National Early Learning and Development Standards for children birth to four years
The National Early Learning Development Standards (NELDS) is a curriculum-related policy initiative focusing primarily on the early learning needs of children from birth to four years.
Highlights
NELDS is meant to ensure that the stated developmental expectations in children (i.e. desired results) are achieved. In order for this to happen, NELDS
can be used and implemented in a variety of ways. The major use should be in the development of resources and materials for the following:
- Monitoring national progress in the birth to four years learning programmes
- Improving early learning and teaching experiences
- Designing and improving parenting skills and programmes
- Assisting with caregiver preparations
- Improving public knowledge of children’s development
- Developing school readiness tools
- Supporting and improving curriculum development
- Evaluating early learning programmes
It should be noted that there could be other uses for NELDS and we encourage users of this resource to be innovative and creative in this regard. Uses should also be integrated in order to gain maximum positive benefit of NELDS.