Preschool Key Developmental Indicators (Key Experiences)
“Key developmental indicators” (KDls) are early childhood milestones that guide teachers as they plan & assess learning experiences & interact with children to support learning. The term “key developmental indicators” replaces the term “key experiences.” The 58 KDls match the 58 preschool key experiences, but they have been reorganized under the following five curriculum content areas: approaches to learning; language, literacy, & communication; social & emotional development; physical development, health, & well-being; & arts & sciences. Arts & sciences are further divided into these subjects: mathematics, science & technology, social studies, & the arts. These content areas, based on the school readiness dimensions of the National Educational Goals Panel, align readily with national & state early learning standards.
Language, Literacy, and Communication
- Talking with others about personally meaningful experiences
- Describing objects, events, and relations
- Having fun with language: listening to stories and poems, making up stories and rhymes
- Writing in various ways: drawing, scribbling, letter like forms. invented spelling, conventional forms
- Reading in various ways: reading storybooks, signs and symbols, one’s own writing
- Dictating stories
Social and Emotional Development
- Taking care of one’s own needs
- Expressing feelings in words
- Building relationships with children and adults
- Creating and experiencing collaborative play
- Dealing with social conflict
Physical Development, Health, and Well-Being
- Moving in non-locomotors ways (anchored movement: bending, twisting, rocking, swinging one’s arms
- Moving in loco-motor ways (non-anchored movement: running, jumping, hopping, skipping, marching, climbing)
- Moving with objects
- Expressing creativity in movement
- Describing movement
- Acting upon movement directions
- Feeling and expressing steady beat
- Moving in sequences to a common beat
Arts and Sciences
- Paper tearing
- Water colours- dabbing
- Paper crumpling and pasting
- Clay modeling
- Modelling with play dough
- Finger painting
- Stamping
- Printing with vegetables
- Care of materials
- Clean up routines
- Easel painting
- Large crayons
- Collage with wide variety of materials
- Filling colours
- Tracing
Mathematical Skills
Readiness for math
- Number games
- Finger plays
- Number songs
- Number stories
- Counting objects in environment
- Recognizing shapes-circle, square etc..
- Relating shapes to objects in the surrounding
- Language for the above
- Sand paper numerals
- Memory games
- Reinforcing activities
- Matching number to number
- Rote counting
- Colour the right number of pictures
- Count n colour the right number in the block
Comparing attributes:
- Opposites e.g., big and small, up and down
- One and many
- Arranging things in series/ pattern
- Describing relationships
- Comparatives eg, big, bigger, biggest
- Fitting objects through trial and error
Seriation
- Comparing attributes (longer/shorter, bigger/smaller)
- Arranging several things one after another in a series or pattern and describing the relationships (big/bigger/biggest, red/blue/red/blue)
- Fitting one ordered set of objects to another through trial and error (small cup-small saucer/medium cup- medium saucer/big cup-big saucer)
Numeration:
- Comparing the numbers of things in two sets to determine “more,” “fewer,” “same number”
- Arranging two sets of objects in one-to-one correspondence
- Counting objects
Space
Filling and emptying
- Fitting things together and taking them apart
- Changing the shape and arrangement of objects (wrapping, twisting, stretching, stacking, enclosing)
- Observing people, places, and things from different spatial viewpoints
- Experiencing & describing positions, directions & distances in the play space, building, & neighborhood
- Interpreting spatial relations in drawings, pictures, and photographs
Science and Technology
Classification
Recognizing objects by sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell
- Exploring and describing similarities, differences, and the attributes of things
- Distinguishing and describing shapes
- Sorting and matching
- Using and describing something in several ways
- Holding more than one attribute in mind at a time
- Distinguishing between “some” and “all”
- Describing characteristics something does not possess or what class it does not belong to
Social Studies
- Participating in group routines
- Being sensitive to the feelings, interests, and needs of others
Dramatic Art
- Imitating actions and sounds
- Pretending and role playing
Music
Moving to music
- Exploring and identifying sounds
- Exploring the singing voice
- Developing melody
- Singing songs
- Playing simple musical instruments
Fine Motor Development
- Grasping
- Spooning exercises
- Dry pouring
- Using tongs
- Clamping clothes pin
- Using a ladle
- Opening and closing lid
- Locking unlocking
- Solving puzzles
- Using plastic scissors
- Using glue and pasting
- Nuts and bolts
- Stamping
Visual Arts
Relating models, pictures, and photographs to real places and things
- Making models out of clay, blocks, and other materials
- Drawing and painting
Time
- Starting and stopping an action on signal
- Experiencing and describing rates of movement
- Experiencing and comparing time intervals
- Anticipating, remembering, and describing sequences of events
