Creating Shade for Your Children Part 1 Review

Nurturing Environments

Preparing the Environment

No space is marginal, no corner unimportant, and each space needs to be alive, flexible, and open to change.

—Cadwell, 1997, p. 93

You can create a high-quality infant and toddler environment past planning and creating spaces that support infants' and toddlers' development, engagement, and overall well-beingness. Conscientious idea and planning for infants and toddlers can facilitate the development of positive relationships with nurturing, responsive adults who back up their learning and development. For example, a comfortable easy chair that is roomy enough for an adult and a couple of children provides an opportunity in the surroundings for togetherness. Partnering with and learning from parents is as well an important function of this planning process considering it supports individualizing your setting to meet the needs of infants and toddlers in your care.

Equally you consider spaces for infants and toddlers, information technology is helpful to reflect on the following topics:

• Ensuring children's health and safety;
• Supporting the evolution of positive relationships;
• Enhancing children'southward learning through engaging and advisable experiences; and
• Existence responsive to children's individual needs.

Each of these topics is discussed in more detail in this article.

ane. Creating Spaces for Infants and Toddlers that Ensure Safety and Promote Health

One of the well-nigh important considerations when designing whatsoever space for infants and toddlers is to ensure young children'south health and safety. Safe settings ensure that infants and toddlers can explore freely, which in turn supports their developing sense of cocky. It also supports you equally a caregiver. Instead of spending most of your time monitoring infants and toddlers to keep them rubber, you have more opportunities to interact with and respond to them. A healthy environment decreases the possibility of contracting and spreading illness and enhances infants' and toddlers' overall well-beingness (Lally, Stewart, & Greenwald, 2009).

Keeping your surroundings safe and healthy for infants and toddlers involves many details. Using a checklist to practice regular health and safety assessments tin help y'all keep rails of these details. This Health and Prophylactic Screener (north.d.) from the Office of Head Starting time, Assistants for Children and Families, U.S. Section of Health and Human Services was developed for Head Kickoff programs. However, it can be used in whatsoever early on babyhood program. In heart-based kid care programs, you tin can discuss what you learn from checklists with your plan managing director as you piece of work together to consider changes to the environment. If yous are an banana in a family kid care home, yous can discuss your reflections with the master provider as you work together to ensure that the environment promotes wellness and safety.

Your state or territory may have boosted health and safety requirements. Check with your state or territory's kid care licensing agency and quality rating and improvement system to acquire more than about requirements and recommendations that may be specific to your area.

An of import manner to create a condom environment is to meet appropriate grouping size and child-to-adult ratio limits (Gonzalez-Mena, & Widmeyer Eyer, 2012). Smaller grouping sizes and lower child-to-adult ratios aid you create and maintain an environment that promotes health and safety for all infants and toddlers in your intendance. States and territories ascertain group sizes and ratios through their licensing agencies, quality rating and improvement systems, and their Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) programs. Research-based recommendations for group size and ratios can be establish in Caring for Our Children: National Wellness and Safety Functioning Standards; Guidelines for Early Care and Pedagogy Programs, 3rd edition (2015) by the National Resource Middle for Health and Prophylactic in Kid Care and Early Instruction, and the Head Start Plan Performance Standards.

two. Designing Spaces for Infants and Toddlers that Support Positive Relationships

Thoughtfully designing child care settings means setting up an environment that promotes respectful and responsive relationships, which are so important to infants' and toddlers' growth and evolution. You tin can blueprint settings to support human relationship-building betwixt children and caregivers, families and children, caregivers and families, caregivers and their colleagues, and children and their peers.

The following are several ways y'all can make certain that the environment promotes human relationship evolution. As you await at this listing, consider the following questions: What are you already doing and how is it working? What ideas would improve your environment and provide more than support for relationship evolution? What ideas do you accept that are not listed that you lot might share with other child care providers?

