Physical domains: Developmental Domains in Early Childhood

Опубликовано: July 7, 2023 в 4:19 am

Автор: alexxlab

Категории: Miscellaneous

Developmental Domains in Early Childhood

The first five years of a child’s life are some of the most critical years for their development. It’s within these years that a child’s brain develops faster than at any other time in their life. Children reach several key milestones during these years, from the early stages of crawling, walking, and babbling to running, climbing, and speaking clearly. Each milestone refers to a specific “domain” or area of development.

There are several ways to break down the domains of development. However, this article will discuss the four main domains of child development and what teachers and parents can do to help their child progress in each area.

What are developmental domains?

Developmental domains are specific areas of a child’s developmental progress and growth. Each child develops at their own pace, and many factors, including age, genetics, and the environment can affect how and when a child develops.

There are four main domains of a child’s development: physical, cognitive, language, and social-emotional. Let’s dive deeper into each.

Physical domain

The physical domain covers physical growth and changes, like increases in height, weight, and muscular strength. It also includes milestones such as walking, crawling, or grasping finger food. Additionally, the physical domain consists of the development of motor skills, including gross and fine motor skills, and the development of the five senses. Here’s a deeper look at the difference between gross and fine motor skills.

Gross motor skills: Gross motor skills involve moving large muscles such as the arms, legs, torso, and back. Gross motor involves whole-body movements and allows us to do physical activities such as walking, running, jumping, balancing, and lifting.
Fine motor skills: Fine motor skills involve small body muscles, such as hands, wrists, and fingers. The development of these skills refers to coordinating these muscles with eyes to achieve daily activities such as grasping food, turning door knobs, opening zippers, and brushing teeth.

How teachers and families can support a child’s progress in the physical domain

A child’s physical development depends on their physical health and activities. Children must receive the proper food and care to grow in height and gain weight and strength to achieve their milestones. But nutrition is only one of the things needed to help a child’s progress. Children also need to be active and engage with their environment. Here are some activities children can engage in to help their progress in the physical domain:

Outdoor play
Tummy time
Eating finger foods
Fastening their shoes
Playing at the park
Pushing toys

Cognitive domain

Watching a child play hide and seek or look for a toy you put behind your back are milestones that relate to their cognitive development. Cognitive development involves how children think, explore and figure things out as well as their problem-solving skills and acquisition of knowledge. The cognitive domain, also referred to as the intellectual domain, refers to the intellectual growth of a child, their brain development, and their capacity to learn and understand the world around them. When children develop cognitively, they are able to:

Process thoughts
Pay attention
Develop memories
Understand their surroundings
Express creativity
Create and develop plans

Psychologist Jean Piaget outlined the four stages of cognitive development:

Sensorimotor stage (birth to age 2)

This is the first stage of child development. In this stage, infants and toddlers learn by interacting with their environment and depend on their senses to learn about the world. For example, they may throw things or put them in their mouth to understand how objects and the environment react to their actions. As their physical mobility increases, so does cognitive development. By the end of this stage, they learn object permanence, the idea that things continue to exist even when they cannot be seen. Here are some examples of characteristics in the sensorimotor stage:

Sucking and grasping
Shaking a rattle
Moving an object that is in the way of an object they want
Recognizing objects and people

Preoperational stage (ages 2 to 7)

During this stage, children learn how to think about things more symbolically. Symbolic thought is the phenomenon where children imagine fake events, objects, places, and people as if they were real. They may use them to represent something similar, such as playdough representing food or cookies or creating an imaginary pet or a make-believe superhero. During this stage, language skills also become more substantial, and they can communicate more clearly. Their memory and imagination also develop, allowing them to engage in make-believe.

Although they can understand a little more about their world, they still cannot fully understand logic and reasoning. Some examples of characteristics of the preoperational stage include:

Engaging in pretend play
Thinking symbolically or mentally representing objects that aren’t present
Understanding conservation, the concept that a quantity stays the same even if you change the size, shape, or container it’s in
Playing alongside other children

Concrete operational stage (ages 7 to 11)

Children begin to think more logically and abstractly during this stage and show concrete reasoning. They understand that they have thoughts and feelings and that others may not feel like they do. However, they still struggle to think about abstract ideas or hypothetical situations. The concrete operational stage is also the beginning of the child’s ability to see the world from another person’s perspective. Some additional developmental changes that take place in the concrete operational stage include:

Understanding that other people have their own thoughts
Classifying objects and using categorical information to solve problems
Concentrating on many aspects of a situation at a time
Following instructions with multiple steps
Mentally arranging a group of items into a sequence

Formal operational stage (age 12 and up)

The final stage of cognitive development is where a child develops increased logical thinking and the ability to understand abstract ideas. Children in this stage systematically think about things and consider all possibilities. Some examples include:

Developing solutions to problems using logic
Considering possible outcomes
Thinking about hypotheticals and forming various solutions to solve them

How teachers and families can help a child’s progress in the cognitive domain

Children in early education programs are in the sensorimotor and preoperational stages of cognitive development. Educators and families can support infants and young toddlers in the sensorimotor stage by incorporating cognitive activities that engage children’s senses and help them develop object permanence. You can guide children through the preoperational stage by including activities that encourage parallel play and engage the imagination.

