Provider Services: Program for Infant and Toddler Care

Class Descriptions & Key Concepts

Lesson 1A: Getting in Tune with Infants & Toddlers
The relationship between an infant and his or her caregiver is at the heart of quality infant/toddler care. This lesson provides information that can help caregivers provide sensitive, responsive care to each infant/toddler in their group.
Key concepts:

Lesson 1B: Temperaments
Right from the start, babies are different from each other. An understanding of temperamental differences can help caregivers work more responsively and effectively with the individual infants and toddler in their care.
Key concepts:

Lesson 1C: Social-Emotional Milestones and Responsive Caregiving
This lesson will develop and understanding of the watch, ask and adapt responsive process within the age appropriate social and emotional milestones.
Key concepts:

Lesson 1D: Understanding Children's Behavior
This session focuses on recognizing and understanding individual and developmental issues behind the behaviors of infants and toddlers. Materials support caregivers in recognizing the source of different infant/toddler behaviors and identifying ways to work with them.
Key concepts:

Lesson 1E: Guidance & Discipline
This session takes a look at the roots of how babies develop social skills, how each setting plays a part, as well as specific guidance techniques appropriate for children as they grow from birth to three years old. Video and print materials are used, as well as group problem solving activities.
Key concepts:

Lesson 2A: Routines as Curriculum
Caregiving routines provide opportunities for caregivers to build close personal relation- ships with each child while attending to each child's individual physical, emotional and developmental needs. When carried out responsively and with out haste, routines create learning opportunities, allowing time for the child to participate, develop skills and share the joys of communication. This helps the caregiver as well as the child. The caregiver is likely to find satisfaction in these caregiving routines when he or she pays attention to the whole child not just the task.
Key concepts:

Lesson 2B Primary Care/Continuity of Care
This lesson focuses on the importance of a primary care system for giving infants and toddlers in care the personal relationships and responsive care that they need.
Key concepts:

Lesson 2C: Environments 1
The caregiving environment provides the setting in which an infant or toddler spends large amounts of time. The setting must meet the growing child's physical, emotional, social and cognitive. Caregivers have many options in designing the environment so that it meets the child's needs for safety, health, security, comfort and learning in indoor as well as outdoor spaces.
Key concepts:

Lesson 2D: Environments 2
This lesson will assist providers in creating spaces that are age appropriate for small groups.
Key concepts:

Lesson 2E: Respectful Care
Magda Gerber's thoughts on respecting the skills as well as individual differences of infants and of the importance of observing children.
Key concepts:

Lesson 3A: Principles of Facilitating Early Learning Overview
What is the caregiver's role in helping infants learn? Certainly, we need to regularly observe and use that knowledge in developing individualized curriculum. It is also helping to understand how to use the "Adapt, Support, Repetition/Practice and Expand" methods.
Key concepts:

Lesson 3B: Discoveries of Infancy
Learn how babies develop common learning strategies.
Key concepts:

Lesson 3C: Brain Development in Infancy
You will understand the impact that stress has on brain development and early learning. There are critical points in time for babies and toddlers to learn certain things. We will explore emotional development, and learn the seven ways to support brain development.
Key concepts:

Lesson 3D: Special Needs
Explore your feelings about inclusive care and how to partner with parents. Learn how to adapt your environment to meet the needs of all children. In addition, find out about community resources available to you and the children in your care.
Key concepts:

Lesson 3E: Language Development and Communication, and Culture
Did you know that there are ten suggested ways to help children develop language skills? It is also very important to understand how cultural differences impact language development.
Key concepts:

Lesson 4A: Culture, Family and Providers
Children's sense of identity is formed through the ways in which the important adults in their lives react and interact with them. Rules for living are passed down to them from their family's beliefs, faith, ethnicity, etc. Children need to feel secure in who they are and where they come from. What child care policies and practices should be in place that reflect support of cultural beliefs?
Key concepts:

Lesson 4B: Harmonizing Cultural Diversity for Sensitive Infant Care
Understand the importance of how children develop their sense of self and how culture impacts it. Everyone has cultural beliefs, what are yours?
Key concepts:

Lesson 4C: Responding to Families in Culturally Sensitive Ways
What is culture? What is cultural awareness and sensitivity? It is important to understand how culture affects all of us so that we can develop certain skills in order to partner effectively with parents on behalf of their children.
Key concepts:

Lesson 4D: Protective Urges
Through a four-step process we will explore and work with our feelings that affect how we work with children and families. We will also work to understand parent's feelings so that we can be open, honest, and understanding.
Key concepts:

Lesson 4E: Responsive Family & Community Relationships
Responsive relationships are invaluable in understanding a child's family and community. There are many ways to build responsive relationships including visiting the child's home. Using that knowledge can lead the child care provider and parents to understand how they can help the child develop. For example, how to focus on process vs product learning opportunities: the skills that a toddler gains in independently exploring paint are more important than producing an adult directed product.
Key concepts:

Lesson 5A: Attitudes, Inclusion and Access through Legislation/Confidentiality
This lesson will help in understanding the legislation and how providers can find resources in adapting care for each child.
Key concepts:

Lesson 5B: When Concerns Arise - Supporting Children, Families and Caregivers
Building upon the relationship based approach to caring for each child, child care providers will explore their own thoughts and concerns and how best to support the children and their families when there may be cause for concern.
Key concepts:

Lesson 5C: When Concerns Arise - Responsive Planning
This lesson assists providers in using the Watch, Ask and Adapt methods for planning.
Key concepts:

Lesson 5D: Building Relationships to Support All Children
Providers will have the chance to look at how to partner with families and specialists on behalf of the child's needs.
Key concepts:

Lesson 5E: Inclusive Group Care and Individualization
It is helpful for providers to explore ways of adapting care routines and the environment to meet the needs of the child.
Key concepts: