National Early Childhood Education Cognitive Development Curriculum Ages 0 – 5 years.
Cognitive Development Curriculum (0 – 3 Years)
Week 1
Topic: Mental Development
Performance Objectives – Parent/Caregiver: Should be able to:
1. Stimulate child with table top materials
2. Encourage verbal and non-verbal interaction.
3. Arouse child’s interest in objects and people in the environment
4. Give tasks that encourage thinking, problems solving, recalling and relating
5. Respond promptly to child’s cues and gestures.
Performance Objectives – Child: Should be able to: By 24 months:
1. Respond to table top materials
2. Name people domestic animals and objects in the environment.
3. Explore the environment.
4. Manipulate objects in the environment.
By 36 months
5. Sort colors, shapes and objects.
6. Count and recognize numbers 1 – 5.
Content:
1. Interaction with people, objects and environment.
2. Names of domestic animals (in the language of the immediate environment)
3. Problem solving activities:
• Thinking
• Recalling
• Relating
• Sorting
4. Recognition of c concrete concepts e numbers, forms, shapes, colors.
Activities – Parent/Caregiver:
1. Communicate with the child verbally and non-verbally.
2. Make child play with toys and people.
3. Provide a variety of toys, play materials and other learning objects.
4. Engage in play activities with the child e.g. dramatic play, role play etc.
5. Supervise the child’s exploration of the environment.
6. Encourage child to express thoughts and feelings.
7. Demonstrate concrete experiences in number work.
Activities – Child:
1. Play with objects e.g. toys
2. Responds to sound
3. Follow moving objects.
4. Grasp objects
5. Use verbal and non-verbal expressions.
6. Imitate behavior
7. Play with people objects and materials in the environment.
8. Stack objects, snap fingers and thumbs, pound, grasp string, pull apart toys and locally made play materials.
Caring/Learning Materials:
• Soft toys
• Picture books
• Picture
• Ball
• Plates
• Cups
• Chairs
• Tables
• Non-toxic containers
• Water
• Sand
• Clay
• Paper
• Boxes
• Musical Instrument
• Clothes
• Shoes
• Hats
• Calendars
• Sticks
• Stones
• Television
• Flowers
• Story books
• Building blocks
• Beaded strings.
Evaluation Guide:
Child
1. Identify objects.
2. Curious to explore the environment.
3. Respond to simple instructions like pull, push.
4. Use or repeat simple action verbs while playing.
5. Manipulate objects
6. Count objects.
Parent/Caregiver
1. Child stimulated
2. Conducive environment for learning opportunities provided.
Cognitive Development Curriculum
Week 2
Topic: Language Development
Performance Objectives – Parent/Caregiver: Should be able to:
1. Speak and play with child
2. Stimulate child with toys and other objects, to develop communication skills.
3. Read to the child
4. Stimulate child to respond to simple instruction in the language of the immediate environment.
5. Encourage child to talk to others.
Performance Objectives – Child: Should be able to:
1. Listen attentively when spoken to.
2. Communicate with others using words and gestures.
3. Interpret gestures and signs peculiar to the local environment.
4. Carry out simple instructions in the language of the immediate e.g. sit, go, come, no, yes.
5. Communicate in short meaningful sentences.
Content:
1. Verbal and non- verbal Communication skills:
• Listening
• Gestures
• Speaking
• Picture reading
• Scribbling
• Reading
2. Names of objects.
Activities – Parent/Caregiver:
1. Tell stories
2. Recite rhymes
3. Sing songs
4. Answer child’s questions.
5. Group children for games and play e.g. Ball Clapping, dancing, climbing etc.
6. Read story books to the child.
7. Talk with child about events such as festivals, birthday etc.
Activities – Child:
1. Listen and tell stories
2. Ask and answer questions
3. Recite rhymes and sing songs
4. Talk about events in the home and in the community e.g. new baby, birthday, festival etc.
5. Talk with others.
Caring/Learning Materials:
• Story books
• Rhymes/Song books
• Musical Instruments
• Crayons
• Pencils
• Papers
• Toys
• Blocks
• Sand and Water
• Telephone
• Radio
• Television
• Charts.
