Talofa! Welcome to American Samoa.
It is with great pride and joy to have you visit our school system here in our island territory..
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CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT
[O LE TUPUTUPU A'E O TAMAITI]
| Contacts |
Frances Mageo, Program Area Manager |
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Petala Fanene, Assistant Program Manager |
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Maria Ale, Family Advocate |
PHILOSOPHY
[TALITONUGA FAAVAE]
Child Development and Early Childhood Research Based:
What are the best practices for educating young children in American Samoa?
a)
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Domains of children’s development-physical, social, emotional, and cognitive are closely related. Development in one domain influences and is influenced by development in other domains. |
b)
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Development proceeds at varying rates from child to child as well as unevenly within different areas of each child’s functioning. Each child is a unique individual. |
c)
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Early experiences have both cumulative and delayed effects on individual children’s development. Optimal period exist for certain types of development and learning. For example, the first threes years of life appear to be an optimal period for verbal language development (i.e. physical, large motor skills). |
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Development and learning occur in, and are influenced by multiple social and cultural contexts. Children are active learners, drawing on direct physical and social experience as well as culturally transmitted knowledge to construct their own understanding of the world around them. |
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Development and learning result from interaction of biological maturation and the environment, which includes both the physical and social worlds that children live in. Human beings are products of both heredity and environment and these forces are interrelated. |
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Play is the young child’s method of thinking through things and solving problems. |
g)
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Development advances when children have opportunities to practice newly acquired skills as well as when they experience a challenge just beyond the level of their present mastery. |
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