Social-emotional domain

The social-emotional domain focuses on how children begin to interact and form relationships with others and how they experience, express, and manage their own emotions, as well as the emotions of others. Children start to gain an understanding of who they are, what they’re feeling, and how they interact with other people. Some examples of social-emotional development include:

Taking turns
Sharing
Apologizing
Developing friendships
Having empathy toward others

How teachers and families can support a child’s progress in the social-emotional domain

Healthy development of a child’s social-emotional milestones begins at home with their parents and caregivers and continues in the classroom where children gain more experience in a social setting. Here are some ways to promote positive social-emotional development:

Practice sharing and taking turns
Implement partner and group activities
Have discussions about managing emotions
Model kindness, positive self-talk, and empathy
Read books focused on social-emotional topics

Language domain

The language or communication domain includes a child’s ability to both understand what is being communicated to them and to express themselves verbally. Language development starts in infancy with sounds and gestures and eventually develops into words and complete sentences as children get older. Developing language skills is the first step in literacy as it forms the foundations for early reading and writing.

How teachers and families can support a child’s progress in the language domain

Language development strengthens the development of other early childhood domains. For example, language development helps children’s social-emotional development as they begin to express and regulate their emotions, and develop and maintain relationships with those around them.

One of the most important things you can do with a child in their early years is read, sing, and talk to them. These activities will have a huge impact on a child’s early language and literacy skills. Other activities include:

Singing songs and saying simple rhymes
Teaching new vocabulary words
Talking in complete sentences
Taking the time to listen and answer their questions
Asking open-ended questions
Pointing out objects and describing them

Domain progression

It’s natural for children to progress in different domains at various times and stages. Children may experience significant progress in one domain while developing more slowly in another. For example, a child focusing on learning to walk, which is in the physical domain, may not experience as much progress in the language domain. This is completely normal as children will all reach developmental milestones at their own unique pace.

Why are developmental domains important and how can teachers use them to assess development?

It’s important to understand each developmental domain because it can be instrumental in identifying any potential developmental delays or areas where a child may need extra support. By learning this information, you can provide the child with the resources to encourage growth in each of the developmental areas.

Childcare providers and teachers should regularly observe and monitor children’s overall growth and progress in each of the developmental domains. Resources like the Ages and Stages Questionnaire® (ASQ) or a milestone checklist can be used by teachers to track children’s behaviors and detect any delays or concerns early.

Conclusion

It’s important for educators and families to understand child development in the domains of physical, cognitive, social-emotional, and language. Although each child develops at their own pace, you can still provide developmentally appropriate activities and monitor their progress to support children at various stages of their growth.

Brightwheel is the complete solution for early education providers, enabling you to streamline your center’s operations and build a stand-out reputation. Brightwheel connects the most critical aspects of running your center—including sign in and out, parent communications, tuition billing, and licensing and compliance—in one easy-to-use tool, along with providing best-in-class customer support and coaching. Brightwheel is trusted by thousands of early education centers and millions of parents. Learn more at mybrightwheel.com.

Developmental Domain Series: Physical Development

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Our Blog: December 4^th, 2018

This month, let’s take a closer look at the Physical Development Domain, focusing on fine and gross motor skill development.

Physical development occurs most rapidly during the first two years of a child’s life. This period of a child’s life also sees the greatest brain development. In fact, during the first two years, the weight of the brain more than triples! During this time, children develop motor reflexes and will continue to develop fine and gross motor skills throughout childhood. Because of this, it is important to provide all children with activities that will promote development of these skills.

Here are some great ways for you to promote Physical Development at home:

Infants:

Engage your baby in tummy time. This helps to build neck and upper body strength.
Give your infant a toy to grasp. Gently pull on the toy to promote grip strength.
Roll a ball to your baby. This promotes eye-hand coordination.

Toddlers/Twos:

Provide your child with building and stacking materials such as blocks or cups. This promotes fine motor skills and eye-hand coordination.
Give your child opportunities to practice riding, pedaling, and steering a tricycle or walking and balancing with a pedal-less balance bike.
Model how to safely walk up and down stairs, using the handrail.