• Create an environment that supports meaningful interactions between caregivers and infants and toddlers.
  • Include several spots where adults can sit comfortably with infants and toddlers, such as cushions on the floor, dearest seats, benches, and tables for meals.
  • Design spaces where infants and toddlers tin can freely explore and caregivers tin can exist close past. This allows y'all to pay more attention to engaging in responsive interactions with children. Also, an environs that is safe for infants and toddlers to motility and explore freely supports their developing sense of independence and lessens the need for redirection.
    Remember about this example:
    Ms. Shay, a family child care provider, knows how important it is for infants and toddlers to have frequent experiences with books. She arranges her infinite and so the book area is easily accessible to children. She places books on an accessible bookshelf and has a basket of books in each of the cozy areas. She selects books about topics that interest them, reads with children every day, follows their pb, and comments on their reactions every bit they explore a variety of board books and soft books. As the children in her care become more mobile, Ms. Shay gets nervous when the infants and toddlers play near the book shelf for fright that it will tip over. She finds herself frequently saying, "No … don't pull on that shelf!" and constantly relocating children to other parts of the room. Later reflecting on the situation, she decides to secure the bookshelf to the wall to stabilize it so there is no danger of it falling over and hurting a child. She besides realizes that the children in her intendance need more than opportunities for gross motor movement, and she adds ramps and foam cubes to create more climbing opportunities. As a result, Ms. Shay realizes that she now spends less time saying "no" and more fourth dimension engaging in interactions that are meaningful, positive, and supportive of children'due south learning, development, and interests. Also, the infants and toddlers are now complimentary to exercise climbing safely on foam cubes and are not at gamble of existence hurt by the bookshelf.
    As yous reflect on this case, consider how information technology applies to your baby and toddler setting:
    • Are there places in your child care space where you find yourself saying "no" and redirecting children again and over again?
    • Are in that location means you tin adjust your environment to support infants' and toddlers' exploration?
• Create an environment that offers a variety of places for adults and children to comfortably be together.
  • Offer places for children and adults to snuggle, similar a glider or rocking chair or a comfy couch, where adults tin hold children in their laps to offer comfort, have quiet interactions, or read books.
  • Design an expanse for meals that includes appropriately sized furniture for the infants and toddlers in your care as well as comfy seating for you, other caregivers, and nursing mothers. Every bit you consider how to arrange this area, think about what y'all demand to experience comfortable when belongings a child and feeding her a bottle likewise as when you are sitting next to her at a table while she feeds herself.
  • Create comfortable means for adults to sit at infants' and toddlers' levels and have meaningful interactions with them. Some caregivers similar to utilize a flooring chair that is low to the floor and has a cushioned seat and back support. By finding ways to sit comfortably on the floor, you can give more than attention to engaging in responsive interactions with infants and toddlers.
• Design an environment that welcomes and supports advice between families and caregivers.
  • Accept fourth dimension to talk with families every day at drop-off and option-upwards times to commutation information nigh their children'south experiences at home and at the programme. You can support this open advice by having a space for each child, such as a cubby, bin, or clipboard. You can likewise provide daily notes for families that describe how their children'due south meals, naps, diapering/toileting, and play occurred throughout the twenty-four hour period. You might too have a space for parents to leave notes for y'all if there isn't an opportunity to share information in person.
  • Create a infinite to post important data for families, such as a class calendar, parenting tips, or photos of children exploring at the child care program. If y'all are in a child care center, y'all might mail these items on a bulletin board somewhere in the room, or in the hallway outside the room. If y'all are a family child care provider, y'all might use a refrigerator door or hang a whiteboard near the front entrance. Either way, consider putting these in a identify that is away from the menses of traffic, where families tin easily meet them and talk with you and other families.
  • Adopt an admissible policy that helps families experience welcome to come up into the room and collaborate with their children and you at any time. This includes providing a space for nursing mothers to comfortably feed their babies.
  • Design an environment that displays your interest in and respect for all the families in your program. Ask family members well-nigh ways to assist your program feel more like dwelling for their children. For example, use words from languages that reflect the families of all children in your care on wall displays and information boards; display family photos on a family board, in a basket, or in a photograph album; and incorporate items from children's homes into your environment, such as fabrics, foods, and music that are familiar to the families.

