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More like thisKnowYour infant toddler classroom likely serves a diverse group of children, so you must be prepared to meet a variety of needs. You must understand what skills are typical for children of certain ages, what is appropriate for an individual child, and what is valued by families and communities to effectively serve the infants and toddlers in your care. Developmentally appropriate practice (DAP) is an approach to teaching grounded both in the research on how young children develop and learn and in what is known about effective early education (NAEYC, 2009). Developmentally appropriate practices are educational and caregiving methods that promote each child’s optimal learning and development through a strengths-based approach to joyful, engaged learning. Caregivers implement developmentally appropriate practice by recognizing the multiple assets all young children bring to the early learning program as unique individuals and as members of families and communities (NAEYC, 2019). Developmentally appropriate practice provides caregivers with structured guidance on how to support the growth and development of children along with making learning meaningful and purposeful to their abilities. Experiences and Activities that Promote Infants' and Toddlers' Cognitive DevelopmentInfants and toddlers learn best through daily interactions and play-based experiences. Play helps children develop their approaches toward learning. Memory, spatial awareness, problem solving, attention, and persistence are a few cognitive competencies developed through play. Families and caregivers can support children in becoming better learners later in life by playing with them. If children do not develop solid approaches to learning in the early years, they may be less successful in school settings later in life. It is important to remember that young children are natural explorers. They are hungry for information about the world around them. Children are learning how to learn. Adults can nurture this curiosity by promoting exploration and problem solving. This helps young children develop thinking skills. There is a lot you can do to help young children learn. Here is a short list of ways to support infants and toddlers in your care:
Consider the following ways in which young children learn important concepts through play (Guyton, 2011). You might notice that many of these examples involve learning in more than one area, or developmental domain. Developmental domains represent specific aspects of a child’s overall development (cognitive, motor, language and literacy, social-emotional, physical well-being). It is important to keep in mind that during play, children often learn across multiple developmental domains. You may also notice that these examples reflect everyday experiences, which offer many opportunities for learning.
Importance of Culture, Temperament and Learning StylesInfants and toddlers bring their own set of unique characteristics to their relationship with you. One of the ways you can deepen those relationships is by respecting their family’s culture and their individual temperament and learning style. By knowing infants and toddlers well, you can intentionally create learning experiences that support cognitive development. Learning experiences that are culturally responsive and unbiased consider infants’ and toddlers’ temperaments and are tailored to their individual learning styles. These experiences will not only support their cognitive development but all the other developmental domains as well. You learned about the role that culture plays on your interactions with the infants and toddlers in Lesson Three, now we will take a look at how culture, temperament, and learning styles may affect the activities and experiences you will plan. Reflecting on CultureCulture influences how all of us view the world and the people around us. Every time we enter the classroom, we bring our own culture in with us. This culture influences the way we think and act. Understanding our own individual culture can increase our confidence and ability to work with others around us. Culture affects every part of our life. Look at the role culture plays in your interactions with others. Think about the ways your history and values affect your teaching. Do you expect family members to attend meetings and help with the class? Do you expect children to be toilet trained at a certain age? When do you think children should feed and dress themselves? These questions can be influenced by our culture and upbringing. Children enter our programs with unique backgrounds and experiences. Knowing children's backgrounds and preferences is the heart of developmentally appropriate practice. You can use this information to send the message, "You belong here." By acknowledging the cultures and traditions of the children, parents, and staff in your own classroom, you can make embracing culture more relevant for the infants and toddlers in your care. By doing that you also help promote a sense of belonging and community. Understanding the meaning of the word "culture" in the context of this lesson is important. The word has different meanings to different people. For this lesson, "culture involves the customary beliefs, values and practices people learn from their families and communities" (Dodge, Colker, & Heroman, 2006). Everyone has a culture. It influences how we communicate, how we interact, how we interpret what people do and say; it even shapes our expectations. Culture plays a large role in child rearing. It impacts the daily interactions that you have with families, children, co-workers, and your director. It also plays a significant role in the activities and experiences that you provide to children. It is important that you think about your own culture and the culture of the children and families in your program. This knowledge will help you to ensure that the experiences that you plan respect the culture of each and every infant and toddler in your care. Infants' and toddlers' families are their first teachers, and their family's culture is integral to their development. When you offer culturally relevant experiences on a daily basis that are based on their real-life experiences you are supporting their cognitive development. Some ways that you can offer culturally relevant experiences and activities include:
Thinking about TemperamentTemperament describes how a child approaches and reacts to the world. Learning about temperament can help you understand and explain a child’s behavior, which in turn can lead to more responsive, individualized care for infants and toddlers. While temperament does not clearly define or predict infant and toddler behavior, research has identified several temperament traits for which children will show certain behaviors. These traits include: activity level, flexibility in daily routines, response to new situations, sensitivity to surroundings, adaptability to change, and distractibility or persistence in an activity. These traits can be grouped into three temperament styles. These styles are:
Knowing a child's personal style or temperament helps you in your interactions and in the learning experiences that you provide. For example, when it comes to learning, a slow to warm up or cautious child may learn by initially observing or watching others do something, an active or feisty child may learn better by actively engaging in an activity, and an easy or flexible child may be able to resist distractions and stay focused on an activity. It is also important to recognize that different cultures place different values on temperament styles. Understanding what each family identifies as positive behaviors will allow you to highlight and support those traits. When planning for experiences and activities, it is important that you modify your own way of doing things or the way you structure some of your activities, to address the temperament styles of the children in your care. Considering Learning StylesAs with temperament, infants and toddlers have individual learning styles, and these styles influence how they learn. In general, infants and toddlers are:
Recognizing individual learning styles and planning experiences that account for them supports cognitive development. Addressing the Needs of Diverse Learners and Families As you learned in Lesson Four, it is important to develop meaningful learning experiences for all children. This includes children with special learning needs. All children need a strong, developmentally appropriate curriculum, a supportive environment, and nurturing relationships with adults. For some children though, this is not enough for them to succeed. Some children need special accommodations. As an infant and toddler caregiver, you will have to plan accommodations within experiences and activities to address the varying developmental needs of the group, and the needs of diverse learners and families. Infants and toddlers with Individualized Family Service Plans (IFSPs) have a specific plan to help them meet personal goals. Caregivers should read the IFSP to learn about the child’s goals, services, and adaptations. Just as each infant and toddler is different, each IFSP is different. In general, these children may need changes or adaptations to the curricula, the classroom, and the daily activities. Children who speak another language and are learning English are often called English Language Learners or Dual Language Learners. Children learning English in your classroom will probably be at very different levels. Some might hear quite a bit of English their homes, while others may hear none. This means that some children might need more help than others. You can help children who are learning English by (a) including multicultural activities, (b) giving them special supports, (c) reaching out to their families, and (d) making these children feel included in all experiences and activities. Helping all children learn is characterized by flexibility and a variety of changes. By making adaptations to the materials or the environment, or by adjusting your expectations of an activity, infants and toddlers can work together. Changes to curricula Curriculum should support the development and well-being of all children in a group to foster learning. While infants and toddlers may be in different developmental stages, the same curricular activities and materials can be used to help them learn and develop the skills, and concepts that are appropriate for their age and developmental level. Consider an activity as simple as building with blocks. For young infants, move them near the activity. They can be exposed to the language being used, socially engage by observing the actions of their peers, and grasp or mouth a block to explore its features. For a toddler, you can extend their learning by helping them to stack the blocks and anticipate what will happen as the structure grows. They can discover the best way to organize the blocks, identify colors and shapes, and count the blocks as they are stacked. Both children are working on the same activity, but in ways that are meaningful to their individual development. Changes to the environment You might have