Early childhood, considered as the stage of development that encompasses from birth until six or seven years of age, is considered as the most significant period in the formation of the individual, because in it the foundations of the biological, physiological and physical attributes and the psychological formation of the personality are set; they will be later consolidated and improved in the following stages of development.

In these years the first links and relations are established to form the new high superior unit of activity and, simultaneously that of the subject: the unit of his personality. It is precisely because of this that early childhood is so significant for development, because it is the period of formation of the psychological mechanisms of the personality.

This is due to multiple factors, one of them is the fact that in this age the bio physiological and psychological structures of the child are in the formation and maturation process, which makes particularly significant all the stimulation that can be provided on these structures and, therefore, of the qualities, process and physical and psychic functions that depend on them. It is, perhaps, the moment in the life of the human being in which the stimulation is capable of exerting the most determinant action on development, precisely by acting on formations that are in the process of maturation. Therefore, the process of general maturation of the organism is going to make up the base on which the process of education exerts its determining influence.

Without any doubt, these considerations brought about that the World Conference “Education for all” held in Jomtien , Thailand , stated in its conclusions that “Education starts with birth” and is a continuous process that encompasses from the time of birth till the end of the life of a human being. The methods, objects and contents may vary, but it is education, and therefore, we shall apply to it the four basic pillars pointed out by Dr. Delors:

•  Learning to be

•  Learning to live together

•  Learning to know

•  Learning to do

When the child is born, he is practically defenseless and has to be educated to learn to be, learning to be oneself, to achieve enough personal autonomy within a society in which we all have to live together. If we do not learn to live together from early childhood, we shall be building or reinventing the law of the jungle, where only the strongest survive. The other two pillars come about as a consequence: a child who is well adapted to his environment (living together), with a level of personal autonomy (learning to be) will have enough curiosity and will to easily learn to do.

Now, for this we should not forget that in this age period we go from being practically defenseless to become someone who can fend for himself, with a certain degree of development of his abstract thinking. In this transit there are a number of different stages in psychological development that allow characterizing each one of them, establishing its fundamental principles and determine its directive activities. This is not a regular process and during its course there are periods of relative stability in which the achievements and acquisitions are hardly perceptible or relevant and others in which spectacular changes take place in a short period of time and that totally transform the psychological activity and confer on it a higher quality. This irregularity of psychological development is going to be an tribute of the education of children of this age groupand determines a rapid and intense rhythm of development that forces to know deeply the features of the age group so as to apply the most effective pedagogical procedures to guide efficiently the development, taking as a base the level of real acquisitions of the child and starting from it determine all that a child can learn through the action of the adult and the contact with his peers, linked to his own individual activity and experience.

The moments of relative calm in the acquisition of achievements and that have traditionally been qualified as stages , linked to the periods of great and rapid transformations – the development crisis - are going to characterize early childhood and make education of the age group a really complex matter that requires deep knowledge.

The most strongly supported periodization of child development is the one that takes as center the main activity of each moment, period or stage. So, from birth until six years of age, there are three main cycles of development:

•  nursing period – from birth until the first year of life

•  early age, from the first until the third year of life

•  preschool age, from the third until the sixth year of life

These cycles are assumed and used in this report, regardless of psychological approaches and pedagogical models and although they can be called with other names, they coincide with what most of the better known authors establish.

This implies, in turn, a close and direct relationship with the possibility that stimulation is done within an activity that serves as means and cause of this development as well as it varying as the child evolves.

From this point of view all the qualities, aspirations, objectives, interests and capacities of the individual are evident in his actions in the different types of activities, which are opposed to the criteria that the formation and development of the child can be achieved spontaneously and without the participation of the adult.

It is clear that the first years of life are the most significant for the development of the human being. This stage of formation of the individual has been denominated with different names: early childhood, preschool, initial, among others but whatever the name used, all the specialists in psychology agree that it is in this stage where the foundations of the development of personality are laid and that they will be developed and improved in later stages of life.

Hence the extraordinary importance that this age has for the future of the individual and of the need to know well his attributes, the causes and conditions of his development, the transition of his biological, maturation, physiological and functional, psychological and social processes so as to be able to exert a positive influence on these mechanisms and structures that are being formed and matured, to obtain the maximum potential achievements in this development, that enables a healthy, apt individual, capable of transforming the world and himself in the process.

The social environment and the stimulation of the setting make possible that these processes and formations are structured and allow for a certain level of development in all the children, determining a system of influences that functions spontaneously and without an exact direction of this development. However, the social and family setting acting on their own without a scientifically conceived direction of the stimulation may not be adequate, not managing to enable that children achieve all the potential of their development.

It is necessary to create a system of influences, consciously organized and that, starting from the knowledge of the evolution particularities of the first years leads the actions of stimulation in an appropriate direction, which will make possible to achieve qualitatively higher levels of development.

Thus, for example, it is known that in the first six years of life it is the sensitive period of perception, that is, the moment in which there are found the most favorable conditions for the formation in this cognitive process, base of all human knowledge. In a child, the conditions of his social and family setting, the perceptual actions are formed somehow and his formation is given by the eventualities of the stimulation of his setting, and this is why it does not reach the level of what is known as analytic perception. Through spontaneous stimulation, a level of development will be achieved but it is very possible that it may not be the most adequate or possible one. The spontaneous means makes possible up to a level of development but no more.

To achieve the maximum development requires the creation of a scientifically conceived system of influences, organized in a conscious manner that allows reaching the goals of development that can not be achieved through spontaneous stimulation.

Even, and as Jean Piaget pointed out, an insufficient or lack of stimulation may provoke that in the periodization of psychological development, where always a given sequence is followed in the start and change of evolution stages, there may be the case that its ending, that is the formation of the stage of the formal operations of thought, which allows for high reasoning and logical abstract operations of quality, may never be reached, as a consequence of such insufficient and not consciously led action of stimulation.