Preschool/Pre-K:

Set up an obstacle course for your child to run around. Watch for how well they are able to move around the objects, stop running, and then start again.
Draw and write with your child. Watch for correct grip, and show them the proper way if they are holding the pencil or crayon incorrectly. Shorter writing instruments are better for promoting the correct grip.
Using tape, make a series of connected lines on the floor. Walk on this course like a balance beam with your child to promote balance development.

School Age:

Play a game of catch with your child to help them practice catching a ball and throwing a ball accurately.
Play games such as ”Red Light, Green Light” where your child hops on one foot.
Be creative and work with your child to collect challenging objects that can be stacked, such as pebbles, coins, or pinecones. Build a structure with your child and encourage them to see how tall they can build it.

Here’s more great resources about how to support Physical Development at home:

https://www.naeyc.org/our-work/families/help-your-child-build-fine-motor-skills
https://www.naeyc.org/our-work/families/books-encourage-exercise
https://www.naeyc.org/resources/pubs/tyc/oct2012/growing-sync-children

Next month we’ll focus on the health and safety portion of the Physical Development Domain.

Miss the most recent article in our series? Read it here.

About the Author

Dr. Susan Canizares

Dr. Susan Canizares is the Chief Academic Officer at Learning Care Group, responsible for leading all aspects of the educational mission. Dr. Canizares earned her Ph.D. in language and literacy development from Fordham University and a master’s degree in special education, specializing in Early Childhood, from New York University. She has authored more than 100 nonfiction photographic titles for beginning readers. Some of her published credits include Side by Side Series: Little Raccoon Catches a Cold and A Writer’s Garden.

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Protecting domain controllers from attacks

Article
03/11/2023

Applies to: Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2012

Law number three: If the bad guy has unlimited physical access to your computer, it’s not your computer anymore. – Ten Immutable Laws of Security (version 2.0).

Domain controllers provide physical storage for the Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) database in addition to providing services and data that enable enterprises to efficiently manage their servers, workstations, users, and applications. If a malicious user gains privileged access to a domain controller, they can change, corrupt, or destroy the AD DS database and, otherwise, all systems and accounts managed by Active Directory.

Because domain controllers can read and write data to and from the AD DS database, a compromised domain controller means your Active Directory forest will never be trusted again unless you can recover from a well-known backup and close the gaps that allowed the compromise.

Depending on the attacker’s training, tools, and skills, irreparable damage can be done in minutes to hours, not days or weeks. What matters is not how long an attacker has privileged access to Active Directory, but how much he has planned at the time of obtaining privileged access. Compromising a domain controller can provide the most direct route to destroy member servers, workstations, and Active Directory. Because of this threat, domain controllers must be protected separately and more strictly than a shared infrastructure.

Physical security for domain controllers

This section provides information about the physical security of domain controllers. Domain controllers can be physical or virtual machines, data centers, branch offices, or remote locations.

Datacenter domain controllers

Physical domain controllers

In datacenters, physical domain controllers should be installed in dedicated, secure racks or cages that are separate from other servers. Where possible, domain controllers should be configured with Trusted Platform Module (TPM) chips, and all volumes on domain controller servers should be protected with BitLocker Drive Encryption. BitLocker improves performance as a percentage of one digit, but protects the directory from being compromised even if the drives are removed from the server. BitLocker can also help protect systems from attacks, such as rootkit attacks, because modifying boot files will boot the server into recovery mode so that the original binaries can be downloaded. If a domain controller is configured to use software RAID, SCSI daisy chain, SAN/NAS storage, or dynamic volumes, BitLocker cannot be implemented, so locally attached storage (with or without hardware RAID) should be used on domain controllers whenever possible.

Virtual domain controllers

When implementing virtual domain controllers, you should ensure that the domain controllers also run on separate physical hosts and not on other virtual machines in the environment. Even if you’re using a third-party virtualization platform, consider deploying virtualized domain controllers on Hyper-V on Windows Server, which provides a minimal attack surface and can be controlled by domain controllers hosted on it, rather than the rest of the virtualization hosts. When you implement System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) to manage your virtualization infrastructure, you can delegate administration of the physical hosts that host domain controller virtual machines and the domain controllers themselves to authoritative administrators. You should also consider partitioning the storage of virtual domain controllers to prevent storage administrators from accessing virtual machine files.

