Guiding Your Child’s Early Learning: A Parent’s Guide to the Vermont Early Learning Standards

This guide was developed for families in Vermont who want to strengthen their understanding of how everyday activities promote early learning in young children while preparing them to begin school as confident and eager learners. The Vermont Early Learning Standards (VELS) were developed to help parents, teachers, and others share reasonable expectations for what preschoolers are capable of knowing and doing. Used by Head Start, public schools, child care programs, and others, VELS focuses on eight areas of development and learning: (1) Approaches to Learning; (2) Social and Emotional Development; (3) Language, Literacy, and Communication; (4) Mathematics; (5) Science; (6) Social Studies; (7) Creative Expression; and (8) Physical Development and Health. VELS provides a menu of skills, knowledge, and behaviors that many five-year-old children are capable of knowing or doing. Through play, children develop important skills, knowledge, and behaviors that support their learning.