While the organization and direction of such a scientifically conceived system of influences is important in any stage of the development of the individual, it is in the early childhood where such stimulation takes on most importance and significance for the rest of the life of the human being, because it is done on bio physiological and psychological formations that are being formed at that time and not on already formed structures as happens with most of those present in other age groups.

This is why this stage is crucial for the development and the need to organize a system of educational influences that enables maximal formation and expression of all the physical and psychological potentialities of the child in these early years.

Parents at home generally lack the possibility and knowledge to exert in a conscientious manner and technically directed an action of this nature and this is why the intervention of other educational agents is needed to carry out this function, which is materialized in the early childhood education center, without taking away from the family the role they have in the formation and education of their children.

Early childhood education can, for its social function and its technical level assume this system of educational influences that, as a whole with family education can achieve higher levels of development for all the children. So, depending on the programmed activities what he does (the content of his activity) how he does it (procedures of the activity) of the organization and conditions of the activity and the attitude that it provokes in the child are formed the capacities, motives the features of the character. The personality is formed in the activity that is why it is important that it is programmed and thought out

Early childhood education has two general and fundamental tasks or objectives that make up the essential base on which all further development will be attained. They are:

From this point of view, to attain these purposes it is indispensable and necessary the existence of a system of educational influences, the curriculum that, in a planned and methodologically well organized manner structures and leads all the actions to be done with each child in his evolutionary development and thus manage to attain the objectives of reaching a qualitatively higher level of said development. Curriculum that in each age period establishes the actions to be done, the organizational forms to do it and the methods and means to do it, as well as the possibility of evaluating it each moment, conceived so that it is not a program of acquisition of knowledge, habits and abilities bud directed to the formation of processes and physical and psychological qualities of the child, a program of development centered on achieving the maximum development of the potential the child and not just a simple accumulation of knowledge.

The curriculum should take into account

Now, to obtain the full development of each of the children we have to analyze the ways of work and organization of the education strategies when, without any doubt, the ratio educator/child plays a key role as well as the means of verification or evaluation that will allow us to follow the evolution of the processes of development of the children as well as analyzing the design of the educational process.

Areas of development

The early childhood curriculum conceives the activities to be done with an unspecified global and total character; this implies that the different contents have to be done interrelated, without fragmentation in specific learning items.

Since our objective is the maximum development of the personality of the child and for merely methodological purposes, we design the following areas of development of the personality, which respond to the following algorithm:

Consequently, these areas, taking into account the general development of the child are:

• Physical motor development that includes finer and gross motor development, the general physical capacities, the body scheme, etc.
• Cognitive development that includes all the cognitive processes: thought, perception, memory, attention, etc.
• Emotional – motivational development – that includes emotions and feelings, attitudes, motivation, will, etc. This area also includes morals.
• Ethic-aesthetic development – that refers to the aesthetic, recreational and spiritual development of the individual.

Some of these areas have to imply the inclusion of contents with a specific curriculum (for example, mathematics in the area of cognitive development) while others are general educational actions or specific that can not be materialized in curriculum contents as such (formation of emotions and feelings, for example).

Content blocks

The significance of the areas leads the educational action towards the psychological process and formations, but, for the purpose of educational process, they have to materialize in curriculum contents, since it is not possible to work directly on psychological formations, such as capacities or motivation, but, rather in activities that lead to the promotion and facilitate the development of such formations. Therefore, each of these areas has the following content blocks:

Physical-motor development

Contents of motor development, physical education, body scheme, physical motor skills and capacities, coordination skills, pre sports, etc.

Cognitive development

Knowledge of objects, social life, the natural world, mathematical notions, sensory education, mother tongue, among others.

Emotional-motivational development

Contents of habit formation, emotions and feelings, formation of motives, initiative and independence, socialization, play, etc.

Ethical –aesthetic development

Contents of social and moral education, values, art education, musical education, body expression, appreciation, among others.

GENERAL MAIN CONTENTS

In the early childhood education curriculum there are guidelines that go across all the areas of development and that encompass aspects both of content and formation and development, since the curriculum in itself can not totally respond to the educational needs. They are the main contents or transversal contents that have to be applied in each one of the areas, clocks or activities of the center. The actions in the formative order require specific activities that allow for the general educational action and that are expressed through all the contents.

In the early childhood education curriculum the main general contents are:

•  Values education: the guiding content is addressed to the formation and observance of rules of behavior that are socially established, rules of conduct that the children assimilate in their activity and the communication with adults and the world around them and that create stable habits of social behavior, as well as the formation of feelings and positive experiences in the values to be formed: friendship, solidarity, cooperation, honesty, altruism, acceptance of others, love for others, among them.

•  Education in effort and responsibility: the guiding content focuses on the formation of values and behaviors referred to the development in children of the conception of actions that rely on personal commitment, persistence and will when actions demand it, resilience towards adverse factors, as well as awareness of tasks that remand a personal responsibility such as the assistance to hand out materials, care and preservations of the means, work in the school garden, among others, that are not a game as other activities, but tasks that need to be completed and that demand effort, had work and an obligation and duty.

•  Health education: the main content is addressed to the formation of children in notions, rules, behaviors and feelings referred to person al hygiene habits, cultural hygiene habits towards food and nutrition, self care and prevention of accidents and illnesses, knowledge and relation of the factors of the setting and health and environment conditions as well as stability and mental health.

•  Peace education: the main content has to be focused towards the formation in children of notions, attitudes, behaviors and experiences towards the acceptance of others, respect of ethnical, social, religious diversity, socially adequate behavior for conflict solving, promotion of values towards peaceful contact with others, social defense of rights, social life and solidarity and avoidance of the negative aggressiveness, intolerance, intransigency, and other aspects, for which it relies on the activities of the contents of knowledge of social life of the curriculum.

