Purposes

The Colorado Early Learning and Developmental Guidelines are intended to

  • improve families’ and professionals’ knowledge of child development;
  • guide families and professionals working with children in planning and implementing developmental and learning activities;
  • inform or guide developmental support, instruction, assessment, and intervention;
  • provide unifying guidelines that are embraced by and embedded in programs and services (e.g., early care and education, home visitation, medical homes, early intervention) across the comprehensive early childhood service delivery system.

These purposes are consistent with reports from several national groups studying the development of state level early learning standards (NAEYC & NAECS/SDE, 2002; Shore, Bodrova, & Leong, 2004).