Note

If you plan to co-host virtualized domain controllers with other less sensitive virtual machines on the same physical virtualization servers (nodes), consider implementing a solution that provides role-based segregation of duties, such as shielded virtual machines in Hyper -V. This technology provides comprehensive protection against malicious or unknown fabric administrators (including virtualization, network, storage, and backup administrators). It uses a physical root of trust with remote attestation and secure provisioning of virtual machines and effectively provides a level of security that is on par with a dedicated physical server.

Branch locations

Physical domain controllers in branches

In locations where multiple servers reside but are not physically secured to the level of datacenter server protection, physical domain controllers must be configured with TPM chips and BitLocker Drive Encryption for all server volumes. If a domain controller cannot be stored in a locked room at branch locations, consider deploying Read-Only Domain Controllers (RODCs) at those locations.

Virtual domain controllers in branches

Whenever possible, virtual domain controllers should be run in branch offices on separate physical hosts, separate from other virtual machines in the site. Branch offices where virtual domain controllers cannot run on separate physical hosts that are not the rest of the virtual servers should implement TPM chips and BitLocker Drive Encryption on hosts that run virtual domain controllers at a minimum, and on all hosts if so. Maybe. Depending on the size of the branch office and the security of the physical nodes, you should consider deploying domain controllers in branch locations.

Remote locations with limited space and security

If your infrastructure includes locations where only one physical server can be installed, you must install a server that can run virtualization workloads and configure BitLocker Drive Encryption to protect all volumes on the server. One VM on the server should run as an RODC, and the other servers should run as separate VMs on the host. For information about planning for deployment of domain controllers, see Planning and Deploying an Read-Only Domain Controller. For more information about deploying and securing virtualized domain controllers, see Run domain controllers in Hyper-V. For more detailed guidance on securing Hyper-V, delegating control of virtual machines, and protecting virtual machines, see the Hyper-V Security Solution Accelerator article on the Microsoft website.

Domain controller operating systems

All domain controllers should be running the latest version of Windows Server supported by your organization. Organizations should prioritize decommissioning legacy operating systems across a population of domain controllers. Keeping your domain controllers up to date and eliminating obsolete domain controllers allows you to take advantage of new features and security. This feature may not be available in domains or forests with domain controllers running an older operating system.

Note

As with any security-aware and single-purpose configuration, we recommend that you deploy your operating system in Server Core installation mode. It provides several benefits such as minimizing attack vectors, improving performance, and reducing the chance of human error. It is recommended that you perform all operations and management remotely from , dedicated, highly secure endpoints such as Privileged Access Workstations (PAW) or secure administrative hosts.

Domain controllers secure configuration

The tools can be used to create an initial baseline security configuration for domain controllers that can later be applied by a GPO. These tools are described in the Administering security policy settings section of the Microsoft operating system documentation.

RDP Restrictions

Group Policy Objects that communicate with all domain controllers in the forest must be configured to allow RDP connections only from authorized users and systems such as jump servers. Control can be achieved through a combination of user rights settings and WFAS configuration implemented through GPOs so that policy is applied consistently. If the policy is bypassed, the next Group Policy update reverts the system to the appropriate configuration.

Manage patches and configuration for domain controllers

Although it may seem counterintuitive, you might want to patch domain controllers and other critical infrastructure components separately from the overall Windows infrastructure. If you use configuration management software on all computers in the infrastructure, then its vulnerability can be used to compromise or destroy all infrastructure components managed by this software. By separating patch and system management for domain controllers from the rest of the infrastructure, you can reduce the amount of software installed on domain controllers, as well as tighten control over their management.

Blocking Internet access for domain controllers

One of the checks performed as part of the Active Directory security assessment is the use and configuration of Internet Explorer on domain controllers. Domain controllers should not use a web browser. An analysis of thousands of domain controllers revealed numerous instances where privileged users used Internet Explorer to browse an organization’s intranet or Internet.

As described earlier in the Misconfiguration section of the Possibilities for Compromise article, browsing the Internet or an infected intranet from one of the most powerful computers in a Windows infrastructure using a highly privileged account poses an extreme security risk to an organization. Using the drive, by downloading or downloading malware, attackers can gain access to everything they need to completely compromise or destroy an Active Directory environment.

Although Windows Server and current versions of Internet Explorer offer many protections against malicious downloads, in most cases where domain controllers and privileged accounts were used to browse the Internet, the domain controllers were running Windows Server 2003, or the protection provided by more new operating systems and browsers has been intentionally disabled.

Running web browsers on domain controllers must be restricted by policy and technical controls. In addition, Internet sharing to and from domain controllers must also be tightly controlled.