•  Environmental education: the main content is addresses to the formation of elementary concepts on the relations of the phenomena of natural life and the socio economic setting that surround the boy and girl and their effects on nature, as well as the care and preservation of the environment, the avoidance of its deterioration and knowledge of the weather and its effects on human life and positive feelings and experiences ion these questions. The axis is closely related to the curriculum activities on knowledge of natural life that serve as the base for their purposes, among other contents.

•  Sex education : the main content is focused on the formation in the children of knowledge, attitudes and feelings towards their sex and personal identity, towards the other sex and the social expectations regarding their sexuality as well as the health and personal care actions regarding this area of development, as well as the formation of values towards social and sexual equity, appropriate interrelation and sexual behavior, internal relations of the couple and the family, and family life, etc.

The fact of setting main contents in the curriculum implies that in each content of the curriculum program there should be included work on these contents inasmuch as the contents allow for their inclusion in a global approach. The areas are nurtured from the activities and contents of the various programs that serve them as support for their development.

In an attachment we detail the objectives and contents of the three fundamental cycles of development preciously described as well as the general features of development of each one of them. 

The curriculum for early childhood

The nervous system of the child in this age group is very fragile. His higher nervous activity is very unstable and the analytical-synthetic activity of the brain cortex, the exciting processes predominate markedly on the inhibitory. This makes the child in this age get tired very rapidly, because his neurons still do not have a high capacity for work and require of some time for their recovery. Here fore, to dossify the stimulation is extremely important for his health and when the resistance of his nerve cells is exceeded, he becomes tired and could get harmed.

Regarding the most recent research work in this field, they advise the following length for the pedagogical activities, for the following age groups:

Any excess over will not obtain positive results and can have harmful effects for the boy or girl, due to an overcharge of excitation that exceeds the functional capacity of their neurons. This does not mean that, for example, the baby should only have two or three minutes of activity per day but, rather, that each stimulation unit should be that long, that is, it should not exceed the two or three minutes. After each one, there has to be a recovery period for the nervous system and then, there can be another unit of stimulation, taking advantage of the wake periods. What is important here is the quality, not the quantity of stimulation, quality implies that the content is addressed to what should really be exercised at each time and for the time required

Evaluation is defined as an ongoing, systematic and flexible process orientated to follow the evolution of the process of development of the children and to the necessary decision making to adequate the design of the educational process and the educational action and detected achievements in children.

It is a tool that allows to establish the degree of accomplishment of the objectives outlined in the curriculum and, therefore, anticipated, with those that have actually been obtained and on that base determine the actions to be taken or corrected, both in relation to the development of the children as well as of the educational process, The evaluation activity, understood in this manner, contributes decisively to the improvement of our activity as educators as well as provide us with a permanent observatory of the child's development.

To evaluate will not only mean to help the development of the children, but will also affect educators, the center organization and the methods and even, the educational process. In the early childhood education center evaluation goes beyond the evaluation of the achievements. It has to consider that the process of evaluation always must imply in an understanding manner all the elements and processes. The centers have to evaluate:

There always has to be an initial evaluation that enables to make a diagnosis of each child, and by extension, of the whole group, and a final evaluation to assess and verify the attainment of the objectives outlined in the curriculum, as well as a number of intermediate evaluations, following the objectives, to allow the educator control over the development of all the objectives in each child, in the group and to make timely decisions on the necessary educational measures to ensure that the majority of the children reach the anticipated levels of development in each educational stage.

The ways to control the attainment of the objectives in the curriculum in each child can be as follows:

• Observation, that is the main tool with this age group, and through which the educator detects and verifies the results of the pedagogical actions.
• Questions, that will be asked at all times during the pedagogical activities, the games, meal time, cleaning time, when changing clothes, etc.
• Review of the works done by the children, drawings, models, constructions, crafts, among others.
• Creation of pedagogical situations to verify a feature, a behavior, the formation of a value, for which the objectives to be evaluated must be clearly determined beforehand, to set up the conditions that really respond to such objective and to foster the behavior to be evaluated.
• The application of special tools and tests, generally in the final evaluation, when they are considered indispensable.

These evaluation procedures have to be matched with the particularities of development of early childhood and organically adjusted to the usual conditions of educational work in the center, avoiding bringing in other forms of evaluation used in higher educational levels, such as tests or other measurement tools.

The educational process as a whole

The evaluation of the educational intervention should be done in two different levels: in the group context and in the early childhood education center as a whole. In the first case, the responsible for the evaluation is each educator while for the center it should be the whole team of educators.

The evaluation of the process will include, besides the educational process in itself, aspects such as classroom organization, and use of the resources, clearly referring to the distribution of spaces and materials, the quality of the relations between educators and children, as well as within the children, as a reflection of the emotional climate of the center, the coordination among educators as well as the general coordination between all the staff members of the center and those responsible for the planning and development of the teaching practice and finally, the regularity and quality of the relation with the families and the community without whose collaboration there can not be an adequate educational work. Definitely, all the components of the center that enable it to achieve the desired degree of quality.

The teaching practice of the educator, evaluated by herself and the educational community.

It is convenient that educators stop every once in a while to reflect on their attitudes and behaviors towards children, the center, parents and the community. To sit in front of a questionnaire and answer a series of questions helps to know and improve the teaching practice.

While the mothers and fathers are not professional educators, it is good to know how they evaluate the center as a whole and in part, as they should be a reference and should collaborate in the evaluation.

The ratio educator-children

The early childhood curriculum requires to be effectively put into practice and the attainment of the achievements that it intends to obtain from the children, of a fostering atmosphere and of the possibilities that the educator has to attend the whole group and each child in particular, during the realization of the pedagogical activities. In this, there has to be an appropriate proportion between the number of children and teaching staff working with them. This proportion children-educator is what is known as the ratio.

But the analysis of the ratio requires a preliminary examination of the capacity of the center because they are closely linked to each other.

The determination of the capacity of an early childhood center is a topic of much importance for the general health wellbeing of the children as well as for their emotional wellbeing.

In this sense, school hygiene regulates the number of children there can be simultaneously in a group, according to the existing space and the possibility to answer their basic needs. This takes us to the concept of vital surface. By vital surface we understand all the space required by a child to conduct his activity without interferences and harm to his health.

In the case of an early childhood center, the vital surface includes not only the classrooms but also the outdoor areas, the halls, the common areas and that space in which the children can live together, play, walk and move. The administrative areas, the kitchen and laundry are not vital surface areas because the child does not have to be or do any activity in them.

The international health regulations consulted point out that in the center there should be two and a half square meters of vital surface for each child, that serves as an index to estimate the general capacity of the center and of each classroom, which is generally determined; it should be determined, by the public health authorities.

The regulation of the educational authorities allows to uniform the vital surface as well as regulate the capacity of the classrooms and therefore, there will be centers for 80, 100, 120 or 180 children, to name a few, and the construction projects can then be made relatively homogeneous.

In the homes converted into early childhood centers, usually private centers, it is indispensable to make a deep study of their vital surface to determine their capacity, because it can not be determined in an arbitrary manner, as it would harm the health of the children, since to overbook the capacity of the centers and, specifically of the classrooms, would lead to crowding them which would be extremely harmful for the health and emotional state of the children, especially, the very young ones.

The maximum capacity of the center is related with many technical factors, not only those related to building and materials, among them, we have:

These are only some of the factors that jointly determine the optimal capacity that can be assumed given the existing conditions. However, the particularities of the age group and the social role that the center has to play are elements that need to be considered in this assessment.

The centers, from the early times, were conceived for small groups that would allow for a close interrelation between the children and the adults educating them. That is, more than the physical environment, the concern is on the human environment, which can be seriously affected when there are excessively large groups.

A general study of different educational projects in various countries and surveys among professionals indicates that the optimal capacity of a group of children in this age group should not exceed 20, which is, of course, closely linked to the proportion of educational staff that can take care of them.

This leads us to the consideration of the ratio that determines in turn how to clearly establish the particularities of the staff that cares for them. It is a general criteria that a group of young children has to have technically well prepared staff in charge of leading the educational work and the attainment of the curriculum project and an auxiliary staff, lesser qualified, that is in charge of answering to the basic needs of the children (sleep, hygiene, food, etc). This leads to the existence of a teaching staff and a care or services staff.

While this division of attention and education is correct, the appropriate thing is that the service staff also has some educational roles as at al times during the day, even when taking a meal, there is an educational task to be done with the children, not only regarding the eating habits but also the cultural hygienic table manners and aspects that are content of the health education area. Therefore, the service staff has also to be pedagogical staff, that supports the work of the educator at given times in the development of the curriculum as can be play time, besides their role as a care provider for children.

This means that the ratio should be estimated on the base of teaching or pedagogical staff (with diversified roles) and non teaching or services staff.

The ratio can not be uniform for all the age groups because the needs for care and education in each group are different and the children have a different level of development in each age period. This determines that while each age group should have an educator for the development of the curriculum, the number of aides has to vary according to the needs and attributes of the age group. In this sense there is a specific ratio and a general ratio for each age group:

From the general study of the different educational projects and the surveys among professionals, we propose the following proportion children-educator, based on a classroom for 20 children.

This proportion is not random, it obeys the different research done in various countries and it encompasses the possibilities for real attention to the child, taking into account the particularities of the age, the content of the curriculum and the staff distribution.

The specific ration or distribution above leads to establishing a general ratio that is the number of children for each pedagogical staff member that establishes the mathematical relation between the number of children and the staff composition, as follows:

First and second year (0 to 2 years of age) 5.0

Third and fourth year (2 to 4 years of age) 6.6

Fifth and sixth year (4 to 6 years of age) 10.0

This consideration is based on the conception that the pedagogical team includes the educator and the aides. The same serves then, to determine the increase of staff that should be made when, in case of extreme social need, the groups have to be larger, instead of 20, which is the optimal and ideal number for a group of children in early childhood education

General development features

The newly born child, despite being defenseless, is a being that hears, distinguishes some smells and flavors and feels the changes in the surrounding setting: cold, heat, noises, lights, movements that makes new acquisitions everyday, in a very rapid manner.

Because the changes in growth and development are so accelerated it is very difficult to make a global characterization for the whole year, and this is why, it is indispensable to make it for shorter periods, that help to know what is happening at all times.

The child 0 to 3 months of age

In this trimester there is a rapid development of the visual and auditory analyzers that makes him notice lights, objects noises and people that talk to him, and who he may even follow with the eyes when they move.

He has very marked emotional reactions and cries to get attention and express negative sensations.

Movements are more and more organized and little by little, when he is laying face down, he begins to lift his head, then the had and neck and towards the third month he can support himself on his forearms.

If objects are placed at the height of his chest when he is laying face up he attempts to grab them, but he does not reach for them on his own.

Towards the end of this month there is a very characteristic and important reaction for development which is the complex of animation. This is a general motor reaction in which the child issues noises when the adult places him face up and talks and smiles to him near his face.

The child 3 to 6 months of age

His movements are more active and he can support himself on his hands when he is laying face down and make crawling movements when are the preparation for free crawling the next trimester. He can even, with the help of an adult, turn and sit for a few moments.

He takes objects that are placed within his reach and he touches them and takes them to his mouth.

There is a visual and auditory improvement that allows him to distinguish objects even when they are a little distant, follow with his eyes the people moving around him and look for the source of a sound nearby.

