Infant & Toddler Group Care Including the Infant in the Curriculum: Facilitating Early Learning

Learning Objectives: Participants will be able to: Explain how infants and toddlers engage their world to learn in the context of important relationships, and how infants are both competent and vulnerable. Describe the four courses in the infant’s curriculum (social- emotional, cognitive, language/literacy, and perceptual/motor development). Observe and respond to each infant’s cues and interests expressed in their play as a basis for planning interactions, materials, as well as the indoor and outdoor environment. Develop a daily schedule that is responsive to the children’s needs and allows for blocks of uninterrupted play time.   Review the learning objectives for this session which focuses on facilitating early learning.

Do you agree? With a partner, discuss the following statement: Parents and caregivers need to “teach” babies in order to stimulate cognitive development. Allow 5 minutes for this discussion. Ask for a few participants to share their thoughts.

Four Insights: How Infants and Toddlers Engage the World Insight 1: Infants and toddlers learn and develop in the context of important relationships. Relationships, while important throughout life, play an especially crucial role in the early years. Relationships support all learning Domains. Self-regulation develops in the context of relationships. The California Department of Education Program Guidelines describes four insights into how infants and toddlers learn. The first is foundational in that all infants learn and develop in the context of important relationships. Infant/Toddler Learning and Development Program Guidelines, California Department of Education, 2006

According to research… Infants are self-starters when it comes to learning. Care teachers can best facilitate intellectual growth by being responsive to infants’ cues, rather than “teaching” or “initiating cognitive activities”. Infants are born to learn. They spend all their waking hours exploring their world. We all learn best what we are interested in. This is particularly true for infants and toddlers. In order to know what they are interested in we need to observe their actions and “read” the cues that they are sending.

Four Insights: How Infants and Toddlers Engage the World Insight 2: Infants and toddlers are competent. All infants and toddlers, including those with disabilities or other special needs, are curious, active, self-motivated learners. Infants and toddlers teach themselves when they are free to move on their own. Communication and language begin developing early. The 2nd insight is that infants are competent. All infants and toddlers are curious, active and self-motivated. In a safe and interesting environment infants learn about physical properties of things and how the world works. They begin learning language in the womb by hearing the patterns of their mothers speech.

Four Insights: How Infants and Toddlers Engage the World Insight 3: Infants and toddlers are vulnerable. Infants orient to adults for protection. Nurturance from adults affects the developing brain. All infants and toddlers are well equipped by nature to seek out close, caring relationships that give them the security they need to grow and learn. Infants rely on consistent, predictable and positive experiences with adults to become secure. The 3rd insight reminds us that infant and toddlers are also vulnerable. Because infants know they are vulnerable, they seek out adults for protection. They also need consistent, predictable and positive experience with adults to feel secure enough to explore.

Four Insights: How Infants and Toddlers Engage the World Insight 3 (cont’d): Infants and toddlers are vulnerable. Infants’ physical health and safety are in the hands of those who care for them. Infants with disabilities, other special needs, or vulnerabilities benefit from early intervention. Infants and toddlers, like all children, are vulnerable to abuse and neglect. Infants are vulnerable to health and safety risks. Infants with disabilities or other special needs are especially vulnerable but benefit from early intervention. Abuse and neglect of infants and toddlers impacts their development and learning in significant ways.

Four Insights: How Infants and Toddlers Engage the World Insight 4: Infants and toddlers are a unique blend of nature and nurture. Temperament is a window to the child. Culture, language and developmental differences contribute to the child’s uniqueness. The 4th insight is that infants and toddlers are a unique blend of nature (genetics) and nurture (environment). Understanding a child’s temperament traits is critical to knowing how to meet his or her needs. Also, culture, language and developmental differences must be considered in providing individualized/personalized care.

How Infants and Toddlers Engage the World We are going to watch the DVD clip “How Infants and Toddlers Engage the World” from the New Perspectives on Infant/Toddler Learning and Development. The clip is 6:59 minutes long. New Perspectives on Infant/Toddler Learning, Development, and Care, 2006.