three. Creating Spaces for Infants and Toddlers that Support Their Development

• Allow for prophylactic freedom of motility.
  Motility supports children'south growth by allowing them to practice physical skills, develop thinking skills, and do independence (Lally, Stewart, & Greenwald, 2009). As yous fix a safety surround that allows infants and toddlers to move around freely, you aid them fully explore the infinite and do what comes naturally to them, including itch, scooting, running, climbing, jumping, and walking. As y'all reflect on creating a space that allows for this prophylactic freedom of move, consider the following:
  • Make sure floors are clean and non slippery and offering a safe place for infants and toddlers to country if they fall.
  • Observe rubber spaces for infants and toddlers to explore movement at all levels of development and avert placing them in restrictive devices, such as swings, bouncy seats, or high chairs. These devices restrict natural movement, preventing children from using their muscles to whorl, scoot, and pull themselves up.
  • Arrange article of furniture and then that there are clear pathways for children to easily brand their mode through the room.
  • Utilise depression shelves, dividers, and other furniture that let yous to easily run into over them and monitor children in all areas of the room at all times.
  • Create condom opportunities for dissimilar kinds of movement by providing furniture and equipment that allow infants and toddlers to crawl through, climb on, jump off, and pull up. For toddlers, provide opportunities for vertical movements, such as slopes, stairs, or small ladders.
• Let infants and toddlers to have plenty of choices.
  Offering infants and toddlers a variety of choices throughout the solar day helps them stay interested, engaged, and happy. Some examples of choice include:
  • Spending time with others or spending time alone;
  • Playing quietly or existence loud and more than active;
  • Being able to eat, slumber, and play based on individual needs;
  • Exploring a variety of age-advisable materials and activities, including books, building toys, art supplies, pretend play materials, sensory play materials, so forth; and
  • Exploring a variety of play surfaces, levels, and equipment, such as soft chairs, lofts, risers, and mats.
• Arrange the room into areas that support different kinds of exploration.
  You can organize spaces for infants and toddlers that support a variety of exploration and routines. For wellness and rubber reasons, it is important that areas for eating, food preparation, sleeping, and diapering are divide from play areas. In addition, play spaces can be arranged into areas that support different kinds of learning and development. For instance, Lally, Stewart, and Greenwald (2009) suggest designing small areas that support the following activities:
  • Small-muscle activity;
  • Sensory perception;
  • Large-motor activity; and
  • Artistic expression.

Other areas of exploration include block play, fantasy play, multilevel areas, a tranquility area to explore books, and cozy areas (WestEd, due north.d.).

Dividing the room into areas helps y'all create an organized and meaningful surroundings. Remember, nevertheless, that infants and toddlers are natural explorers and will likely carry toys and materials from one expanse of the room to another. Young children gather, spread, dump, and rearrange materials equally they explore and learn. Rather than limit movement between areas, you can support children's natural want for exploration and recognize its value.

Can you retrieve of times when infants or toddlers moved materials from one area of the room to another? How have you supported their exploration? What challenges do you face when supporting this freedom of move? How take you overcome those challenges?

It is too important to recall about how you suit materials within each expanse in your space. For example, displaying materials that are at infants' and toddlers' levels and easily accessible, supports their contained exploration and your ability to follow their lead. It is also helpful to provide a few types of the aforementioned materials so that several children can play without having to take turns, which can exist a source of conflict. Even so, information technology is important to avoid offering also many materials since a cluttered room tin can overwhelm children. Regularly rotating materials is helpful. This style children take a balance of familiar materials and new materials, which helps them maintain their interest and provides age-appropriate challenges.

four. Designing Spaces for Infants and Toddlers that Are Responsive to Their Individual Needs

It is important to respond to private infants and toddlers by adjusting the environment to each kid's unique preferences, interests, and needs. Consider these examples:

Manuel has only started to crawl and is happy to be moving around the room. He enthusiastically explores every inch of the classroom throughout the day. His instructor, Ms. Kara, notices that he is starting to attain up to catch the toy shelves equally though he might desire to pull himself up to a standing position. Looking around the room, she realizes that there aren't many things for Manuel to take hold of onto and pull himself up. She decides to accept some sturdy bins, which take been previously used for book storage, flip them upside downward, and motility them to various places around the room. At present Transmission has several places where he can happily pull himself to a standing position and run into the room from this heady new point of view.

