Education
Early Childhood Education
Early childhood education regards education in the early stages of childhood. According to NAEYC (National Association for the Education of Young Children), it spans the human life from birth to age 8.Infants and toddlers experience life more holistically than any other age group. Social, emotional, cognitive, linguistic, and physical lessons are not learned separately by very young children. Adults who are most helpful to young children interact in ways that understand that the child is learning from the whole experience, not just that part of the experience to which the adult gives attention. Early childhood education often focuses on children learning through play.Applicants must meet the admission requirements for the Early Childhood Education program at Seneca College. As part of the admission process, each applicant must submit his/her university transcript, reference letters evaluating professional and academic qualifications, a completed Ontario College Application Service (ontariocolleges.ca) form and participate in an information/ assessment session at Seneca.
Early Reading First program, established in the No Child Left Behind Act, provides competitive grants to school districts and pre-school programs, such as Head Start centers. The grants fund the development of model programs to support the school readiness of preschool-aged children, particularly those from low-income families. Program activities will prepare teachers to provide high-quality language, literacy, and pre-reading activities, using scientifically based research to support children’s understanding of letters, letter sounds and the blending of sounds and words.
A great many educators and researchers view early childhood education as beneficial to children’s cognitive and social development. These proponents– including virtually all of the researchers and theorists whose work was consulted in order to prepare this document–base their conviction on personal observation and on the many research studies linking early childhood programs to desirable outcomes. These outcomes will be described in detail in a later section of this report.Approximately 700 field placement hours, assigned by faculty, will be required within the four semesters. During the first two semesters the student may have field placements in licensed child care/preschool settings with a variety of age groups. In the third and fourth semesters, field placements may be in settings such as hospitals, resource centres, kindergarten programs or home-based/community-based child-care programs.
