Earning Criteria

• The recipient of this badge understands that play contributes to child development and learning in all domains, beginning at birth, and supports children during indoor and outdoor play, participating as appropriate with the goal of making the most of teachable moments.
• The recipient of this badge engages staff, colleagues, and families to discuss development in all domains.
• The recipient of this badge (if serving infants and toddlers), understands that infant/toddler development can be described with regard to the domains of social-emotional development, cognitive development, language development, and perceptual and motor development, but that children development and learn in an integrated way.
• The recipient of this badge (if serving preschool-age children) demonstrates understanding that preschool development and learning can be described with regard to the developmental domains and content areas of social-emotional development, language and literacy, mathematics, English-language development, visual and performing arts, physical development, health, history-social science, and science, and that children learn in an integrated way across domains.
• The recipient of this badge develops a program philosophy and policies that support children’s growth and development in all domains, with the context of family, home, and cultural considerations.
• The recipient of this badge ensures that staff, colleagues, and families understand commonly accepted terminology that describes development, learning, and curriculum.