He babbles. If he is stimulated to talk, he tries to repeat the sound made for him, but he can not match it and may use any other sound instead.

He recognizes the people around him and, particularly, his mother. Near the six months there is a reaction towards strangers, which is a normal moment in development.

The child 9 to 12 months of age

He takes isolated steps and towards the end of the trimester, walks, trying to maintain balance with his open arms. He can go up or down three or four steps, using the hand bar.

The movements of the hand have improved and he can grab small objects, pinning then with his fingers. He is capable of putting a pill in a jar, take it out and close the lid of the jar.

He can follow simple orders, especially if they are accompanied by gestures.

He easily expresses reactions of joy and disgust and recognizes these reactions in the people caring for him.

He repeats well the sounds made for him and at the end of the period he is capable of saying a word. He repeats the sounds of animals or objects such as a clock or a balloon, when he is asked to do so.

He is capable of drinking alone from a cup with a handle.

Features of the curriculum

The curriculum for 0 to 1 year olds has for areas of development and their corresponding content blocks:

These programs are not done in a pedagogical activity as such but at any time while he is awake and only on those that require it, due to their complexity and necessary systematization, and depending on the rhythm of development and individual particularities of each child.

General objectives

That the child:

General content

Psychomotor development

Activation of the muscles of the neck: raising and turning. Of the chest: turning at a visual stimulus, the sound of an adult's voice or a sound object. Look for the source of a sound outside his visual field and visualize in the adult's face or different fixed objects or moving. With objects placed in different sides (left, right, up or down) search for the sounds produced by the voice of an adult or musical instrument and handle objects. Look for hidden objects, of sounds made by specific objects, of the adult's voice and several actions with objects.

Touch stimulation to attain reflex motor reactions of the back, belly, extension, separation and raising the legs, steps, sole and sides of the feet, reflex crawl on the back and frontal.

Propioceptive stimulation by passive exercises: turn the chest by grabbing the adult's hand, and the objects in one hand and with both in different body positions and places in space.

Doing active exercises: head and chest: lifting (arching), turning, gyrate. Arms: extension. Legs: lifting. Combined: crawling. Visualizing objects placed in different sides (left, right, up or down). Chest: flexing. Legs: lifting. Combinations: crawling, climbing, throwing, sitting or raising, walking with two points of support. Walking with one point of support, walking with one or two points of support, sorting obstacles. Climbing, throwing a ball.

Hands: take and place objects. Hit small cubes against each other (one in each hand), open and close. Cover and uncover. Place an object inside another. Place a cube on top of another. Take an object from a box to place it in another box. Take out small objects from a box. Place rings in a bar. Bring close tied objects. Use an object with a handle.

Do passive exercises: arms (with or without tools): towards the front, up and down; flex, extend, and lift. Chest: turn, gyrate, flex, arch. Legs: flex and extend (simultaneously and alternatively).

Stimulation with objects to assimilate textures.

Stimulation of smell perception.

Language development

The adult should make sounds and words when doing other daily activities. The adult should name all the objects and actions in the different basic activities, such as meals and bathing, without expecting the child to repeat anything.

The adult should repeat the spontaneous sounds or make the child produce them, repeating and imitating the spontaneous sounds (vocalizations, sneezes, yawns, sputtering, etc.) or provoked by the adult to stimulate his verbal production.

Stimulation with objects and verbally to have the child produce his first social smiles.

Verbal stimulation to bring about the general animation of the child (animation complex).

Exercise phonic structures of the child (rotation movements of the tongue while eating, asking for soft or strong kisses, blowing candles, and making sounds with the tongue.

Verbal stimulation of babbling (syllable making).

Using different intonations (soft, low, grave, acute, serious, happy) during the verbal contact with the child. Using different and increasingly complex intonations in the verbal contact with the child (astonishment, doubt, annoyance, tenderness, etc.).

Call the child by his name; indicate the name of the adults, with sound repetitions.

Use movement games (up and down, etc) accompanied with the corresponding words.

Verbal stimulation with sounds and syllables new for the child.

Stimulation with sounds as answers to the presentation of objects accompanied with their names and some onomatopoeic sounds. Stimulation for their recognition and pronunciation.

Establishing the relation object-word: localization of the object, in a determined place and anyplace. Verbal stimulation for the child to look for objects that fall down, disappear o are hidden from his view.

Establishing relations movement-word by doing actions related with words, orders, rhymes, etc. Demonstrate games and actions linked to simple objects; stimulate the imitation by verbal actions of the adult.

Follow simple orders: deliver an object by verbal stimulation, repeat a learnt motor action combining movement and words.

Use words to allow or to prevent the child from doing something (yes, you can, nom, you can not) when the situations demand it.

Use object actions to create elementary generalizations of the word: recognition of the object, regardless of its variety, diversity or location.

Use phrases with several words as an answer to isolated words or gestures of the child, in different situations.

Stimulation of phonic motor structures, to improve articulation and the strengthening of the muscle and respiratory structures that take part in the production of language.

Describe photos, representations of real objects and stimulate their recognition through verbal orientation from the adult.

Social and moral education

Doing actions to achieve adaptation to changes in the setting.

Stimulate to do different activities

Affective stimulation to create a positive emotional state in the child and to share spaces of attention with other children.

Introduce different foods.

Incorporate elementary forms of cultural hygienic habits.

Musical education

Listening to vocal and instrumental music, folklore (children's songs)

Perception of variations in sound

Rhythm development

Imitation of sounds and rhythm.

Establish the relation between movement and musical stimulation

General development characteristics

At the beginning of this period the child enters a slower development rhythm, which makes the children eat less.

Regarding sleep, between 12 and 18 months of age, the children still require two sleep periods during the day and starting when they are 18 months old, they only need one.

