The Infant and Toddler Years
Developmentally Appropriate Practice
in Early Childhood Programs
Serving Children from Birth through
Age 8
Third Edition
By Carol Copple and
Sue Bredekamp, editors
CLDDV 101
Professor Pam Guerra-Schmidt
Revised: February 22, 2012
Chapter 2
Development in the First Three
Years of Life
• Scientists studying:
– Listen to language
– Understand number concepts
– Learn from changing perspectives
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•
•
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Rolling over
Sitting
Standing
Other trusted adults
Development in the First Three
Years of Life
• Important:
– Relationships
• Temperament
– Developmental Challenges
– Cultural Beliefs
– Early experiences & the brain
Development in the First Three
Years of Life
• Group Care:
– Supports relationships
– Supports learning
– Critical:
• Sensitive, affectionate care
• Needs met predictably & consistently
–Trust & emotional security develop
Development in the First
Three Years of Life
• Young infants (birth to 9 months) seek
security
• Mobile infants (8 to 18 months) engage in
exploration
• Toddlers (16 to 36 months) continue to
form identity
Young Infants (birth to 9 months)
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•
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•
•
Newborns unique
Need security
Ready for relationships
Interested in people
Able to attract & hold other’s attention
Smile, laugh, cuddle, coo, reach out
Read gestures, facial expressions, & tone of voice
Young infants-Emotional Attachment to
Caregiver
• Harlow Monkey Experiment
– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrNBEhzjg8I
• Dr. Harlow, American psychologist (1905-1981)
• Known for social isolation experiments on
rhesus monkeys
• 1950s controversial studies demonstrated
importance of care-giving and companionship in
social and cognitive development
• Findings: Love=psychological resource/
emotional attachment vs. physiological care
• Two powerful arguments: against institutional
child care and in favor of psychological (secure
emotional attachment) parenthood.
The infant care teacher
Young Infant
• Teachers help:
• world is safe and interesting place.
• Teacher’s task
– is to learn each baby’s individual eating
and sleeping rhythms,
– how he approaches new objects and
people
– how he prefers to be held for feeding,
sleeping or comforting.
The infant care teacher-family
alliance
• Build solid relationships
• Observe and learn from the experiences
• Gain knowledge of culture, and
childrearing beliefs of family members.
• Establish and maintain the alliance with
family – communicating!
Mobile infants (8 to 18 months)
• Mobile – exploration
• Move, scoot, use their hands, bounce forward
and commando-crawling with stomach on the
ground.
• Large muscles are developed - creep, crawl,
cruise, walk holding on to furniture or push toys,
climb up and descend stairs.
• New discoveries and fears.
The Infant Care Teacher
Mobile Infant
• Role in language development
• Interpret a child’s actions and babbling
and translate them into words
• Support dual-language learners
The infant care teacher-family
alliance
• Discuss feelings about separation and
attachment
• Infants placed group care - become
mobile; stage of stranger wariness is at its
height
• Open and frequent communication
Toddlers (16 to 36 months)
• Concerned developing an understanding
of who they are
• Around 18 months, identity dominant
theme
• Most frequent statements “No,” “Mine,”
“Why,” and “Me do it”
Toddlers (16 to 36 months)
• Once walking, motor skills grow by leaps &
bounds- jump, tiptoe, march, throw and kick a
ball
• Experimentation with objects, language, and
social interactions - enter new phase of cognitive
growth
The toddler
care teacher
• Comforter, referee, diaper changer,
playmate, and storyteller
• Skilled teachers allow for autonomy
• Create predictable routine
• Activities-mix physical activities
The toddler care teacher-family
alliance
• Typical-conflicting feelings independence,
dependence, pride and shame, confidence and
doubt
• Look at behavior as having meaning
• Sense of identity rooted in family and
community. (Teacher’s support)
• Need to hear primary language
Teaching Empathy
• Global empathy – found in infancy where infants
may cry when hearing another infant cry
• When I laugh, he laughs; when I cry . . . well, the
whole world cries
• Video-looks at the impact of the caregiver’s
emotions on the infant.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67MuGb9ObZ
Q&feature=related
Chapter 3
Developmentally Appropriate
Practice in the Infant and
Toddler Years –Ages 0-3
Examples to Consider
Charts-Examples to Consider
• Examples of infant/toddler practices to consider
• Understanding charts
– Set of examples (not exhaustive) – phrased in what
caregivers do or fail to do
– Goal-show examples of:
• Best practice-high level of quality
• In contrast, examples from programs that in some respects
have not achieved a high level of quality
– Best Practice
• Research Based
• Most in field agree – examples promote optimal learning and
development
– In Contrast
• Aid reflection - examples from well-intentioned programs (not
caregiver’s fault)
• Some examples are dangerous, may cause lasting harm,
others less likely to promote optimal development
In Contrast Examples
• In contrast examples - not caregiver’s fault
• Most teachers working hard, doing their best
• Challenges:
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Limited training
Inadequate staff-child ratios
Low compensation
High staff turnover
Meager Resources
• Goal of examples for all teachers
– Help in their efforts!
Charts-Infant & Toddlers
• Six areas of importance to infant/toddler care:
– Relationships between Caregiver and Child
– Environment
– Exploration and Play
– Routines
– Reciprocal Relationships with Families
– Policies
• In all six areas in chart:
– Speak to cultural importance
– Infants/toddlers learning who they are
and where they belong
– Caregiving setting
• sets goals - harmonious with what family
wants child to learn
• negotiated through best practice framework
"Watch your thoughts, they become
words. Watch your words, they become
your actions. Watch your actions, they
become habits. Watch your habits, they
become character. Watch your
character, it becomes your destiny."
Author unknown
"A very wise old teacher once said: "I
consider a day's teaching wasted if we do
not all have one hearty laugh."
He meant that when people laugh
together, they cease to be young and old,
master and pupils. They become a single
group of human beings enjoying its
existence.
Gilbert Highet
Note: Born in Scotland, Gilbert Highet is best known as a mid-20th-century teacher of
the humanities in the United States.