Hi, this one really is a matter of personal choice. There are many benefits for you and your child. The question you may want to ask yourself is how will this impact your work with other children and families, as well as your co-workers? Further, do you think you would be comfortable waiting to respond to your child’s cues while another child needed you more? It can also be very hard to share mommy with other children, and very young children don’t take perspective that well. You may also find that your child tests limits in the classroom. On the other hand, we have heard that teaching your own child, whether in home schooling or the classroom can be immensely rewarding as you get to see your child grow and develop. Parents who have taught their own children share that they talk a lot about perspectives: “I am Tommy’s teacher too, and he needs my help now.” They also rely on team teachers to help out in a pinch (i.e. if your child is having a melt down and you need to step out with him or her). You may also want to make special mommy time on the weekend for one-on-one attention. This decision is not easy, but knowing yourself and how you will react will help you to make the best decision for you and your child.

Great question!

When infants and toddlers feel secure in their relationships (attachment), they will be able to start developing the self regulation skills you are referring to. So, in our opinion, the first step in supporting children to calm themselves is to ensure they have supportive caregivers around with whom they feel a sense of attachment and security. This cannot be overstated. In fact, every other developmental milestone for infants and toddlers is based on developing a strong sense of attachment.

Building a strong attachment with an infant or toddler takes time. One of the ways it is built is when children put out signals of need (certain looks, crying, etc.) and they receive empathetic and warm responses. It takes time and observation on the part of the caregiver to learn each child’s signals. The Program for Infant and Toddler Caregivers suggests using the watch-ask-adapt technique to create strong attachments: watch the child, ask yourself what he is trying to do or need, and adapt to those cues.

To make sure no child slips through the cracks in busy rooms and that everyone finds a special adult, we recommend that all children have consistent and regular caregivers (in child care, we recommend one adult be assigned as the child’s primary caregiver). This way the adult can take time to learn a small number of infant-toddler’s cues and interests, rather than trying to focus on the entire group.

It is also important to note that there are some children who experience healthy attachment and others who experience unhealthy attachment with close adults. These primary attachments will impact their relationships with other caregivers. Until a caregiver is familiar with each child, their unique routines and their cues, we recommend that the caregiver always respond to each child with empathy and care. Even children who may appear detached often feel safe when they are provided with structure and regularity. With time and patience, they will develop feelings of security and then the ability to self-regulate.

Once a trusting and supportive relationship is built and a child is providing you with cues that she is able to self-regulate such as thumb sucking and grasping a security object, we would recommend supporting her to comfort herself. (I.e. if a child falls and then hears a caregiver’s sympathetic voice saying “You fell down, can you get up?” as opposed to scooping in and rescuing the child without cue reading. The child will let you know when she needs more comfort, and the caregiver can adapt.) We also suggest that caregivers support children by providing small manageable periods of time to develop coping skills, such as waiting to eat for short period of time. This helps a child to learn that their needs will eventually be met.

It is important to note, like all development with young children, self regulation is not the same for each child and it doesn’t occur at the same time. Patience and the ability to slow down and meet the child at her level is essential to infant and toddler care.

It can be so exciting to watch very young children grow and develop —their interests, their abilities, and their temperaments vary so much! As the father of twins, it must be particularly fun to see the unique growth of each baby, and how each boy excels at a different thing.

With infants and toddlers, development occurs rapidly and not always at the same time for each child. For instance, one infant may start walking at 9 months and the next infant might not start walking till 14 months. Further, just because a child doesn’t walk until 14 months, does not suggest that they will be delayed in gross motor skills throughout their life. What is important is to support each child individually with their unique needs. Certainly, if a child is identified as delayed, it is best to put in supports when they are younger, rather than waiting till they are older.

At this age, we seek to support the child in becoming well rounded in many different skills: social skills, emotional skills, language, large movement, small movement, self help skills, and cognitive skills are all important as the child enters preschool, and all should be encouraged. Along these same lines, everyone prefers to learn about things that they are passionate about, so it is helpful to use a young child’s interests as the catalyst for other development and learning (i.e., it may be helpful to promote self help skills by incorporating a child’s interest in trains).

