Gelds

Bonisiwe Shabane

-Oct 31, 2025, 7:38 AM

Welcome to the Georgia Early Learning and Development Standards (GELDS) website for early learning professionals and caregivers. Access resources like websites, apps, videos, guides and more for GELDS, Training, and At Home Learning Access the secure portal to create lesson plans and activities, add/view media, and view messages Browse the extensive repository of developmentally appropriate activities for all age groups and learning domains View various DECAL-approved templates that can be used to plan weekly lessons Every day in Georgia’s early learning programs, educators witness meaningful moments of growth.

A baby reaches for a rattle. A toddler tries to zip a jacket. A preschooler explains why blocks won’t stack unless they’re “just right.” These simple actions reflect big steps in how children think, move, communicate, and explore the world around them. To help organize and support this learning, Georgia uses a statewide framework called GELDS: the Georgia Early Learning and Development Standards. Designed for children from birth through age five, GELDS outlines five core domains of development and offers a clear structure for planning lessons, understanding progress, and responding to children’s needs. It’s also part of the required health and safety training for all early learning professionals in the state.

In this blog, we’ll walk through each of the five GELDS domains and explore how they show up in real-life classroom experiences, from infancy through preschool. GELDS stands for Georgia Early Learning and Development Standards. Developed by the Department of Early Care and Learning (DECAL), this framework outlines what children from birth to age five should know and be able to do across key areas of development. The standards are organized into five core domains—physical, social-emotional, approaches to learning, communication, and cognition—each with subdomains that break big concepts into more specific skills. In Georgia, those milestones are organized into a statewide framework called GELDS: the Georgia Early Learning and Development Standards. Georgia GELDS outlines what children from birth to five should know and be able to do across five key areas of development.

It helps early educators plan meaningful activities, track progress, and create responsive classroom environments. Learning about GELDS is also a required part of Georgia’s health and safety training for licensed child care providers. In this blog, we’ll walk through what GELDS covers and explore how these five areas of development show up in real life, with practical examples from infancy through age five. GELDS outlines five core areas of child development—from birth through age five—that help guide your observations, planning, and support for each child’s growth. Each domain covers a specific area of development, like physical skills or emotional awareness. Within each domain are strands, which organize related learning goals, and indicators, which describe observable skills and behaviors at different ages.

Below, you’ll find an overview of each domain and examples of everyday behaviors you can tie to specific indicators—so you can recognize learning in action and feel confident connecting it to the GELDS framework. Find child care or call: 1-877-ALL-GA-KIDS For all other questions: 1-888-442-7735 Georgia has a long history as a leader in promoting early learning and development outcomes for children. Over the last decade, Georgia has worked to extend the standards down to birth and to align them to the K-12 system. In 2013, Georgia introduced its latest set of high-quality, research-based early learning standards for children birth to age five called the Georgia Early Learning and Development Standards (GELDS). The GELDS are the result of a two-year alignment study and revision project that began in 2010.

The purpose of the GELDS is to promote quality learning experiences for children and address the question, “What should children from birth to age five know and be able to do?” They are a... The standards are written as a continuum of skills, behaviors, and concepts that children develop throughout this time of life. They are divided into age groups for convenience and serve as a framework for learning. The GELDS take the place of the Georgia Early Learning Standards (GELS) for birth to three and the Pre-K Content Standards, creating a seamless system of standards in Georgia for birth to five. The GELDS are aligned with the Head Start Child Outcomes Framework, the CCGPS for K-12, the Work Sampling System Assessment. For more information, visit www.gelds.decal.ga.gov.

Ask CALi is an AI chatbot designed to provide responses to your questions for general informational purposes using data from decal.ga.gov. Please note that information provided by Ask CALi may be inaccurate or incomplete and should not be relied upon as the sole basis for making decisions or taking actions. Users are responsible for verifying all information provided. These are the five LEARNING DOMAINS. Notice that each has a two- or three-letter acronym. You'll see these acronyms in all GELDS materials.

You will see codes such as PDM6.3b (below) in all GELDS materials. Once you understand the codes, you’ll see how helpful it is to incorporate GELDS into your routines and lesson plans. There are 5 DOMAINS (areas of learning) that are color coded and abbreviated. Each domain contains STRANDS (groupings of similar standards). STANDARDS are general statements of knowledge within a Strand. A Strand can have one or more Standards.

If your program does not require a specific format or if you are looking to make the leap from paper to electronic planning, we have just what you need to ensure that all the... Login to our portal to create plans that will be printed in these template formats. Teachers may need to plan specific activities to meet a particular child’s needs. These lesson plan samples include examples of how adaptations can be applied to various lesson plan activities. For example, for dual language learners, you could place books in the reading area or recorded stories in the listening area that are written/narrated in that child’s home language (CLL5.2b). Some children with sensory challenges may not prefer to touch paint or sand, so they can be given a zip-seal bag partially filled with that substance so they can manipulate it through the bag...

Gelds

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