Evaluation Guide:
1. Use simple words, sing songs, recite rhymes.
2. Hold simple conversion with people around
3. Discuss and ask questions.
Parent/Caregiver
1. Child’s question remarks or statements answered correctly.
2. Better understanding of child developed.
3. Greeting pattern of children observed.
4. Simple instructions carried out rewarded.
Early Childhood Education Curriculum for Cognitive Development Ages 0- 3 years
Cognitive Development Curriculum (3 – 5 Years)
Week 1
Topic: Mental Development
Performance Objectives – Parent/Caregiver: Should be able to:
1. Encourage exploration, experimentation, manipulation and interaction with the environment.
2. Provide opportunities for problem solving activities
3. Provide adequate resource material for mental stimulation
4. Provide materials for sorting exercise
5. Recognize individual difference and challenges
6. Facilities identification number symbol 1-50
8. Facilities exploration and manipulation of numbers.
Performance Objectives – Child: Should be able to:
1. Explore and experiment with living & non-living object in the environment.
2. Identify objects and their uses in the environment
3. Sorts and classify objects in the environment
Content:
1. Knowledge of the environment. (Living and non-living)
2. Problem-solving activities e.g. grouping, sorting, matching.
3. Using object and picture to solve simple addition
4. Time, date and seasons
Activities – Parent/Caregiver:
1. Plain and carryout activities that will encourage the child to explore and experiment.
2. Organize visits, excursions, nature talk and walk and gardening
. Interact with people and react to materials within the environment
3. Engage in play activities with the child
4. Provide opportunities for the child to express himself and engage in dramatic play.
5. Encourage the child to solve simple problem
6. Encourage games using different objects.
Activities – Child:
1. Explore. Observe. Handle and manipulate objects in the environment.
2. Draw objects and forms of representations of objects.
3. Make objects form clay/plastering, play games e.g. hide and seek
4. Imitate positive behavior in the environment
5. Engage in role play and dramatic play.
6. Use objects and pictures to solve simple addition
Caring/Learning Materials:
• Toys
• Paper
• Old news paper
• Calendars
• Cup
• Postal/charts
• Picture books
• Slate
• Clay
• Sand and water
• Crayons
• Pencils
• Chalk
• Plastering
• Paint
• Pair of scissors
• Chalkboard
• Flash light
• Moveable alphabets and figures
• Jig-saw puzzles
• Lego
• Building blocks
• Matching cards and other objects
• Musical instrument
Evaluation Guide:
Child
1. Explore, experiment and interact within the environment
2. Identify and classify living and non-living things
3. Carry out simple calculations.
Parent/caregiver/teacher
1. Lively, resourceful related well with children.
2. Patient, kind but firm.
3. Learning environment structured.
National Early Childhood Education Curriculum for Cognitive Development Ages 3 – 5 years.
Week 2
Topic: Language Development
Performance Objectives – Parent/Caregiver: Should be able to:
1. Interact with child read to teach alphabet and numbers
2. Play with child teach child to play creatively.
3. Lead child to follow instructions.
4. Teach greetings and acceptable behaviors to the child
5. Teach them reading behaviors.
6. Tell stories and news
Performance Objectives – Child: Should be able to:
1. Communicate fluently in the language(s) of the environment
2. Recognize, read and write letter of the alphabet and numbers (in the language of the immediate environment and English)
3. Say greetings and obey instructions.
4. Listen to and tell stories
Content:
1. Improvement of verbal and non-verbal communication skills
a. Listening
b. Speaking
c. Reading
d. Writing
2. Greeting
3. Simple instruction value.
Activities – Parent/Caregiver:
1. Initiate and participate in play activities with the children
2. Initiate conversation
3. Display and talk about children’s work and creativity
4. Use letters of alphabet and number figures to teach reading and writing
5. Provide simple instructions and initiate new items
6. Organize visits, excursions, nature talk and walk
7. Speech defects detached and referred.
Activities – Child:
1. Talk about self, family, people and events in the community.
2. Play group games and musical instruments.
3. Tell and listen to stories.
4. Sing songs and recite rhymes
5. Use writing materials e.g. pencil, crayon, chalk
6. Read short story books
7. Participate in conversation
Great people and obey instructions.
Caring/Learning Materials:
Pencils
Musical instruments Poetry books
Games (words cards) Song/rhyme books Story books
Picture books Charts Posters
- Movable Alphabet and numbers books/puzzles
- Writing books
- Paper
- Radio
- Tape recorder
- Television
- Chair
- Crayons
- Slate etc.
Evaluation Guide:
Child
1. Knowledge about the environment
2. Communicate meaningfully
3. Recognize letters of the alphabet and numbers (1-50)
4. Discuss and ask questions
5. Read and write two and three letter words
6. Tell stories
Parent/Caregiver/Teacher
1. Prepare child for primary school
2. Praise child’s effort
3. Increase ability to form and make sentences by the child
4. Provide stimulating environment for language development.
Cognitive Development Curriculum (3 – 5 Years)
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