For these reasons we individualize care for each child with our responses and the activities we select for them.

For example, staff observes each child’s interests and developmental milestones and your state’s Early Learning Guidelines may help you with this (often classroom use various assessment tools connected to their selected curriculum). We then provide colored animals for a child who enjoys sorting and labeling, alphabet puzzles and many books for a child who enjoys pointing out and identifying letters and words, a mattress and stairs for children who want to refine jumping and climbing, musical instruments for those who enjoy composing music, time to dance and make art for those who enjoy those forms of expression, etc. We also encourage children to try a range of activities to expand their skill sets and interests.

You are clearly doing the same thing in your home, as you can detail each child’s interest and the things you do to extend the learning.

If you did want to send him to infant-toddler care, inclusion of children who are both delayed and advanced should not be challenging in a high quality program. Teachers are used to working with older and younger children. When including a child who is ahead in one area, the teacher can adapt to provide challenges that are more complex (designed for an older child) for the child, and if a child is delayed, she simply thinks back to the kinds of challenges she would design for a younger child and places those in the classroom as well. This adaptability means everyone's needs are met.

Hi, our program does not offer paint or use playdough all day long, and did pass accreditation with flying colors. Look at the NAEYC walk through and you can see if there is a new mandate that paint or playdough specifically must be there all the time. I suspect there is not. They want to make sure that young children have opportunities to do art of multiple kinds (not necessarily all at once). Your classroom binder can detail all the ways that you do art over time, and your accrediting representative will read that.

Our toddlers at CCFS have the freedom to scribble all day long (as yours do) on a mural of ongoing art. We provide a second activity for much of the day (including outside time) which ranges though the various art forms including play-dough, clay, paint, collage, stickers, scribbling, water play, birdseed, sand, oobleck, etc. We do engage in play-dough pretty much every day due to popular demand, but that is a choice made based on our observations of this current group of toddlers’ interests. Some programs I have worked at before offer daily play-dough in addition to other art because it is soothing and predictable.

I think what your trainer is getting at, though, is that the art materials that the children are supposed to be playing with (if they are the ones you are highlighting as being used) must be there at the toddlers' level for them to use. So if the children are supposed to be painting, you put the paint in the spill-proof cups at their level and invite them to paint or on the floor in tubs for them to explore. If you are featuring playdough, make sure the playdough is out on trays or the table with tools looking inviting. You don’t need to do every single art project at once, but if it is really an activity that is available for the time period, it should look to your accreditor like the children are clearly able to do the activity.

Six weeks and 15 months are very different ages, and require very different kinds of experiences. Breaking the class into small groups by age/ability may help you to design activities that meet each child’s individual needs.

Music is the pre-math activity that bridges all those ages. NAEYC’s journal Young Children just wrote a wonderful article on math: http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/naeyc/youngchildren_201201/index.php#/76

In our classroom we explore math as we sing, rock, clap and chant with infant-toddlers. We explore math as we drum, dance, and engage in rhythmic games. Learning how to keep a steady beat and the rhythm of songs helps the brain to see patterns that lead to those introductory math skills. We explore volume as we fill and empty containers, number as we count ladybugs in books, sorting and grouping as we “find more” and physics as we begin the fine art of stacking blocks. Most states have Early Learning Guidelines for infants and toddlers and some identify those introductory math skills, as well as strategies for the classroom. With infants and toddlers we focus on cognition, as the precursor to math and science skill development.

Cooking activities with very young toddlers need to assume that the toddler will taste the product as they “help.” Younger toddlers can “help” with breaking pasta, helping peel pre-cut bananas, and co-opening mandarins. We tend to wait until our youngest are about 18 months old to begin complex cooking with the toddlers, as they can then follow one-part directions, and use some impulse control. When we do cook with toddlers, we begin with cutting fruit with butter knives for fruit salad or making smoothies. We then progress to more complex projects such as shaping dough, baking muffins and making egg salad. There is a fair amount of adult “scaffolding” or coaching to help these projects be a success, and we always have a back up“ final product” to switch out if the original recipe is licked.