In the first semester, he can walk, although his steps are still unsure but, towards the end of this period they can walk and climb or descend a few steps and run, but in a disperse manner.

In the second semester there are some signs of stubbornness and wanting to do things on their own, without wanting to obey. With other children, the child shows deficient socialization, grabs things from them, and is aggressive, etc. generally, because of toys or for the attention of an adult in particular.

During this year he acquires many simple skills and manages, for example, to use a spoon to eat and to drink from a glass with a handle without spilling the content.

He pulls things and throws a ball with a hand towards the front.

Because of his cognitive desire, he breaks objects to see how they are inside, or puts his fingers inside a plug or climbs on things to reach a shelf, all of which requires special supervision.

In general, he can say a few words that are considered word phrases. Towards the end of the year he links two words and can answer when asked simple questions.

Language begins to control his behavior and he is capable of obeying up to three orders at the same time.

He does simple imitation actions that he sees adults around him doing.

In the transit towards the third year there is a language explosion, the beginning of the sensitive period of this process.

When he starts the third year of life the desire of independence is a lot stronger and he now wants to do things on his own, and is bothered when he is not allowed to do so, becoming strong willed and impatient.

He is capable of doing quite a few things for himself, such as taking off some clothing items, washing his hands, using a spoon to eat without spilling the food, among others.

Towards the end of the period he has assimilated a notable number of words and ways of speaking that allow him to ask and answer questions and maintain a situational conversation.

He shows interest in simple and short stories and says some phrases of a song. He can sing along some sentences, move according to the rhythm or clap to a tune.

He can jump on two feet, walk on top of benches and throw things more or less well.

If before he played alone, he now begins to play with other children, imitating adults in his games, although he does not follow a very complex argument, rather, sing simple actions that already have some meaning.

He likes to be with other children in diverse activities and looks for them to play and talk. The relations with the adults are still good although towards the three years some children begin to show signs of the three year old crisis, which brings about a significant change in their behavior.

There is a marked intellectual development. He is very interested in knowing and learning and can compare objects by color, shape and size although he may have some difficulties in naming these properties.

In his thinking, the symbolic function begins to develop which allows him to give different meanings to the same object.

He is usually happy and active and relates well with others, usually showing considerable affection towards animals.

He draws with limitations in his lines, but his doodles already have some meaning.

Language begins to serve to control his behavior and if he is flattered he is happy and when he is reprimanded he feels ashamed. This allows us to organize better his behavior and facilitates the basic formation of habits of order and discipline.

In the formation of hygienic habits there is an important step and that is that he is now capable of telling when he has to go to the bathroom.

He recognizes the distinctive qualities of animals and plants which allow him to group, classify, compare, and serialize in a basic manner and establish different quantifying relations using terms such as much, little or none.

Substitution operations are significant and he can substitute any object by is representation, in drawing, games or actions or simple constructions with blocks from object pr graphic models, he can assume different roles in the games, modeling and given them significance.

He uses all the grammar structures of his language although often using short sentences and relying heavily on gestures and maintaining situational conversations with simple contextual elements.

He handles well the relations of place but still is confounded with those of time.

He repeats stores and familiar songs as well as short poems.

He has reached a good level of control of language, so it can be used to control his behavior and discipline him.

Besides often disagreeing with adults, he manages a stable happy and active state of mind and he easily overcomes negative events.

He is fairly skilled and can dress and undress more or less well, put on socks and shoes among other things.

Curriculum elements

The curriculum for one to two year olds has four areas of development and six matching content blocks

General objectives

That the child:

General content

Motor development

Reflex exercises. Stimulation of the muscles of the belly and the back.

Passive exercises. Arms – flex them from different positions. Raise them in different directions. Chest – Flex it from different positions. Arch sideways towards the front. Legs flex, lying down. Raise the legs and touch the toes.

Active exercises. Movements, walk, run and jump, alone and in formation. Pass and sort obstacles on the floor. Walk towards the front with a change in direction. Combinations of the different forms of movement. Tip toe, walk on his heels the sides of his feet and other forms.

Exercises for the general physical development. Head: flex and turn and combinations. Arms (with or without tools) flex, balance and raise (simultaneous and alternate). Combinations. Chest: flex and turn combinations. Legs: flex, raise alternate or simultaneous), crouch and combinations.

Main exercises: walk on a plank, on paths, on a plank on the floor, on a tilted plank, on lines. On a bench or a plank at a height. Passing height obstacles, running. Follow a straight line. Run distances, Jump with the two legs, towards the front, to a given height. Throw (with one or two hands), in different ways, towards different directions, bounce balls, move a ball with one or two hands, from different positions, by planes, towards different directions. Catch objects as they move. Walk in four feet, in different directions, under obstacles, following paths, on a wooden plank, on a tilted plank, on a ladder placed on the floor, creep alone, under obstacles. Climb, on a ladder, on a horizontal plane.Motion games: running, throwing, jumping and walking in four feet.

Mother tongue

Enlarge and consolidate meaning and use in the active language of words and sentences to name people, their actions and qualities, as well as toys and familiar objects around him, animals and their offspring, plants, food, parts of the human body, of the animals and plants, objects and furniture in his surroundings: classroom, rest of the center and home, personal use and clothing items and significant parts of these objects, means of transport, simple natural phenomena.

Pronounce words parallel to their matching onomatopoeic sounds; pronounce words that substitute the onomatopoeic sounds.

Stimulate oral expression as a means of communication with other children and adults in daily life activities and habitual relations with his group.

Use, in his oral expression, words to designate actions and qualities, nouns and adjectives of different gender and number.

Use of stories, descriptions, rhymes and poems to reinforce listening, comprehension and expression of basic intonations in the tongue.

Comprehension and attainment of orders given by an adult beginning with one action and going up to three actions in a sequence.

