14.3: Introducing the Foundations
The preschool learning foundations for safety, health, and nutrition are organized into three broad categories, or strands:
- Health Habits
- Safety
- Nutrition
These describe the health knowledge, skills, and behaviors that preschool children typically develop in a quality preschool environment. Through supportive communication and participation in everyday routines and activities, children begin to develop behaviors such as making food choices, engaging in physical activity, and maintaining personal safety and oral health. These skills and behaviors set young children on the path toward health and healthy lifestyle choices. The specific foundations are included later in the chapter as each strand is explored.
They represent a vision of young children’s developmental process, not an expectation. Each child enters preschool with a genetic background, developmental characteristics, an individual level of knowledge and skills, and understanding of everyday routines. The differences are based not only on the child’s age, but also on the child’s developmental level, prior experiences, and special needs. It is the responsibility of adults to help each child to develop the knowledge, skills, and behavior that promote healthy development.[1]
Supporting Health Habits
Teachers can help children establish positive health habits. This learning is progressive, and preschool teaching often focuses on scripts and routines for prevention of disease and injury. Later, as children grow and develop knowledge and skills, they begin to believe and understand that they are responsible for their own health.
Health Habits includes basic hygiene, oral health, knowledge of wellness, and sun safety.
1.0 Basic Hygiene
| At around 48 months of age | At around 60 months of age |
| 1.1 Demonstrate knowledge of some steps in the handwashing routine. | 1.1 Demonstrate knowledge of more steps in the handwashing routine. |
| 1.2 Practice health habits that prevent infectious diseases and infestations (such as lice) when appropriate, with adult support, instruction, and modeling. | 1.2 Begin to independently practice health habits that prevent infectious disease and infestations (such as lice) when appropriate, with less adult support, instruction, and modeling. |
2.0 Oral Health
| At around 48 months of age | At around 60 months of age |
| 2.1 Demonstrate knowledge of some steps of the routine for brushing teeth, with adult supervision and instruction. | 2.1 Demonstrate knowledge of more steps of the routine for brushing and when toothbrushing should be done, with less adult supervision. |
3.0 Knowledge of Wellness
| At around 48 months of age | At around 60 months of age |
| 3.1 Identify a few internal body parts (most commonly the bones, brain, and heart) but may not understand their basic function. | 3.1 Identify several different internal body parts and demonstrate a basic, limited knowledge of some functions. |
| 3.2 Begin to understand that