For purposes of this chapter:
(1) “Child-directed” means interaction in which the child is helped to direct and lead play in any way the child wishes unless there is harmful or destructive activity.
(2) “Domain” means a specified sphere of activity or knowledge.
(3) “Early childhood education” includes prekindergarten, kindergarten, and first through second grade in all public schools.
(4) “Early childhood educators” includes administrators, teachers, and other educators of children in prekindergarten, kindergarten, and first through second grade in all public schools.
(5) “Guided play” means a playful learning context in which an experience is initiated and supported by the teacher, is directed by children, and involves a purposeful learning goal.
(6) “Play” or “play-based learning” means a universal, innate, and essential human activity that children engage in for pleasure, enjoyment, and recreation. Play, solitary or social, begins during infancy and develops in increasing complexity through childhood. Play integrates and supports children’s development and learning across cognitive, physical, social, and emotional domains, and across curriculum content. Play can lead to inquiry and discovery and facilitate future learning.
(7) “Professional development” means any of a wide variety of specialized training, formal education, or advanced professional learning intended to help administrators, teachers, and other educators improve their professional knowledge, competence, skill, and effectiveness.
(8) “Reading for pleasure” means reading that is freely chosen or that readers freely and enthusiastically continue after it is assigned.