Comprehension and use of words that mean regulation of behavior of the child and his relations with the people around him.

Establishing real relations to listen to the language of the adults and understand his explanations and orientations.

Creation of relation situations to use words and build simple sentences.

Establishing simple dialogues based on questions and answers on familiar objects, plants, children and adults to have him use sentences with nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs.

Present and understand the relations of place: up-down, in-out, in front- behind, near-far, next to, here and there.

Present words that express relations of time: today, now, tonight, tomorrow.

Listening and repeating parts of short stories, rhymes, and simple poems.

Tell his name and surnames and the names of his educators.

Exercise motor phonic structures. Breathing exercises and articulation of phonemes. Development of the muscles and fine motions of the tongue. Imitation games with the tongue. Repetition of isolated sounds and long onomatopoeic sounds. Voice exercises.

Knowledge of objects

Doing correlation activities. Open and close, cover and uncover, insert objects, build pyramids, twist and untwist, build things with blocks, place toys.

Do instrumental actions that imply the use of auxiliary means (tools), as well as their construction, in increasing difficulty.

Select and compare elements of the same shape, color and size as the model provided. Identify objects that are the same shape, size or color.

Manipulate and differentiate objects by their texture.

Do actions that allow for spatial orientation: up-down, in-out.

Establish quantifying relations such as much-none.

Build a model assembling its parts.

Building. Familiarity with the material and the basic building techniques. Building following a model and placing the pieces in different positions. Building following a model of height. Building using graphic models assembled and disassembled.

Social and moral education

Do actions to maintain a happy and affective emotional state.

Activities to assimilate simple social rules

Activities to develop feelings of love towards his family.

Establish positive relations with other children and adults

Regulate behavior through language.

Assimilating habits, eats by himself.

Incorporate simple cultural hygienic habits

Complete simple errands.

Musical education and body expression

Develop a musical sense. Listen to vocal and instrumental music, mainly children's songs.

Perceive sounds by their ring: sounds around him, musical, from wood, adult voices, intense, strong, and soft.

Develop his voice. Listen to songs for the repetition of syllables, words and phrases.

Develop a rhythmic capacity and body expression. Imitate the sounds by their rhythm. Natural motion movements: walking, crawling, running, jumping, following directions, designs and levels, Movements with different parts of the body. Mimic simple songs, figurative images and rhymes. Respond by dancing to music. Emotional social and work gestures, images and experiences with musical stimulation.

Art education

Familiarity with materials: crayons, paint, sponges, brushes, paper, play dough, clay.

Obtain traces, spots and shapes, done independently.

Play with paper, handling it in different ways, discovering shapes after working with it.

Finger games

General development features

This cycle is characterized by the crisis of the three years when the child is difficult to control, often being stubborn and unwilling to obey or do things proposed to him.

Representational thinking is now available which allows planning and thinking ahead of time. In cognitive development this is the stage of the “why's?” essential for the development of cognitive interests and the will to learn.

He differentiates colors, shapes and sizes, although he still makes mistakes. He recognizes and differentiates natural elements (water, air, changes in weather) and distinctive features of animals and plants, which let him group, classify, compare and serialize in a basic way and establish different quantifying relations with much, little or none.

Substitution operations are significant and he can substitute any object by is representation, in drawing, games or actions or simple constructions with blocks from object pr graphic models, he can assume different roles in the games, modeling and given them significance.

He uses all the grammar structures of his language although often using short sentences and relying heavily on gestures and maintaining situational conversations with simple contextual elements.

He handles well the relations of place but still is confounded with those of time.

He repeats stores and familiar songs as well as short poems.

He has reached a good level of control of language, so it can be used to control his behavior and discipline him.

Besides often disagreeing with adults, he manages a stable happy and active state of mind and he easily overcomes negative events.

He is fairly skilled and can dress and undress more or less well, put on socks and shoes among other things, show good table manners when eating, using a spoon and a napkin, etc.

He shows an acceptable sphincter control although there may be an occasional mishap.

He has a good control over his gross motions such as running, throwing, climbing, and can dance and follow different steps shown to him, with different musical stimulation and follows a rhythm.

In play he assumes different roles and relates with other children through the assumed roles.

From 4 to 5 years, there is a consolidation stage and improvement of the achievements of development obtained in the previous years.

He can establish abstract relations and build generalizations that help him follow a plan to find something or search for an object. This helps him, to establish cause-effect relations that, although elementary, show a certain level of analysis and reflection.

He shows great interest to know facts about his setting both, social and natural.

He controls various quantifying relations and recognizes and uses variations of the colors, shapes and sizes, sues graphic and object models in his buildings as well as different outlines. He can do simple actions in a computer if he is shown how to do them.

In this stage there is self speech, which may be unintelligible at times (one can not understand what he is saying) or even hard to hear (he can not be heard, but one can tell he is speaking to himself as his lips are moving).

He controls all the basic structures of the language and, generally, has no difficulties in articulating and speaks with the correct expression for facts and social events and tells stories or recent experiences rather eloquently and without making mistakes in the present and past tense, although he still has difficulties with the future tense. He is capable of carrying a simple contextual conversation.

Frequently, some children show signs of functional stuttering that is generally overcome after the sixth year of life.

His movements are almost perfect; he can run, change directions quickly, jump without hurting, throw and catch balls easily.

Generally he is happy and active, relates well with adults and other children and likes group games very much. In his games he shows great interest in playing real life roles and can carry a story line for a long time, using toys and other realia, as well as actions that are totally imaginary.

He can do things for himself rather well, he dresses and undresses, ties his shoes, brushes his teeth, bathes himself, at the table he can use a fork and shows good manners.

In this age, he begins to show feelings of solidarity and help for others.