Microsoft recommends that all organizations move to a cloud-based approach to identity and access management and move from Active Directory to Azure Active Directory (Azure AD). Azure AD is a complete cloud-based identity and access management solution for managing directories, providing access to on-premises and cloud applications, and protecting identities from security threats. Azure AD also offers a robust and granular set of security controls for protecting identities, such as multi-factor authentication, conditional access policies, identity protection, identity management, and privileged user management.

Most organizations will operate in a hybrid identity model during their transition to the cloud, where some elements of their on-premises Active Directory will be synchronized using Azure AD Connect. While this hybrid model exists in any organization, Microsoft recommends protecting these cloud-based on-premises identities with Microsoft Defender for Identities. Identity Defender Sensor configuration on domain controllers and AD FS servers provides a highly secure, one-way connection to a cloud service through a proxy server and to specific endpoints. A complete description of how to configure this proxy connection can be found in the Identity Defender white paper. This tightly controlled configuration ensures that the risk of connecting these servers to the cloud service is reduced, and organizations benefit from the increased protection that Defender provides for identities. Microsoft also recommends protecting these servers with cloud endpoint discovery such as Microsoft Defender for Servers.

For organizations that have regulatory or other policy-driven requirements to support an on-premises implementation of Active Directory, Microsoft recommends that you completely restrict Internet access to and from domain controllers.

Perimeter firewall restrictions

Perimeter firewalls must be configured to block outbound connections from domain controllers to the Internet. Although domain controllers may need to communicate across site boundaries, perimeter firewalls can be configured to allow cross-site communication by following the guidelines in Configuring a Firewall for Active Directory Domains and Trusts.

Prevent domain controllers from browsing the web

You can use a combination of AppLocker configuration, black hole proxy configuration, and WFAS configuration to prevent domain controllers from accessing the Internet and prevent the use of web browsers on domain controllers.

Monitoring service for domain names and any virtual or physical servers

Instructions for connecting a host or domain to the monitoring service in the control panel.

What is the Monitoring service?

Monitoring service allows you to control the availability of servers and sites from different parts of the world. Any physical or virtual servers leased from different providers and domain names can be connected to the system.

The essence of monitoring is very simple – get timely information about the problems of availability and performance of your equipment. In basic monitoring solutions, this is often done by sending a “ping” to the device and waiting for a response. If a response is received, then the system administrator can be sure that the server or site is available to users.

More advanced monitoring solutions allow you to view in detail the operational status of various services, such as a web server or mail service, we call this metrics.

Our blog has an interesting article on this topic Why do we need monitoring?

Host statuses and metrics

Our service accepts the following designations of host statuses and metrics.

	Host	Metric
	The host is available, the test condition is met, and all metrics meet	Metric answers
	Host unreachable, test condition not met, metrics may or may not respond	Metric not responding
	The host is available, the test condition is met, but some metrics are not responding.	–

Adding a host/domain

To connect a host/domain to the monitoring service, select Monitoring in the vertical menu in the control panel.

In the window that opens, use the button Add host to add a server or domain to be monitored.

Next, fill in the condition to check availability:

Enter machine ip address or domain name to be monitored. The host can be anyone, not necessarily rented in our service.
Select Test rule from the dropdown list, for example, PING.
Specify Response waiting time – time during which a response is expected. If no response is received during this time, then we consider that the host/domain is unavailable.
Specify Frequency of requests – the time after which the availability check must be performed again.
Select Verification points – geographic objects from which data centers requests will be sent. There can be either one or several points, by default all available ones are selected.

If necessary, you can enable email notifications about changes in host status by checking the corresponding box.

After filling in the condition, click the button Add .

The newly created monitoring host, its status and the timestamp of the last check will appear in the list. You can update the status using the circular arrow. You can also disable host monitoring using the toggle switch, for example, during scheduled work.

To change the verification condition, go to the host settings by left-clicking on the ip-address or domain name.

When making changes, be sure to save them.

Adding metrics

You can add tracking of various metrics, to do this, on the tab Metrics use the button Create metric .

In the window that opens, enter the name of the metric, select the desired protocol, and fill in additional fields if necessary. Field Expected response can be left blank, in which case any response received will be considered expected, and the required specific code can also be entered here. All metrics inherit the host’s checkpoints. If necessary, it is also possible to enable email notifications about metric status changes by checking the corresponding box. Click Create Metric .

The created metric, its status, type, and last check timestamp will be displayed in the list of metrics. To delete a metric, click on the cross on the right.

Important: deleting a metric will delete its entire history.

View history

To view the history of host metrics and availability, click the History tab. It displays the request status, type, timestamp, and verification point in chronological order. If necessary, you can filter this list according to the desired criteria.

Note: The type of check that is labeled as Host is a host availability condition check.