Parallel play - Play that happens when 2- to 3-year-old children progress from solitary play to playing alone with the other children nearby. Children use the same or similar kinds of toys or materials

Peer - A friend or companion who is the same age or at the same developmental level

Phonemic awareness - Ability to break individual words into their component sounds

Phonics - Instructional practice that reemphasizes the system of rules for connecting sounds to letters

Phonological awareness - Ability to focus on the sound structure of words, rather than on their meaning or role in grammar

Physical abuse - Bodily injury that is inflicted or allowed to be inflicted, other than by accident, by a parent, a person responsible for a child's care, or any other person

Physical development - The gradual gaining of control over large and small muscles

Positive discipline - A child-centered approach to discipline that focuses on teaching rather than on punishment. It treats children with respect and dignity. It focuses more on what a child needs than on what adults want or need. It is based on the belief that adults do not have the right to use raw power over a child and that adults have a responsibility to help children learn to behave in acceptable ways and to develop self-discipline. This requires being able to see things from the child's point of view and demonstrating empathy for the child.

Pre-reading skills - Visual and perceptual skills needed as a foundation for reading, including (for English) following sequences for left to right and recognizing differences and similarities among things

Precaution - Steps taken to prevent accidents or to ensure safety

Problem solving - The process of thinking through a problem and coming up with one or several possible solutions

Professional behavior - The consistent, thorough application of knowledge, skills, and ethics

Professionalism - A commitment to gaining and maintaining knowledge and skills in a particular field, and to using that knowledge and those skills to provide the highest-quality services possible

Prosocial skills - Accepted behaviors, such as sharing or taking turns, which children learn and use to get along in society

Provider - Anyone "providing" child care services (i.e., child care centers, family child care homes, school-age child care programs, nannies)

Punishment - Control of children's behavior by use of force or fear