Zero to Three: The Critical Competencies
COK: 45 hours of Child Development
Training Description:
This training covers infant-toddler teaching strategies, highlighting effective methods for diverse, multilingual, and high-needs groups. It offers practical guidance for educators in center-based and family child care settings. Aligned with NAEYC, CDA, ITERS, CLASS, and the Head Start Framework, it promotes best practices in early childhood education.
Objectives:
- Focus on infant-toddler pedagogy — the method and practice of teaching
- Explore the unique needs of multilingual, multicultural families and children from populations facing risk factors
- Describe the recommended teaching methods and practices with easily understood guidance and examples
- Feature considerations for working with high-needs populations and multi-language learners
- Support educators who work in group settings (center-based and family child care homes) with infants, toddlers, or both
- Build on professional criteria for the early childhood field (e.g., NAEYC, CDA, and more), are cross-walked with state core knowledge and competency areas, and align with observation tools (e.g., ITERS and CLASS), and the Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework
Competency Model
The Critical Competencies address three essential learning and development areas, depicted in the graphic below.

