ECE 176: Health, Safety and Nutrition: Birth to Eight

Course Description

Children must be in a state of wellness in order to learn and reach their full potential. This course provides a comprehensive overview of current philosophies and developmentally appropriate practices related to health, safety and nutrition for young children ages birth through eight years old. Students investigate a variety of effective strategies and available resources to promote healthy lifestyles, safety, and nutritional guidelines within the context of an early childhood educational setting. Permeating themes are inclusion, diversity and the importance of being culturally, linguistically and individually sensitive of our children and families. Students explore topics including child development; physical and mental health; childhood diseases and illnesses; safe environments and activities; child abuse with an emphasis on the teachers’ role as mandated reporters; nutritionally sound menus; as well as the importance of food safety.  (3 credits)

Prerequisites

• ECE 101: Introduction to Early Childhood Education
• ECE 217: The Exceptional Learner
• ECE 222: Curriculum for Young Children - Methods and Techniques or ECE 261: Infant / Toddler Care: Methods and Techniques
• ECE 247: Child Development: Birth to Eight

Program Learning Outcomes (PLOs)

At the Associate of Science level, students will:  

1. Promote Child Development and Learning- understand how young children develop and learn and how to use developmental knowledge to create healthy, respectful, supportive and challenging learning environments inclusive of all young children (NAEYC, Standard 1).
2. Establish Family and Community Relationships- understand and support diverse family and community characteristics and engage with families and communities through respectful, reciprocal relationships (NAEYC, Standard 2).Observe, document and Assess- utilize a variety of assessment tools to observe and document development and to plan for future instruction respective of each child’s developmental needs (NAEYC, Standard 3).
3. Observe, document and Assess- utilize a variety of assessment tools to observe and document development and to plan for future instruction respective of each child’s developmental needs (NAEYC, Standard 3).
4. Utilize Developmentally Effective Approaches- develop positive relationships and supportive interactions with young children and using effective strategies and tools for teaching and learning in early education, (NAEYC, Standard 4). NAEYC, Standard 3).
5. Use Content Knowledge to build Meaningful Curriculum- develop experiences within environments that are safe, healthy, inclusionary and culturally pluralistic and reflect understanding of developmentally appropriate practices, (NAEYC, Standard 5).
6. Develop as a Professional- engage in continuous reflective and collaborative learning and identify oneself as an emerging professional within the early childhood field (NAEYC, Standard 6).
7. Engage in Field Experiences to support learning with various age groups and across multiple early childhood settings (NAEYC, Standard 7).

At the Bachelor of Science level, in addition to the above, students will:

1. Promote Child Development and Learning- have a deeper understanding of child development and be able to use both developmental knowledge as well as early childhood research to create healthy, respectful, supportive and challenging learning environments for inclusive of all young children (NAEYC, Standard 1).
2. Observe, document and Assess- support young children’s development and learning and effectively be able to administer and interpret assessments for young children with special needs, provide interventions and make referrals when appropriate (NAEYC, Standard 3).
3. Utilize Developmentally Effective Approaches- develop experiences within environments that are safe, healthy, inclusionary and culturally pluralistic and reflect understanding of developmentally appropriate practices for each child, (NAEYC, Standard 5).
4. Use Content Knowledge to build Meaningful Curriculum- demonstrate advanced content knowledge related to the academic disciplines, central concepts and inquiry in teaching, and appropriate early learning standards and other resources to design, implement and evaluate developmentally appropriate meaningful and challenging curriculum for each child (NAEYC, Standard 5).
5. Develop as a Professional- engage in continuous reflective and collaborative learning and identify oneself as a professional within the early childhood field by mentoring others (NAEYC, Standard 6).

Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs)

Students who successfully complete this course will be able to:

1. Describe the interrelatedness among child development, health, safety and nutrition (NAEYC Standard 1).
2. Design safe and effective, high quality indoor and outdoor environments that are conducive to learning (NAEYC Standards 4, 5).
3. Explain how to plan, prepare and serve age-appropriate, nutritionally-balanced meals and snacks (NAEYC Standard 4).
4. Demonstrate how to plan, implement and evaluate developmentally appropriate health, safety and nutrition activities for young children (NAEYC Standards 4, 5).
5. Identify symptoms of communicable and acute illnesses as well as discuss effective treatments of major childhood diseases, illnesses and injuries (NAEYC Standard 1, 5).
6. Recognize abuse and neglect of children and detail the process of securing help for the child(ren) involved (NAEYC Standard 1).
7. Describe effective practices for assessing children’s health (NAEYC Standard 1).
8. Categorize food nutrients and their benefits to our bodies (NAEYC Standard 1).

General Education Outcomes (GEOs)

Please check the applicable GEOs for this course, if any, by outcomes at GEO Category Search, or by subject area at GEO Discipline Search.

Course Activities and Grading

Required Textbooks

Available through Charter Oak State College's online bookstore

• Marotz, Lynn R. Health, Safety, and Nutrition for the Young Child. 10th ed. Cengage Learning, 2020. ISBN-13: 978-0-357-04077-5

Additional Resources

• Journal articles, online materials, etc. maybe required on a weekly basis. They will be posted in Blackboard.

Course Schedule

COSC Accessibility Statement

Charter Oak State College encourages students with disabilities, including non-visible disabilities such as chronic diseases, learning disabilities, head injury, attention deficit/hyperactive disorder, or psychiatric disabilities, to discuss appropriate accommodations with the Office of Accessibility Services at OAS@charteroak.edu.

COSC Policies, Course Policies, Academic Support Services and Resources

Students are responsible for knowing all Charter Oak State College (COSC) institutional policies, course-specific policies, procedures, and available academic support services and resources. Please see COSC Policies for COSC institutional policies, and see also specific policies related to this course. See COSC Resources for information regarding available academic support services and resources.