1. Curriculum & Programming for Infants

2. Setting Up the Physical Environment
Infant Care

3. Setting Up the Physical Environment: Basic Considerations
Infants sleep much of the day
When awake, infants learn best from interactions with adults
When awake, infants learn from playing with a variety of toys
As early as 6 months, infants enjoy interactions with other infants
Needs and schedules for infants can change on a daily basis
Infants are vulnerable to contagious illness and over-stimulation

4. Equipping the Infant Room
Sleeping area
Changing area
Feeding area
Bouncy chairs and swings
Storage areas for infant supplies
Play areas

5. Selecting Learning Materials
Shelf toys
3-6 months: Rattles, soft squeak toys, cradle gyms, musical toys, washable dolls, animals
6-9 months: Toy telephones, roly-poly toys, pop-up toys, colorful wheel toys, unbreakable mirrors, washable cuddle toys
9-14 months: “busy boards,” fill and dump toys, rolling toys, push and pull toys, large balls, soft blocks, cloth or cardboard blocks
Sensory bin
Splashing water, finger painting with pudding, rubbing hands in wet cornstarch
Dishpans
Music area
CD / MP3 player
Selecting Learning Materials

6. Arranging the Infant Room
Separation between awake and sleeping babies
Changing and feeding areas should be easily accessible from both wakeful and sleeping areas
Easy access to running water, refrigeration, covered waste disposal cans, and food warmer
Adult look-out spot with full visibility
Carpet the floor area
Enclose play area
Arrange toys and books on shelves and group similar items
Music should be accessible to adults not children
2-foot wide walkway at all exits

7. Sample infant room layout

8. Some Real Infant rooms

9. Some Real Infant rooms

10. Physical Development
Infants

11. Infants’ Physical Development
Young infants (0-9 months)
Born with all basic movements
Turn toward sounds
Follow moving objects
Practice movements such as lifting the head, supporting oneself with the arms and then rolling over and sitting
Increase the ability to explore and discover through mastery of small-muscle skills, such as bringing the hand to the mouth, reaching, swatting, grasping, raking, and using an immature pincer grasp to pick up small objects
three-week old reaching for pacifier
5 month old baby reaching

12. Infants’ Physical Development
Older infants (9-14 months)
Learn to use motor skills to achieve desired goals
Crawl, creep, pull to standing, cruise, walk with help, ride scooting toys, and walk alone in a predictable sequence
baby walking
Enjoy mastering motor skills and want to share accomplishments
Always on the move
Use objects to hold, mouth, bang, drop, pick up, turn, and put together
baby and laundry

13. Activities that enhance large-muscle development
0-3 months
Change baby’s position
Kicking
Reaching out
tummy time
3-6 months
Reaching and grasping
Turning from side to side
Pull-ups
6-9 months
Come and get it
Sitting up
9-14 months
Pulling up
Ball games
Walking
Feeding
Tunnel crawl

14. Activities that enhance small-muscle development
0-3 months
Provide shake toys with handles
Provide toys and materials with different textures for feeling
3-6 months
Provide toys for handling and mouthing
Provide objects for visual tracking, such as mobiles, fish in a tank, soap bubbles, wind-up cars and pendulums
6-9 months
Develop hand strength with squeeze toys
Activity boards require infants to hold onto, poke at, and pull on things
Finger foods
Stuffed animals and soft dolls
9-14 months
Simple finger plays, like Where is Thumbkin?
Blocks and objects for filling and dumping from buckets
Sensory experiences like painting and pudding

15. Cognitive Development
Infants

16. Infants’ Cognitive Development
Young infants (0-9 months)
Each is unique in terms of temperament, coping ability, and developmental timetable
Work hard to make sense of the world by listening, watching and touching
Programmed from birth to engage in interactions with adults
By 4-5 months of age, can make interesting things happen again
Put together sensations and information from different senses
Show interest in new information
Get accustomed to familiar sights and sounds

17. Infants’ Cognitive Development
Older infants (9-14 months)
Learn through exploration and discovery
Anticipate new events based on past experiences
Recognize that people can affect objects and other people
Imitate actions and expressions
Empty and fill, open and shut, push and pull, poke and prod
Look at objects that the caregiver is pointing to
Use simple tools, such as shovels, spoons and drumsticks
Show awareness of object permanence
pop culture object permanence

18. Activities that promote problem-solving skills
0-3 months
Look & stare - can infants focus their eyes on brightly colored objects?
Tracking - first side to side, then vertically, then in circles
Grasping - place objects in infants’ hands
Sound search
3-6 months
Rattle shake - give infants the rattle
Banging toys
Reaching activities
Kicking activities
Peek-a-boo
Squeaky toy manipulation