When working with young children they tend to be more interested in things that are directly related to what they are experiencing in the moment. So pointing out how many blocks the child has in front of them by pointing to each one and counting them. Stating "you have two eyes; one, two" as you point to them. This can then branch off to the child then pointing to your eyes or the dolls eyes. Then it can continue on to other body parts. When a child has different sized balls in the room that they are playing with you can point to the different sizes and state "this is a big ball" and "this is a little ball". An easy way to do a cooking like activity is to make a non-cook play dough so the kids can touch each ingredient and then play with the final product. The teacher can describe how each ingredient feels or what it smells like. As long as no child has a wheat allergy if they happen to eat some it won't hurt them. To throw in some math concepts the teacher can use descriptive words like "big scoop", "little scoop", and "one cup". The children can explore the utensils before the activity as well. They can use measuring cups, bowls, spoons, in a water table as well. When the child is playing with the different items simply naming them is learning early math.

Your instincts are great. Many caregivers try to muddle down what is taught to preschoolers for toddlers. Toddlers need to move, and they learn best through doing, not sitting and being told things. This makes it very hard to run a long circle time. If you do need to do a circle time, counting, colors and shapes can be introduced through songs using felt boards, such as 5 Green and Speckled Frogs, or 5 Brown Buns. There’s also a song to memorize the days of the week, but the concept of week days is quite abstract for toddlers, let alone preschoolers. Action songs are necessary to keep toddlers at circle times, which also require a great deal of adult animation and flexibility.

We tend to think about cognition skills over memorizing with infants and toddlers. Memorizing to count 1-10 is not relevant yet for a toddler. What is more important is learning that 5 items are taller than 4 items, 6 blocks are longer than 3, or 3 handfuls of sand fill up the jar, etc.
More importantly, children learn all these things in the classroom environment if you bathe them in language. Talking about the things the children are holding or using, “Oh you have two brown dogs,” is more relevant to the toddlers than having them listen to a toddler-aimed lecture. Scaffolding this learning is also helpful. Coming up with other animals who have four legs or naming other pets helps children to develop introductory thinking skills, over memorization. You can bring up all these concepts as they are relevant to each child, “Oh, it’s Monday, and mama picks you up Mondays,” Eventually can be “It’s Monday, who picks you up on Mondays?”

Regarding art, infant-toddlers love sensory activities and don’t care much about end products. (They are process based). We don’t ask children to copy a particular product or to color within a coloring book as these types of activities can limit a child’s creativity. Activities that engage their senses such as painting, playing with birdseed, water and sand, scribbling with thick chalk, squeezing play dough, etc. are very satisfying to the sensory learner. Regarding glue/glitter, toddlers tend to pond glue because it is an interesting sensory thing and because they like to explore volume. They don’t yet understand that the glue is to get the glitter to stick. They would probably enjoy shaking their own glitter, if you let them, but you would need to provide them with a glitter container where it is ok to use the entire contents up (as in, partially filled). Then you can refill it over and over form the excess on their trays. It is also important to talk with children as they are exploring art materials. Again, putting names to what they are using and how they are using it. Lastly, for older toddlers ask them to tell you what they are creating and put words or short sentences to their art work. Often times you get a wonderful story!

Great question! In our center, which is in California, we go outside all year round, warning the parents about rain gear on rain days, and enjoying puddles as a class. We duck under the eaves when the rain gets heavy. I know that in other states, it’s not that easy, though still possible to go out and explore snow. When you are stuck inside, it’s important to keep in mind that toddlers have a deep need to move, so providing opportunities to do so is essential – redirects just don’t work. Some centers feature an indoor climber to meet this need, or bring in an old mattress to jump on. Some centers bring outside toys such as scooters or fabric tunnels inside for movement based activities. Putting on music to dance may help, or engaging in games such as Ring Around the Rosy. The NAEYC book Big Body Play has some ideas for toddler movement activities – and you will note the toddler in the snowsuit pushing chairs in the snowfall.