Marcus and Leanne work together every bit caregivers in an infant classroom and have learned that the children in their care like to get ready for their individual naptimes in different ways. For example, Leila and Samuel like to be rocked and sung to while Leanne gets them ready to sleep. Carlos and Leo prefer to lie on their backs in their cribs, while Marcus gently rubs their tummies. Sharice often resists slumber and her father shared that she is sensitive to light and sound. Leanne has learned that dimming the lights and securely attaching a thick blanket to the wall next to her crib to reduce sound helps her fall comatose. The napping surface area also has a rocking chair in a nearby corner and a music actor with lullaby music on a shelf near the cribs. Marcus and Leanne continue to pay attention to how the infants in their care are transitioning to sleep and, over time, they continue to adjust the environs.

Every bit you reflect on these examples, consider your infant and toddler setting. Think about the following:

• How do you arrange your environment when infants' and toddlers' interests and developmental needs change?
• How do y'all arrange your surround to back up how infants and toddlers in your intendance like to become to sleep?
• How do you arrange your environment to back up individual sleep schedules?
• How do you partner with parents to consider ways to suit the environment to meet the needs of infants and toddlers?

In these examples, the caregivers were easily able to arrange the environs to be flexible so each kid'southward individual needs and preferences were met. These adaptations are non complicated, but they are an important office of respectful and responsive care. Evaluating your surroundings and making advisable changes as needed is an ongoing process that addresses infants' and toddlers' unique needs and values their developing skills and interests. The infant and toddler child care environment is " … never determined once and for all. Planning, arranging, evaluating, and rearranging is an ongoing process as caregivers strive for quality and find what works best for them and for the children every bit they grow and change" (Gonzalez-Mena & Eyer, 2012, p. 285). Committing to ongoing reflection and adaptation tin can enhance the quality of your infant and toddler spaces and support children'southward continual exploration and learning (Bergen, Reid, & Torelli, 2009).

Resource

The Office of Head Start'south Early Childhood Learning & Knowledge Center (ECLKC) offers videos, podcasts, and articles about preparing learning environments for children. In that location is specific data for infant and toddler child care settings. Yous tin can find resources on ECLKC's Learning Environments web page, including the following:

• Early on Essentials, Webisode 7: Environments (2018) is an 18-minute webisode that explores the affect of environments on infants, toddlers, and adults. This video is role of the Early on Essentials series, which offers primal messages and helpful resources to get staff started with the youngest children and their families. This video has a Quick Start Guide with teaching strategies and resources.
• Allow's Talk Almost Environments (2017) is the fourth installment in the Part of Caput Starting time'southward Caring Connections podcast series. This 14-minute podcast explores the message that environments convey to infants and toddlers and how environments affect adult-kid relationships. There is an accompanying Information Sheet with related resources.
• News You Can Use—Environment equally Curriculum for Infants and Toddlers (July 2010) provides information well-nigh how infants and toddlers learn through exploring their environment and how caregivers can create spaces that support this learning.
• News You Can Use—Learning at Home and Homelike Environments (February 2011) presents ways to create homelike environments for infants and toddlers and ways to help families discover learning opportunities that be in their homes.

References

Bergen, D., Reid, R., & Torelli, 50. (2009). Educating and caring for very young children: The infant/toddler curriculum (second ed.). New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Cadwell, L. B. (1997). Bringing Reggio Emilia home: An innovative arroyo to early childhood education . New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Gonzalez-Mena, J., & Eyer, D. W. (2012). Infants, toddlers, and caregivers: A curriculum of respectful, responsive, relationship-based intendance and education (9th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Instruction.

Lally, J. R., Stewart, J., & Greenwald, D. (2009). A guide to setting up environments (2nd ed.). Sacramento, CA: California Department of Educational activity and WestEd.

Gerber, One thousand., & Resources for Infant Educarers. (2007). See how they move. Los Angeles, Calif: Resource for Infant Educarers.

WestEd. (n.d.). Family child intendance and center based PITC PARS© user's guide. Unpublished user'southward guide.

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Source: https://childcareta.acf.hhs.gov/infant-toddler-resource-guide/preparing-environment

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