The Washington State Early Learning and Development Benchmarks are early learning guidelines that are helpful in understanding what young children may know and do at different ages. They are a research-based tool to support parents, early learning educators and caregivers in helping children grow and learn. This is only a resource document—every child develops as an individual in the context of her family, culture and community.
The Department of Early Learning (DEL) recently received input via an online survey from more than 600 individuals to inform an upcoming update of the Benchmarks. More information about the update process will be available here shortly.
The Benchmarks include examples of skills and behaviors you might expect to see as children grow, and simple activities to support children’s learning and development. They cover the general areas of early childhood development:
- Physical well-being, health and motor development
- Social and emotional development
- Approaches toward learning
- Cognition and general knowledge
- Language, literacy and communications
We at DEL know there is more work needed to make sure language and culture are acknowledged and incorporated into use of the Benchmarks. We’ve resolved with key partners to continue working to make the Benchmarks useful and available for Washington’s diverse communities. See the
DEL/Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction/Thrive by Five Washington resolution.
We hope to:
- Support a process that brings together various stakeholders to revisit and “reconcile” challenges and concerns that arose when the Benchmarks were developed and released.
- Offer support to groups who wish to pursue culturally appropriate adaptation and gather data on what’s being done around the state.
- Provide training to DEL staff and other stakeholders on child development expectations that are captured in the Benchmarks.
We are interested in hearing from communities who are using the Benchmarks in innovative ways or have adapted the Benchmarks for their community’s unique cultural, linguistic or geographic needs. Please e-mail communications@del.wa.gov and tell us how you’re using the Benchmarks in your community (or how you would like to use them if you had additional resources)!
The Benchmarks are designed to be used by parents, as their children’s first and most important teachers, as well as other educators and caregivers.
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Many states have developed their own early learning guidelines.
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