type of Resource: Module
Publication Date: Unknown
Connect Module 4: Family-Professional Partnerships
Connect Module 4: Family-Professional Partnerships
This module presents effective practices for developing family-professional partnerships in a process of developing rapport, forming shared decisions, and partnering with the family to address challenges. Information on research findings and related policies are provided as well as examples of embedded interventions, activities, handouts, video, and audio clips.
Organization/Author: CONNECT: The Center to Mobilize Early Childhood Knowledge
Type of Resource: Module
Publication Date: Unknown
CONNECT Module 3: Communication for Collaboration
CONNECT Module 3: Communication for Collaboration
These modules are designed for faculty and professional development providers to use in their professional development. Instructor Guides, in the form of dashboards, are included. Learn about effective communication practices that can be used to promote collaboration with professionals and families in early care and education, and intervention settings.
Organization/Author: CONNECT: The Center to Mobilize Early Childhood Knowledge and DEC
Type of Resource: Module
Publication Date: Unknown
Early Music Experience Module
This 25-minute online module from the Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences (I-LABS) explains how music can be used to build relationships and support children’s early learning. Each module delivers content through narrated PowerPoint slides with embedded videos. A discussion guide and handout are also available for this module.
Organization/Author: University of Washington: Institute for Learning and Brain Science
Type of Resource: Modules
Publication Date: 2017
CONNECT Module 6: Dialogic Reading Practices
CONNECT Module 6: Dialogic Reading Practices
These modules are designed for faculty and professional development providers to use in their professional development. Instructor Guides, in the form of dashboards, are included. Students learn about the purpose, use and potential benefits of dialogic reading practices when working with young children.
Organization/Author: CONNECT: The Center to Mobilize Early Childhood Knowledge and DEC
Type of Resource: Module
Publication Date: unknown
Authentic Assessment in Early Intervention (0-3)
Authentic Assessment in Early Intervention (0-3)
This module provides an overview of authentic assessment in early intervention including what it is and why it is important. Individuals who complete this module will have an understanding of who participates in authentic assessment, where it may happen, when it can be done, and within what early intervention processes it can occur. The module includes links to a variety of tools and resources.
Organization/Author: Universal Online Part C EI Curriculum
Type of Resource: Module
Publication Date: 2020
Bilingual Language Development
Bilingual Language Development
Learn about how children develop two or more languages and the benefits of being bilingual.
Organization/Author: University of Washington: Institute for Learning and Brain Science
Type of Resource: Module
Publication Date: unknown
University of Washington: Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences-Collection of Learning Modules
University of Washington: Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences-Collection of Learning Modules
These free modules take an in-depth look at the science of child development. Our growing collection has more than 20 topics to discover. Explore from the beginning or choose an area that interests you and get started!
Organization/Author: University of Washington: Institute for Learning and Brain Science
Type of Resource: Modules
Publication Date: unknown
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