Hi, this is a complex question and depends on the age, temperament and home culture of the infant-toddler. Very young children respond best to adults who are tuned in to their individual needs, which range a great deal. You can learn a lot about them by asking their parents when they enter your program, and you can post up this information about the infants where caregivers can see it and individualize care for the infant. Consistency between home and classrooms is important. For instance if an infant naps between 10am and 11am at home, you will want to provide the same consistency in the classroom. It can be difficult to individualize for each infant in your classroom. We recommend assigning one lead consistent caregiver to each child who ensure the appropriate routines for infant and paying attention to temperaments between the infant and caregiver. It is also important to note that schedules and routines change relatively fast for infants (what a child does at 8 months may change by 9 months). So, it is very appropriate to not have a set classroom schedule (i.e. every child eats lunch at 11am), but have individualized schedules and routines.

Older infants-toddlers need and want predictable days. It is soothing to them to hear and know the order of the day, ending with the parent/guardian returning to get them. When older infants and toddlers know the routine this supports their security. For this reason, the older infant or toddler’s day should follow a posted schedule, for example: arrival and free play, snack, diaper change, outside time/nap, free play, departure. This said, babies’ temperaments and home schedules vary wildly. Flexing your schedule for individual needs is still important – when you are too tired to stay awake it is hard to eat, and when your diaper is soiled, it is not comfortable to go sit for snack. If an infant needs to deviate from the schedule due to irregular rhythms or because her family stayed up late the night before, she should be accommodated. The book Infants, Toddlers and Caregivers (Gonzalez-Mena & Widmeyer Eyer) is a useful reference for justifying your ideas in your new role.

We tend to reference the Program for Infant and Toddler Caregivers (PITC) guidelines for behavior which suggests that infants under 18 months old don't understand that their behavior has consequences. For this reason, a redirect to an appropriate biting/teething choice is more effective than simply saying, "No, biting hurts," because the urge to bite is still there. We also examine each bite in relation to the things we know precede the bite: was there crowding? Territory struggle? Teething? These observations can help me predict and prevent future bites. For example, if we know a baby bites when feeling crowded, if I see another baby coming close I can say, "Oh, Marta, Jihee is coming very close, you might want to move your body." This parallel talk over time can help the child learn to predict her own responses to events and respond with more pro-social behaviors.

Yes! And how to reassure parents that biting is natural but that we're handling it in a way that will lead to less (or no) biting.

That's a great question, and you hit on a great point by reflecting on the economics of working vs. staying home. Many countries do provide support for families so they are able to stay at home. In the United States, it’s important that we recognize that many families are single moms or dads who need to work and many do not have support systems such as grandparents, etc. Even two parent households are often in situation where both parties need to work. There are also some parents who want to work.
We think that the impact of childcare (positive and negative) is largely dependent on the quality of care of the program. Programs with low caregiver to child ratios, small groups, continuity of caregivers, and healthy, safe conditions are key for infants to thrive. Without these conditions, infants may be harmed by childcare. Further, caregivers who understand infant development and the importance of relationships and attachments are also central to the quality of child care. Having high quality child care available to parents can be a win-win for the child and the family overall.

We look a lot at what is developmentally appropriate for children. Asking toddlers to share one-of-a-kind items can be challenging, since they are developing autonomy, want to play in parallel fashion, side by side with someone else using an identical toy, and tend to struggle to regulate their emotions. For this reason, we place two to three of each kind of toy in the classroom. This means that they are less required to control their impulses than if they were constantly asked to share. We also do a lot of reflective speech about who has what and what they seem to be trying to do. This helps because when a child joins the play, she is aware of what the other child is trying to do, and can be coached to find a similar toy and join in. When two children are actively in a power struggle, pulling a toy between them, we tend to follow Sue Dinwiddie's conflict resolution rubric. We identify the problem, talk about the children's feelings, and discuss who can find more or wait. Once children have decided, we help children wait or find more, and then restate the solution when it is reached. Using this formula gives the children tools for conflict resolution, and helps them calm down because they know that there will be an end to the conflict and that the teacher is there to help.