19. Activities that promote problem-solving skills
6-9 months
Squeak toy play
Cause-and-effect activities (pop up or musical toys)
Hidden objects
Block towers for the infant to knock down
Rianne playing with blocks
9-14 months
Rolling balls with play-by-play narration
Hidden object games
Reaching challenges
Emptying treasures from a bin game
infant problem solving rings

20. Infants’ Creative Development
Creativity
a trait that enables children to find new ways to arrange materials, ask questions or solve problems
Young infants (0-9 months)
Sensitive to sensory information from birth
Use new information to learn about the world
Distinguish between new and familiar information, and can tune out information that is overwhelming
Enjoy listening to different kinds of music, experiencing rhythmic movement, and looking at colorful displays and designs
Older infants (9-14 months)
Active experimenter, trying out new ways of playing and interacting
Try a variety of actions on the same object, such as hitting, banging, shaking, tasting and dropping
Try the same actions on a variety of new objects, noticing the ways in which different objects react

21. Activities that Encourage Sensory Exploration
Texture rubs
Bubbles
1 c. dishwasher detergent to 1 c. water and 1 tbsp of glycerin
Cornmeal play
Spaghetti pull
Finger painting (older infants)
Sand play
Different textured paper play
Sound exploration
baby sensory activities

22. Activities for Exploring Music
Play soothing music for feeding and sleep, upbeat when awake
Encourage moving to music
Instrument play
Action songs
Some artists….
Raffi
Sharon, Lois & Bram
The Wiggles

23. Language and Communication
Infants

24. Infants’ Communicative Development
Young infants (0-9 months)
From birth, seek and respond to human contact
Capable of communicating feelings, wants and needs through smiles, cries and gestures
Initiate “conversations” with others in a back and forth manner, using looks and babbling sounds
Signal the need for a break from the conversation by looking or turning away
Enjoy cooing, babbling and changing pitch and volume
Recognize familiar voices by looking toward the speaker or quieting and seeking eye contact
Different sounding cries indicate hunger, distress, and other needs or wants

25. Infants’ Communicative Development
Older infants (9-14 months)
Tune into words and phrases like bye-bye, up, and more
By months, begin to use recognizable words, such as wawa, Mama
Use recognizable words and strings of sounds that sound like talking
Recognize the difference between playful and soothing words and words that signal disapproval and may stop what they are doing when they hear No or Hot
Use language to initiate and maintain contact with parents and caregivers

26. Activities that promote communication skills
0-3 months
Talk with wakeful baby
Sing lullabies and songs
Turn-taking
3-6 months
Face-to-face interaction, following pattern of talk-pause-talk-pause
Picture shows
6-9 months
Babble some of the sounds you know the baby can make
Clapping and waving
Smelling flowers
Body parts
9-14 months
“Show me the…” game
“Point to the X” in the picture book
Songs, chants and nursery rhymes
Family albums or collages

27. Emotional Development
Infants

28. Infants’ Emotional Development
Young infants (0-9 months)
Developing a sense of trust and learning to make predictions
Learn ways of self-comforting
Demonstrate a variety of emotions, including sadness, anger, surprise and happiness
Learn to respond to a smile with a smile
Show emerging awareness of self by playing with own hands or by touching caregiver’s mouth than her own
Develop preferences for certain sights, sounds, ways of being held, objects and activities
Enjoy active play but can get overstimulated

29. Infants’ Emotional Development
Older infants (9-14 months)
Discover that they are agents who can make things happen
Take the lead in initiating interactions
Respond to mirror image by smiling and playing with mirror
Form special attachments with familiar people
Show self-awareness by putting hat on head
Demonstrate shyness by hiding behind the caregiver

30. Activities that promote emotional development
Encourage the infant to bond to primary caregiver
Be responsive to infant
Talk about emotions with infants
Collaborate with parents to promote consistency at home and at child care
Promote a homelike atmosphere in baby room

31. Social Development
Infants

32. Infants’ Social Development
Young infants (0-9 months)
Maintain eye contact from the moment of birth
Cry contagiously when another infant cries
Enjoy watching another baby
Engage in back and forth conversations with parents and other caregivers
At 6 or 7 months, may show anxiety when approached by a stranger
Older infants (9-14 months)
Recognize several different relatives and caregivers and react to them in different ways
Can play alone for very brief periods
May still show anxiety when approached by a stranger
Enjoy being with other children and imitating what they are doing
Form attachments to transitional objects like blankets or stuffed animals
Is distressed when a special person, like a parent, leaves the room and gives her a special welcome upon her return

33. Activities that Promote Social Development
Young infants (0-9 months)
Use a low voice to quiet and comfort the baby and a higher voice to engage the baby in playful interactions
Sing and play interactive games with infants, like peek-a-boo
Provide infants with opportunities to look at and babble with each other
Older infants (9-14 months)
Provide many opportunities for social interaction with children as well as adults
Play back and forth games that include opportunities for the infant to imitate actions and enjoy interactions
Engage babies in two-person and group games that involve music and movement