What are the key components to planning a curriculum for infants and toddlers which are most important?

How We Teach

Your youngest learners need to feel safe and supported so they can learn with their whole body and all of their senses. In a HighScope infant and toddler program, teachers focus on developing supportive, trusting relationships with the children in their care. We create rich environments that encourage very young children to explore and discover the world around them, helping them to engage in experiences designed to support their optimal development in all domains.

At HighScope we value and respect parents as their children’s first teachers. That’s why we encourage teachers to partner with parents in learning everything they can about their infants and toddlers to better care for their needs and plan for their development. As a result, our programs create a strong three-way bond between child, parent, and caregiver.

Active learning is at the center of the HighScope Curriculum. It’s the foundation where young children gain knowledge through their natural play and interactions with the environment, events, and other people.

Adult-Child Interaction

Nurturing, responsive teachers practice primary caregiving and continuity of care by scaffolding the individual needs and temperaments of infants and toddlers. Key strategies for adult-child interactions are touching, holding, playing alongside infants and toddlers at their level and pace, communicating in give-and-take exchanges verbally and nonverbally, respecting children’s choices and encouraging their efforts, acknowledging children’s strong emotions, and involving toddlers in resolving conflicts.

Learning Environment

The physical space is safe, flexible, and child oriented to provide comfort and accommodate the changing developmental needs and interests of the earliest learners. The space is organized into play and care areas that serve the needs of infants and toddlers and stocked with a variety of sensory-motor materials that infants and toddlers can reach, explore, and play with in their own way at their own pace. With nurturing and responsive caregivers as a home base, infants and toddlers are free to move about, explore materials, exercise creativity, and solve problems.

Schedules and Routines

A consistent yet flexible routine that accommodates individual children’s natural rhythms and temperaments gives infants and toddlers a sense of security and stability that creates trust between the child and teacher and builds independence as children engage with their environment and the people around them. Each routine is built around daily events and caregiving routines that value infants’ and toddlers’ active learning.

Observation

Ongoing child and program assessment is an underlying component of the HighScope Curriculum. Objective observations of children allow teachers to intentionally plan to build on individual and group interests and scaffold development by supporting what children know while gently extending their learning.

What We Teach

Grounded in current child development theory and research, the HighScope Infant-Toddler Curriculum is evidence-based. Our framework for understanding and supporting infants’ and toddlers’ learning from birth to age three is based on 42 key developmental indicators (KDIs) which align with national and state early learning guidelines and the Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework.

In the HighScope Infant-Toddler Curriculum, learning is focused on these six content areas:

• Approaches to Learning
• Social and Emotional Development
• Physical Development and Health
• Communication, Language, and Literacy
• Cognitive Development
• Creative Arts

Infant-Toddler Curriculum Content

Early learning and development in these six content areas is guided by 42 key developmental indicators (KDIs) — the skills and behaviors at each stage of development that pave the way for school and adult success. Each KDI is connected to and reinforced by scaffolding strategies to help teachers appropriately support and gently extend children’s learning.

The HighScope key developmental indicators

• Provide teachers with a child development “filter” for observing and choosing appropriate interactions and activities
• Help teachers interpret what young children say and do along a developmental continuum
• Enable teachers to maintain reasonable expectations for young children
• Reinforce children’s play as the primary mechanism for learning
• Allow teachers to be more knowledgeable and intentional in their daily planning for individual children and the class

September 7, 2021

Posted in: Parenting Resources

Many times, when people hear that the Kiddie Academy® Life Essentials® curriculum includes a program for infants as young as 6 weeks old, they’re surprised.

“Really? Do infants need a curriculum?”

The answer is easy. Yes!

According to the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), when you’re looking for child care, one sign of a high-quality program is the use of a developmentally appropriate curriculum, even for the littlest children. NAEYC says such a program guides caregivers to provide infants with the materials and activities they need to meet their developmental goals even at these early stages.

“I know it sounds weird to suggest that a 6-week-old can benefit from curriculum,” said Kiddie Academy Vice President of Education Joy Turner. “You usually equate a curriculum with children who are in elementary school and beyond. But curriculum doesn’t only mean learning facts and figures. Curriculum also covers things as basic as an infant building trust with a teacher and providing a safe and nurturing environment. It’s making sure to provide the physical needs for growth, like tummy time and hand grip. It’s beginning to understand social emotional cues, like facial expressions and sounds. Curriculum is so important at this time.”

Of course, our infant curriculum at Kiddie Academy is far different from what you would find for older age groups we serve. While these youngest children in our care don’t yet read or write, there’s a lot going on in their brains.

How Babies’ Brains Develop

“A child’s brain undergoes an amazing period of development from birth to three which produces more than a million connections each second” said Sandra Graham, our Director of Training. “Babies’ brains develop by creating an intricate network between these cells.” She suggests the following activities to help our infants start connecting those neurons:

• Reading, telling stories, talking, and singing with an infant can help connect the neurons in the brain for future language development.
• Smile at your baby—it makes them feel safe and builds attachment.
• Make eye contact and respond to their cues. If they start to coo or vocalize, talk back. “Serve-and-return” communication is a well-studied element of a child’s brain development.
• Play games like peekaboo with infants to help your baby see the connection between his actions and what is happening. Keep your patience and sense of humor when dropping toys becomes a game.
• Encourage your infant to reach for toys because they are starting to see bright colors and objects.
• Hold your infant while feeding them and talk to them. The part of the brain that registers and processes touch is already well developed.

“Our curriculum supports a child’s growth in all areas of development, including physical, social and emotional, language and communication, cognitive, creative arts and outdoor learning and nature,” said Curriculum Project Manager Carmen Draayer. “Activities are implemented individually through daily routines, as well as during play time with a group of children with varying levels. Activities are chosen based on each child’s individual needs and skills. Teachers observe an infant’s development through the experiences that are offered and support them on how they learn.”

Cassie Baird, an Accreditation Project Manager, explains that assessing developmental progress is also much different for infants. “You obviously can’t measure infant development with ‘skill-and-drill activities.’ You have to see how they engage with a trusted caregiver and the world around them. The Kiddie Academy Life Essentials curriculum provides infants with opportunities to develop and build physical, cognitive, social/emotional and even communication skills. Although the infancy stage is brief, infant development occurs rapidly and can be measured by typical developmental milestones. Indicators of typical infant development include learning cause and effect, object permanence, grasping and motor skills such as crawling, and communicative babbling.”

Want to find out what a day is like for your infant at our Academies? Learn more about the Kiddie Academy Life Essentials curriculum.

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