Early Learning for Every Child Today (ELECT): A Framework for Ontario Early Childhood Settings

Location: Ontario, CA

Authors: Ontario Ministry of Education

Early Learning for Every Child Today: A Framework for Ontario Early Childhood Settings describes how young children learn and develop, and provides a guide for curriculum in Ontario’s early childhood settings, including child care centres, regulated home child care, nursery schools, kindergarten, Ontario Early Years Centres, family resource programs, parenting centres, child development programs, and early intervention services.

The framework is founded on the shared beliefs of the expert panel that developed the framework. Namely, that every experience in a child’s early life has an impact on his/her development now and in the future; parents and families are the first and most powerful influence on children’s early learning and development; young children and their families live in communities that shape early experiences; and early learning programs need reciprocal partnerships with parents, families and communities.

Early Learning for Every Child Today is based on an extensive review of early childhood curriculum and pedagogy in Canada and internationally, research findings and the collective professional expertise of panel members made up of professionals from the early childhood education and formal education sectors in Ontario. The framework brings together established research findings and diverse perspectives, beliefs and recommended practices and recognizes that families, communities and cultures hold distinct values about how young children should experience and interact with the world around them.

For more information, visit the Early Learning for Every Child Today (ELECT): A Framework for Ontario Early Childhood Settings website.