Technical standards outline the skills and expectations required for students to successfully enter, progress through, and complete the program. They ensure clarity and consistency for students, faculty, staff, administration, and disability services. These standards apply equally to all students.
If you require accommodations to fully participate in the program, please contact the Office of Disability Services to confidentially discuss your needs. Technical standards can be met with or without accommodations, and the examples provided are not all encompassing.
Technical Standard, Definition and Examples
Observation, analysis, interpretation, reflection, evaluation, inference, explanation, problem-solving, and decision-making.
Examples:
- Demonstrate a sound knowledge base from which to support children as they develop more deeply into content.
- Encourage children to question and challenge existing beliefs, structures, and practices.
- Observe individual children as well as a group of children for monitoring safety, social interaction, non-verbal cues or signs of physical abuse or neglect.
- Adapt to changing duties and needs of work environment to include retaining new information as related to the program, the profession, and the needs of each child.
- Exercise independent judgment to effectively solve problems and make decisions.
- Effectively communicate concerns, incidents, and questions with parents using confidentiality and respect.
Ability to move safely, efficiently, and effectively from one to place to another.
Examples:
- Have mobility, strength, and dexterity to be able to lift a child weighing up to 50 pounds.
- Ability to stand or sit in front of groups of children and present class materials.
- Ability to interact at each child's level and retrieve children who wander and/or run from the group.
- Ability to navigate and maneuver quickly as needed but especially in emergency situations.
- Ability to perform duties safely and properly (i.e. change a diaper or clean - sweeping, mopping, cleaning tables and toilets, etc.).
- Be able to interact with children in outdoor environments .
Ability to be exposed to and utilize a variety of materials such as their texture, weight, or temperature, and the composition of objects, their shapes, the materials from which they're made, etc. This requires immediate proximity to the material.
Examples:
- Demonstrate required sensory skills in order to set up and participate in activities that require a wide variety of sensory materials.
- Possess tactile skills and ability to tolerate necessary duties.
Able to take in information and follow directions.
Examples:
- Understand and respond to oral communications and directions and able to receive direction, suggestions, and feedback from co-workers, supervisors, and families.
- Have adequate hearing in order to supervise children from across the classroom.
Able to distinguish, segregate, and isolate visual information.
Examples:
- Demonstrate adequate vision in order to supervise children from across the classroom.
Maintain good verbal, nonverbal, and written communication skills including listening, speaking, observing, and empathizing.
Examples:
- Communicate appropriately and have adequate verbal and written communication skills with adults (colleagues, parents, families) and children of differing ages, as well as good communication skills of listening, speaking, observing, and empathizing.
- Understand and respond to oral communications and directions.
- Impart information and orally communicate appropriately with children, families, and others.
- Be able to read, write, understand, and respond to written instructions, communications, and materials.
Able to communicate and build relationships with others.
Examples:
- Active listening, teamwork, responsibility, dependability, leadership, motivation, flexibility, patience, and empathy.
- Work with parents and children during arrival and departure to provide smooth transitions.
- initiative in speaking with parents to make them and the child feel welcome.
- Stay in control and adequately supervise a group of at least 15 children who are performing different activities.
- Ability to meet the needs of small and/or large groups of children while also being aware of the other children in the room; and helping those with special needs or problems at any given time.
- Be willing to receive direction, suggestions, and feedback from co-workers, supervisors, and families.
Able to maintain interpersonal, self-regulatory, and task-related behaviors that connect to successful performance in education and workplace settings.
Examples:
- Goal setting and planning, self-improvement, empathy, conflict resolution, and time management.
- Be dependable: not be late or absent from work in excess or without notification.
- Refrain from the use and abuse of any substance that would impair the ability to attend work consistently and work with children in a reliable manner.
- Have the ability to attend work consistently and work with children in a reliable manner to ensure the safety, observation, and assessment of all situations involving a child, groups of children, and co-workers.
We are committed to ensuring all students have the support they need to succeed in this program. If you have a documented disability, reasonable accommodations will be provided unless they fundamentally alter essential training requirements, create undue hardship, or pose a safety risk to you or others.
Disability Services Statement
If you have a documented disability and need accommodations, please contact the Disability Services Office (Ward Hall Building; 252-638-1454) as soon as possible—ideally before classes or field experiences begin. You are also encouraged to inform your instructor as needed so we can best support your learning.