Health Education Standards - Age 4 (2023) Core

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Health Education Standards - Age 4 (2023)

Course Preface

Course Introduction

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INTRODUCTION

The success of Utahs young children is strongly linked to their health. The goal of Health Education is to support early childhood educators and families in developing healthy, responsible children with knowledge and skills that lead to lifelong healthy behaviors. The inclusion of health practices in a childs education positively contributes to their ability to learn, focus, and achieve health and wellness throughout their lives. The Utah Early Learning Standards for Health Education are an introduction to physical, mental, emotional, and social health.

The Health Standards consist of four strands:

Human Development focuses on independence in personal care and hygiene. Children with experience establishing habits and routines for caring for and protecting their bodies in a developmentally appropriate way tend to have healthier growth and development (Britto et al., 2017).

Health Foundations and Protective Factors of Healthy Self focuses on learning characteristics of safe and healthy relationships with peers and trusted adults (for example, parent, guardian, relative, teacher, counselor, clergy). Children with experience in building strong protective factors through positive reciprocal relationships are less likely to develop mental illness or substance use disorders (Shonkoff et al., 2012).

Mental and Emotional Health focuses on awareness and care for the mental and emotional health of self and others. Children with experience using strategies to identify and manage their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors have shown to be more skilled in self-regulation and self-control (Montroy et al., 2016; Schore, 2015).

Nutrition focuses on understanding the importance of nutritional food on health throughout life, including food choices, such as identifying healthy or less healthy foods, and how to properly fuel the body. Proper nutrition is linked to learning readiness, academic achievement, emotional health, supporting the immune system, and reducing the occurrence of many diseases (Britto et al., 2017).

ADULTS SUPPORT LEARNING IN HEALTH EDUCATION WHEN THEY:

Encourage the child to participate in bedtime routines, including brushing their teeth, etc.
Provide examples of what a good friend is and is not.
Provide suggestions for appropriate turn taking.
Talk about foods in the environment and discuss healthy foods during snack time.
Help children acknowledge their feelings and teach them appropriate ways to handle those feelings.

Core Standards of the Course

Strand 1: HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
Students will learn independence in basic hygiene skills and understand different types of touch.

Standard HE 4 yr.1.1
Show independence in personal hygiene and care.

Standard HE 4 yr.1.2
With prompting and support, distinguish between appropriate and inappropriate touch.

Strand 2: HEALTH FOUNDATIONS AND PROTECTIVE FACTORS OF A HEALTHY SELF
Students will learn the characteristics of safe and healthy relationships.

Standard HE 4 yr.2.1
With prompting and support, identify trusted adults (for example, parent, guardian, relative, teacher, counselor, clergy) and describe how to recognize the characteristics that make them trusted and safe.

Standard HE 4 yr.2.2
Identify and practice how to make friends and be a good friend by developing and using friendship skills with peers and participating in cooperative play.

Standard HE 4 yr.2.3
With prompting and support, join in, invite, and interact cooperatively with others by sharing, turn-taking, resolving conflicts, and recognizing others' needs.

Standard HE 4 yr.2.4
With prompting and support, attend to and show appreciation for the actions or choices of others (for example, compliment others).

Strand 3: MENTAL AND EMOTIONAL HEALTH
Students will identify emotions and react appropriately to different emotions.

Standard HE 4 yr.3.1
Express, identify, and label emotions of self and others (for example, happy, sad, angry, afraid, frustrated, bored) and feelings (for example, thirsty, hungry, hot, cold, tired).

Standard HE 4 yr.3.2
With prompting and support, begin to demonstrate methods to calm down (for example, deep breathing, count to ten, mindfulness).

Standard HE 4 yr.3.3
With prompting and support, develop and practice self-control by regulating one's own impulses and feelings, following simple directions, waiting for turns, transitioning between activities, and complying with limitations.

Strand 4: NUTRITION
Students will understand why food choices are important for health.

Standard HE 4 yr.4.1
Identify a variety of healthy foods.

Standard HE 4 yr.4.2
Identify why eating healthy food is important and begin to categorize into food groups.

Standard HE 4 yr.4.3
With prompting and support, try new foods from a variety of food groups.

http://www.uen.org - in partnership with Utah State Board of Education (USBE) and Utah System of Higher Education (USHE). Send questions or comments to USBE Specialist - Cristina Barrera and see the Early Learning website. For general questions about Utah's Core Standards contact the Director - Meghan Everette.

These materials have been produced by and for the teachers of the State of Utah. Copies of these materials may be freely reproduced for teacher and classroom use. When distributing these materials, credit should be given to Utah State Board of Education. These materials may not be published, in whole or part, or in any other format, without the written permission of the Utah State Board of Education, 250 East 500 South, PO Box 144200, Salt Lake City, Utah 84114-4200.

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