P-LFS-09: Expands on Children’s Understanding

This measure analyzes the teacher’s ability to use rich language to encourage children to speak more about their interests or ideas and expand their understanding when children initiate conversation or ask questions unexpectedly during set activities. The teacher must do more than acknowledge the child’s initiation. The teacher must instead provide more specific information or build background knowledge by:

Saying encouraging nouns or adjectives with an infant
Asking questions that deepen the preschoolers’ or older children’s thought processes

Category: Category 2: Teacher-Child Interactions Subcategory: Language Facilitation and Support

Examples

In this section you will find videos, images, and/or documents that can be used to better understand this measure. These examples can also be used in conversations between mentors, directors, and/or teachers to discuss how the program's current practices compare to these examples.

Demonstrate and Explain How Things Work (Infant)

Video Example

While the infants played with the toy cars, the teacher repeatedly used words and actions to demonstrate how the car moves. Teachers can deepen or expand on infants’ play by providing more specific information or building on their background knowledge.

Age(s): Infant

Explain (Toddler)

Video Example

When the child showed the teacher the magnifying glass, she expanded on the child’s initation by asking questions about the object and giving a description of what it was and how to use it. Teachers can expand on children’s initiation by asking questions and elaborating on what the child shows interest in.

Age(s): Toddler