to change the classroom environment to meet the needs of all children. If you have a child who uses a wheelchair, you may have to adjust the height of tables in your classroom to make sure the child is included in experiences and activities. A child might need changes in where he or she sits, such as a chair if the child has trouble sitting on the carpet. Other classroom changes might include Velcro adaptations to help toys stay in place, or knobs on puzzles to ease access of pieces. Additional adaptations include using picture cues (such as photographs) or schedules as reminders, shapes taped to the floor to help children figure out where they need to be, sensory objects, or changes in the lighting or sound in the room. These changes support children with special needs, and in mixed age settings they help infants to be able to engage with materials and activities that are used by their older or mobile peers. This helps to promote a sense of community and builds peer relationships. We know that infant and toddlers can grow and develop in the same space. However, regardless of accommodations that may need to be made based on the special learning needs of children in the classroom, changes to the space should be considered continuously. As the children in your care grow and develop, their environment should change to reflect their interests and skills. Small changes to the books, puzzles, and dramatic play materials can make a big impact. Changes during activities As discussed in Lesson Three, caregivers can facilitate development and learning through scaffolding. Understanding the process of scaffolding can help caregivers be more intentional in their interactions. Adults should join infants and toddlers in play and build on their need for support. Scaffolding requires several considerations: understanding children’s overall development; understanding the ways individual children approach learning; establishing realistic learning objectives; and matching strategies to each child’s current interests, knowledge, and skills (Gillespie & Greenberg, 2017). Children with special needs might find it hard to work on and finish activities that other children might do easily. If a child has trouble painting, an adult could put their hand over the child’s hand to make it easier. During the day, the same child might need more help and time with some activities and less help and time with others. The help that you give a child probably will change over time as they get better at doing an activity. Think about fading help so that the child learns to do the activity on their own. One of the best things that educators can do is actively include all children in all activities. Children with special needs or those learning English may have a hard time joining classroom activities because they may not be sure what to do. Try some of these ideas to help include all children:
SeeThe following videos show examples of how teachers engage infants and toddlers in experiences and activities that promote their cognitive development. Incorporating Family into Cognitive Supported ExperiencesVideo not availableWatch how family photo books are used to support cognitive development.Ball PlayVideo not availableWatch how a teacher builds on her knowledge of child development and best practice to support cognitive development.DoWhen it comes to honoring individual learning styles and temperament, and supporting culturally relevant experiences, do the following:
Media is increasingly becoming another means through which children learn, sometimes replacing the traditional concept of play. When families seek guidance on screen use, you can use the following suggestions from the American Academy of Pediatrics:
Use the Resource List to help you learn about supporting young children's cognitive development. The list contains information about experiences and activities that support infant and toddler learning and development as well as articles on how to intentionally connect play and learning. The Understanding Temperament document is a resource from the Center for the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning (CSEFEL) that discusses temperament in infants and toddlers. How do you promote newborn cognitive development?Play ideas for encouraging newborn cognitive development. Talk to your baby often, hold your baby, and make eye contact.. Read with your baby, recite nursery rhymes, or sing songs. ... . Make faces with your baby. ... . Give your baby different things to look at, about 20-30 cm from their face.. What are examples of cognitive activities of infants and toddlers?Cognitive activities for toddlers' memory. Hiding and finding objects.. Nursery rhymes, stories, and sing-alongs.. Letter and number games.. Simple routines and procedures.. Sorting sizes, shapes, and colors.. Matching games and puzzles.. Arts and crafts.. Playing outside and visiting places.. What activities help cognitive skills?10 Ways to Promote Your Child's Cognitive Development. Sing-a-longs. Sing songs with your child and encourage him to sing along with you. ... . Identify Noises. ... . Practice the Alphabet. ... . Practice Counting. ... . Practice Shapes and Colors. ... . Offer Choices. ... . Ask Questions. ... . Visit Interesting Places.. How do you support cognitive development to infant and toddler?Play ideas to support cognitive development in toddlers. Help your toddler put together basic puzzles.. Provide lots of fun bath toys so your child can enjoy measuring, scooping and pouring. ... . Read books and recite nursery rhymes together. ... . Sing simple songs that involve actions or animal sounds.. |