Reflection: Child-Initiated or Teacher-Initiated Activities Together with a partner, make a list of all of the activities in your classroom in which infants and toddlers have engaged over the past few days. Divide the items on the list into two columns: child- initiated and teacher-initiated activities. Compare the number of items in each column. Which list is longer? Recall the children’s interest and engagement in the identified activities. Which activities resulted in more child engagement? In considering the ways infants and toddlers engage the world, with a table partner hopefully another teacher in your classroom or family child care program), make a list of all the activities of infants and toddlers in your classroom engaged in over the past few days. Divide the list into 2 categories—teacher-initiated and child initiated. Which list is the longest? Which activities resulted in more child engagement?

Question: If infant curriculum were listed in the local college catalog, how would the courses be listed? If an infant was to enroll in college classes, how would the college classes be listed?

The Infant’s Curriculum Physical Development 101 Social Relations 101 Language Development 101 Intellectual Development 101 While “infant curriculum” could be described as separate courses, it is important to remember that children learn holistically . The Next Step: Including the Infant in the Curriculum, 2006

Infant Curriculum: Introduction and Key Concepts Show the Introduction and Key Concepts and the Infant’s Curriculum. The Next Step: Including the Infant in the Curriculum, 2004.

Activity: Reflecting on Infant Curriculum Take a moment to reflect upon your interactions with the infants and toddlers and the learning environment. Which of these I/T “courses” does your program best support? Which “course” needs more work? Ask participants to get into small groups or dyads. If possible have teachers from the same classrooms together in discussion groups.

The Infant Care Teacher’s Roles in Facilitating Learning: Adapt environment and interactions in response to the child’s changing interest and needs. Support Practice and Repetition by not interrupting infant’s repeated action; Expand Learning by providing the amount of novelty for which the child is ready; elaborate on a child’s play by posing problems, introduce more complex and challenging materials. The teacher’s role include adapting the learning environment and how they interact with the children to meet the children’s interests and developmental needs. Teachers need to support repetition and recognize it as practice toward mastery and by allowing uninterrupted time for infants to explore. The teacher’s role is to observe children to determine when the need to add new more complex and challenging materials, to pose questions or problems and to expand upon what the child is interested in learning. The Next Step: Including the Infant in the Curriculum, 2004

How does your program plan I/T Curriculum? In groups, discuss and record answers to the following: How, when, and why do you observe infants and toddlers? How do you document I/T Learning? When and how do you do curriculum planning? Let’s look at how your program plans and documents Infant/Toddler Curriculum. In the same groups as the prior activity (slide 15) discuss and record answers to the questions on the slide.

Curriculum Planning Process This is the Curriculum Planning Process described in the Infant/Toddler Program Guidelines and the Infant/Toddler Curriculum Framework. It is a continuous process which starts with observation, collects documentation, reflects on interests identified in the documentation to plan changes to the classroom environment, teacher-child interactions and caregiving routines. Ask participants to reflect on the prior exercise (Slide 18). Ask what parts they feel that they engage in and what parts of the process need strengthening.

Planning a Child’s Next Day New Perspectives DVD Disc 3 Planning a Child’s Next Day 28:20 through 31:00. This clip will help the infant care teachers think about how they will “plan for the next day” using the curriculum planning process. New Perspectives on I/T Learning and Development and Care, 2006.

Revisiting the Learning Objectives: Participants will be able to: Explain how infants and toddlers engage their world to learn in the context of important relationships, and how infants are both competent and vulnerable. Describe the four courses in the infant’s curriculum (social- emotional, cognitive, language/literacy, and perceptual/motor development). Observe and respond to each infant’s cues and interests expressed in their play as a basis for planning interactions, materials, as well as the indoor and outdoor environment. Develop a daily schedule that is responsive to the children’s needs and allows for blocks of uninterrupted play time.   Review the learning objectives for this session which focuses on Including the Infant in the Curriculum. Ask participants if they have any questions or comments.