Teaching & Learning
Working with infants and toddlers is very different than working with preschoolers. They are just beginning to learn about the world through their senses, the relationships they have with their caregivers, parents, and other children, and the opportunities we provide for them. Toddlers especially learn through play. According to Janet Gonzales-Mena and Dianne Widmeyer Eyer in Infants, Toddlers, and Caregivers A Curriculum of Respectful, Responsive Care and Eductaion, they state their are 10 principles to follow when working with infants and toddlers:
Ten Principles Based on a Philosophy of Respect
1. Involve toddlers in things that concern them. Don’t work around them or distract them to get the job done faster.
2. Invest in quality time, when you are totally available to individual toddlers. Don’t settle for supervising groups without focusing on individual children.
3. Learn each child’s unique ways of communicating and teach yours. Don’t underestimate children’s ability to communicate even though their verbal language skills may be nonexistent or minimal.
4. Invest time and energy to build a total person. Don’t focus on cognitive development alone or look at it as separate from total development.
5. Respect toddles as worthy people. Don’t treat them as objects or cute little empty-headed people to be manipulated.
6. Be honest about your feelings around toddlers. Don’t pretend to feel something that you don’t or not to feel something that you do.
7. Model the behavior you want to teach. Don’t preach.
8. Recognize problems as learning opportunities, and let toddlers try to solve their own. Don’t rescue them, constantly make life easy for them, or try to protect them from all problems.
9. Build security by teaching trust. Don’t teach distrust by being undependable or often inconsistent.
10. Be concerned about the quality of development in each stage. Don’t rush toddlers to reach developmental milestones.
Ten Principles Based on a Philosophy of Respect
1. Involve toddlers in things that concern them. Don’t work around them or distract them to get the job done faster.
2. Invest in quality time, when you are totally available to individual toddlers. Don’t settle for supervising groups without focusing on individual children.
3. Learn each child’s unique ways of communicating and teach yours. Don’t underestimate children’s ability to communicate even though their verbal language skills may be nonexistent or minimal.
4. Invest time and energy to build a total person. Don’t focus on cognitive development alone or look at it as separate from total development.
5. Respect toddles as worthy people. Don’t treat them as objects or cute little empty-headed people to be manipulated.
6. Be honest about your feelings around toddlers. Don’t pretend to feel something that you don’t or not to feel something that you do.
7. Model the behavior you want to teach. Don’t preach.
8. Recognize problems as learning opportunities, and let toddlers try to solve their own. Don’t rescue them, constantly make life easy for them, or try to protect them from all problems.
9. Build security by teaching trust. Don’t teach distrust by being undependable or often inconsistent.
10. Be concerned about the quality of development in each stage. Don’t rush toddlers to reach developmental milestones.