Infants and Toddlers Being
Involved, Engaged and Enquiring
BY MS PUSPA SIVAN
CONSULTANT AND ECD TRAINING SPECIALIST
Early Years Are Learning Years:
The Process of Empowerment Begins in Infancy-Levitt
 Infants and toddlers are phenomenal
learners, actively engaged in absorbing
new information, imagining,
experimenting and problem solving
“Learning
starts in
infancy, long
before formal
education
begins, and
continues
throughout
life”
-Magda Gerber
 Infants can’t help but learn all the time, so the
question really isn’t “are they learning?”, but rather
“what are they learning?”
Developmental Needs of Infants and
Toddlers
“Child development is ‘a process of change in
which a child learns to handle even more
complex levels of moving, thinking, feeling and
relating to others” - Myers
Socio-emotional Deveopment
Longitudinal studies confirm that the effects of
early secure attachment in children are
significant and long lasting.
 With the cutting of the umbilical cord,
physical attachment to our mother ends and
psychological attachment begins
Attachment Theory
 Attachment is the cornerstone of infant development:
• about relationships, how they are formed, what happens
during the first intimate relationship with the nurturing
adult, and what consequences are for later development.
• close attachment relationship between responsive caregiver
and dependent infant –seen as an adaptation needed for
infant’s survival
Socio-emotional Development
“Primary caregivers create a sense of trust in a child
not by the particular techniques they employ, but
by the sensitiveness with which they respond to the
child’s needs”
- Weiser
Socio-emotional Development
For a young child’s brain to thrive, the child needs
to be loved, held, talked to, read to and allowed to
explore.
Promote Relationship-Based Interactions
and Experiences
 Relationship-based infant-toddler programmess
provide warm, nurturing, responsive interactions
and experiences between all parties in the infanttoddler setting
Cognitive Development
“Babies do not gain knowledge or insight by sitting
back and contemplating what might happen.
Instead, they look, taste, smell, hear, feel, and
act…….Through sensing and acting, infants and
toddlers build intelligence”
- Schickedanz (1998)
 In active learning settings, children engage with an
abundance and variety of materials that challenge
their thinking skills and support their sensory,
whole-body approach to learning
Brain Research
The brain constantly looks to link things
together - by sight , smell, sound and
space- to make sense of the world
Sensory Experiences
• Infants and toddlers are provided time and experiences each day to see,
smell, hear, taste and touch a variety of stimuli.
• The environment provided is rich in experiences and materials that infants
and toddlers can explore with all their senses, thus promoting optimal
development in all areas.
IIntentionally Promote Language Development
• Educarers talk, sing, read and communicate with infants and toddlers
throughout the day.
• Educarers respond in a positive manner to individual children's
communication attempts. The educarer understands and adapts the
language interactions to include cultural and linguistic differences.
• Educarers talk with each child about things that relate to that child's everyday
experiences.
Cognitive development- acc. to Vygotsky
 Scaffolding
 Place the child in the context of language
 Bring child’s thinking/performance to a higher level
 Engage the mind of the child
‘Serve and Return Interaction’
 A process called the “serve and return” interaction
between young children and their parents and
caregivers is key to healthy brain development
(Shonkoff, 2009).
‘Serve and Return Interaction’
 Serve and return occurs when young children solicit
interaction through their babbling, gestures, facial
expressions or focusing on an interesting object or
event (the “serve”), and adults share and support the
child’s experience or focus of attention (the
“return”).
 The serve and return interaction helps to create
neural connections that build later cognitive and
emotional skills.
Inborn dispositions:
 Innate curiosity is one disposition that parents and
caregivers can readily see in typically developing
babies’ need to explore and learn
 Children are born with the natural dispositions of curiosity
to observe, seek, know, find out, search, investigate, try,
problem solve, create, and to invent
 Infants and toddlers are process-oriented
 They think with their heads, hands and feet
Social Dispositions
 Empathy
 Pro-social behavior
Review Infant and Toddler Development
 Attachment Needs
 Exploratory Needs
Curriculum for Infants and Toddlers
 Caregiving As Curriculum
 Play As Curriculum
 Diaper changes, feedings, baths, brushing
teeth, dressing and undressing, nose wiping,
finger and toenail clipping are all prime time
for learning
 But this is only true if we pay attention while we
are doing those things, tell our babies what’s
happening and invite them to participate with
us.
 We need to interact rather than distract.
Responsive Routines
 Use routines as opportunities for emotional
interaction and learning
 Hold babies during feeding to ensure safety and to
meet their emotional needs. Talk softly, hum, sing
or be quiet according to the infant's cues
 Sit with toddlers for eating rather than waiting on
them
 Provide opportunities for toddlers to begin to
serve themselves, pour water out of a small
pitcher, and clean the table with a sponge.
Playtimes
 Use playtime as opportunities to foster
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relationships and connections.
Infants and toddlers love and need lap time.
Sing songs and do finger plays.
Sit on the floor with children, hide objects for
child to find, roll a ball back and forth, build
towers with soft toddler size blocks, model
play with age appropriate toys.
Allow children to experiment with toys and
objects without correction
 If we engage with infants and toddlers during
caregiving tasks, they learn about their bodies and
how to care for them.
 They learn language naturally and internalize it
because they don’t just hear our words, they
experience them through all of their senses. (“Can
you help me squeeze the warm water out of this
yellow sponge?”)
 Most importantly, infants and toddlers learn that
their participation is expected and highly valued.
 Trust infants and toddlers to be initiators,
explorers and self-learners
Creating Positive Learning
Environments
1. Opportunities for Interaction
 Places to watch and play near adults and other
children
 Places to connect and cuddle with adults
Infants and Toddlers learn more when their toys are
doing less
 Interestingly, they engage with passive, simple,
open-ended toys and objects for much longer, too
2. Learning Environment
The caregiver uses space, relationships,
materials, and routines as resources for
constructing an interesting, secure, and enjoyable
environment that encourages play, exploration, and
learning.
A Good Caregiver Is …….
 Loving, respectful and responsive
 respects the baby’s individuality
 offers good surroundings