He can sing and recite longer and more complex poems, follow the rhythm and dance with all the parts of his body, even following the rhythm pattern of a simple song with corporal percussion (clapping, touching and making sounds with parts of his body), he can even follow a sing with a simple musical instrument (a tambourine, a key, among others).

From 5 to 6 years of life, his thinking reaches a notable qualitative development and there are signs of logical verbal thinking that allow him to reason at a more abstract level and make deeper generalizations and do actions in which the analysis reflection and generalization allow him to model the sounds of a words, control and apply all the sensory patters, orientate spatially following an outline or map, plan ahead of time and draw out the things he builds, take simple measurements and count, grouping thing efficiently and showing specific skills related with writing, mathematics or reading.

There is a great cognitive interest; he is attracted by everything mechanic or electronic, such as computer games, Nintendo's or other similar ones.

In the case of language, he expresses himself coherently, clearly telling his ideas and interest as well as his criteria, following a logical order, which enables him to carry complex contextual conversations, with control on all the grammar forms and tenses, as well as with good articulation.

There is the sense of language, empirical generalizations that let him assimilate colloquial language and see the language as something external that can be learnt and analyzed, which is the future base for the study and analysis of the mother tongue and a basic foundation for reading and writing.

Language consolidates in the internal level and although he occasionally talks to himself, this is generally not the case. In turn, the language has full regulating functions and he controls his behavior by verbal demands and is capable of evaluating and subordinating his behavior according to the conditions.

There are two new acquisitions: self awareness and subordination of motives that become the two main achievements of development in this stage of the formation of his personality.

He maintains a constantly happy and active state, relates well with his peers, with whom he is very interested in talking and with the adults. Ion this relations his interest for social activities and contacts becomes evident.

In motor development he has acquired general motor skills that allow his movements to be coordinated, with great flexibility in his muscles and he can do practically all the gross motor actions with quality and agility: run, throw, catch, climb, crawl, jump obstacles, among others, introducing his own variations.

Manual fine movements become more precise and although he still can not work for very long periods, he can cut out, draw and write easily although he does not generally read or write in the strictest sense although he begins to show signs that he could do it without great efforts.

In his games, he plans and develops his actions agreeing with the other children he is going to play with and creates diverse situations using scrap materials, objects or some toys. He plays them for a long time and solves on his own any conflicts that may come up during the game.

He begins to play rules games which mean following rules and codes that can not be broken at will.

He is far more self reliable, doing many things on his own, such as eating, brushing and bathing himself, dressing and undressing according to his own tastes, showing good manners at the table where he begins to use the knife.

He can express very well his musical experiences and feelings with his body can dance well and participates easily in simple dance routines, he sings with good rhythm and can recite fairly long poems and stories.

When he draws, models or builds he can plan what he is going to do and explain the final result, at the same time that he can assess aesthetically objects, nature, social facts and simple works of art.

By the end of his sixth year he is capable of adapting his behavior following verbal instructions, listen attentively, and act according to a plan, all of which prepares him for the educational activities of the school

Curriculum elements

The curriculum for 3 to 6 year olds has four areas of development and nine content blocks.

General objectives

That the child:

General contents

Motor development

Doing movements that imply the formation of motor coordination skills, as well as the flexibility, regulation, adaptation and motor change, balance, coordination and differentiation.

Maintain a good posture.

Do movements with his own variations.

Mother tongue

Form an ample vocabulary and adequately articulate the sounds of the language.

Form a simple to complex contextual conversation that allows him to express in a clear and comprehensible manner ideas, feelings, facts and happenings of nature and social life.

Recite poems expressively and tell short simple stories.

Use different beautiful forms of literary language.

Develop specific skills related with the preparation to learn reading and writing.

Exercise phonic motor structures. Develop fluency in language, articulate language.

Preparatory work for the development of language.

Exercise breathing.

Knowledge of objects

Do complex perceptive actions, to determine the qualities of objects, their variations and relations, as well as analytic perception.

Identify objects by touch, texture, temperature, shape and size.

Build things following object and graphic models and with different variations and links.

Establish spatial relations staring from his body and from external points, other objects. Identify positions, locate things in maps and order objects in different directions following models.

Establish spatial relations based in graphics or outlines.

Knowledge of the natural world

Recognize facts and phenomena of natural life around them and establish and express simple relations between their qualities and functions.

Express feelings of love and care for nature and do positive things for its preservation.

Explain simple facts of natural life.

Do simple observations and experiences on natural phenomena linked to his daily life.

Basic mathematical notions

Do grouping operations using quantifiers.

Establish quantitative relations among quantities, lengths and sizes.

Recognize up to ten.

Social and moral education

Maintain a stable happy and active state of mind and appropriate social relations with peers and adults.

Maintain emotional satisfaction when doing different types of tasks, especially the educational ones.

Participate actively and independently in the organization of activities.

Regulate his behavior according to the different situations of daily life.

Follow social behavior rules guided by adults and by himself.

Assess the behavior and actions of the others and his own.

Plan and organize games and other activities, agreeing with others children and establish matching relations with them.

Show correct eating habits, personal cleanliness, order and courtesy.

Do simple educational activities such as listening attentively, following a plan, making simple assessments about the quality of the tasks done.

Develop a favorable attitude towards school and future learning and himself as a student.

Knowledge of the social world

Develop feelings of love and respect for the national symbols, recognize them properly, regulating his behavior during national holidays.

Identify the significant places of his town, region and country as well as their more relevant features.

Recognize some jobs, and the importance of individual and group work.

Musical education and body expression

Sing songs accompanied by body percussion or musical instruments.

Express with body movements and using music, images of people, actions and natural phenomena.

Appreciate different types of musical and singing work.

Art education

Perceive, assess and appreciate beauty as reflected in nature, objects and works of art.

Express through art ideas, experiences and feelings through a self selected or suggested topic