INFANT Child Development Need This Done Tomorrow February 19, 2019 By 12pm PACIFIC TIME ZONE!

APA FORMAT & NO REFERENCE PAGE 

In 2 paragraphs, discuss:

-What do you think is the difference between a licensed provider and a licensed, high-quality provider of infant/toddler education and care?

-Based on this week’s reading, what do you think are the 3 most important indicators of high quality education and care in an infant and toddler program? (See bottom reading)

-Provide at least 1 example from the materials or your own experiences to support each response. 

child development english

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Part O
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Part One: Background

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Introduction

This publication, Infant/Toddler Learning and Development Program Guidelines,presents information about how to
provide high-quality early care and education,
including recommendations for program poli-
cies and day-to-day practices that will improve
program services to all1 infants and toddlers
(children from birth to thirty-six months of
age). It contains vitally important information
about early learning and development. With
this publication the California Department of
Education intends to provide a starting point
for strengthening all programs that educate
and care for infants and toddlers, including
centers, family child care homes, and kith and
kin care. The guidelines specifically address
the concerns of program leaders, teachers, and
family members. They also inform community
organizations, policy-makers, business leaders,

1 Whenever infants, toddlers, or children are mentioned in
this publication, the intention is to refer to all children. In some
places the word all is used to emphasize the inclusive perspec-
tive presented in this publication.

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and others interested in improving the care and
education of California’s youngest children.

The guidelines pay particular attention
to the role of the family in early care and
education, to the inclusion of children with
disabilities or other special needs, and to col-
laboration between programs and families.
Because high-quality programming cannot be
attained without attention to these topics in
all components of care, the topics are woven
throughout the publication rather than treated
separately. In addition, family child care and
care by relatives are included in the main body
of the guidelines and, when necessary for clar-
ity, are addressed individually.

How great is the need for high-quality
care?

Large numbers of infants all over the na-
tion are spending long hours in early care and
education settings, many of which are of poor
quality. California reflects a national trend,
suffering from a scarcity of both the quantity
and the quality of infant/toddler programs.
Over half (58 percent) of California’s infants
and toddlers spend time in nonparental care.
A quarter of them (26 percent) are in full-time
care, defined as 35 or more hours per week
(Snyder and Adams 2001). The demand for
high-quality care overwhelms supply. This
need is especially pronounced in low-income
communities (Fuller and Holloway 2001),
where few high-quality settings can be found.
Statewide, only an estimated 5 percent of
available spaces in licensed centers are for
infant care (California Child Care Portfolio
2001).

The guidelines aim to increase the quality
of programs that currently exist and provide
a framework for the development of new
high-quality programs. Increasing the number
of high-quality settings will lead to a wide

range of benefits, including enhancing school
readiness, offering safe havens from abuse and
neglect, and providing appropriate services
for children with disabilities or other special
needs.

What does quality look like in an in-
fant/toddler program?

Infants and toddlers thrive in places where
they can feel secure, express their drive to
learn, and build their competence. They rely
on adults for nurturance and guidance as they
learn. When infants and toddlers receive care
in a relationship that consistently meets their
physical and emotional needs, that relationship
becomes a base for exploration and discovery.
They learn from being in close relationships
in many different ways during the first three
years of life. For example:

• A three-month-old infant who is hungry or
tired counts on a caring adult to read her
cues and meet her needs.

• A teacher repeats a song or finger play af-
ter a six-month-old looks into her eyes and
coos, as if asking her to keep the experi-
ence going.

• A teacher, noticing the interest of a
thirteen-month-old who is pointing at a
picture in a book, labels the picture for the
child.

• A fifteen-month-old finds himself in a safe
and interesting environment that has been
organized by his caregiver, who is attuned
to his developmental capabilities.

• A twenty-two-month-old with asthma and
her family come to feel assured by the
treatment of her teacher, who knows how
to give medication and communicates
regularly with the family about the child’s
special health needs.

• A two-year-old whose family’s primary
language is different from the teacher’s
feels comforted when the teacher says one
or two familiar words to her in her fami-
ly’s language.

• A thirty-month-old, feeling frustrated or
angry, learns that she can trust her teacher
to help her with difficult feelings.

What program policies, practices, and
professional development activities
lead to high quality?

Program policies and practices that sup-
port the development of positive relation-
ships—in particular, relationships between
teachers and families and teachers and chil-
dren—provide the foundation for high-quality
care and education. Some examples of policies
and practices are as follows:

• Primary care
• Small groups
• Continuity of caregiving relationships
• Safe, interesting, and developmentally

engaging environments and materials
• Inclusion of children with disabilities or

other special needs
• Curriculum that is responsive to individual

children’s interests, needs, and develop-
mental abilities

The professional development of teachers
also enhances program quality. Teachers de-
velop professionally through education, study,
experience, and ongoing communication with
children’s families. Professional development
can lead to changes in teachers’ perspectives
and approaches in such ways as the following:

• Teachers learn how to be responsive to
young children and to support their learn-
ing and development.

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• Teachers learn the importance of being
emotionally available to young children
and their families and of interacting in
sensitive, predictable ways.

• Teachers learn how to respond to individu-
al interests, strengths, family experiences,
and approaches to learning.

What does research say about the com-
ponents and the importance of quality?

In the last two decades, many studies have
identified the benefits of good-quality care for
young children. A large-scale national study
conducted by the National Institute of Child
Health and Human Development (NICHD
1997) looked at home-based and center-based
care. The NICHD researchers observed more
than 600 nonmaternal child care settings of
all kinds: grandparents, in-home care, child
care homes, and centers. The NICHD study
documented that safe, clean, stimulating en-
vironments with small groups and low adult-
to-child ratios were correlated with sensitive,
responsive, and cognitively stimulating care.
The research team reported that this higher
quality of care, which included more positive
language stimulation and interaction between
the child and teacher, was positively related
to the child’s (1) language abilities at fifteen,
twenty-four, and thirty-six months of age;
(2) cognitive development at age two; and
(3) eventual school readiness (NICHD 2000).

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Another large-scale study, the Cost, Qual-
ity, and Outcomes Study (1995), looked at
nearly 400 child care centers in four states,
including California. The researchers found
that children who attended higher-quality child
care centers had higher cognitive (for example,
math and language abilities) and social skills
(for example, better peer relations and fewer
behavior problems) in early elementary school
(Peisner-Feinberg and others 1999a).

Although dedicated teachers try to do what
is good for children, unfortunately, research-
ers have also found that many families with
children under the age of thirty-six months
do not have access to good or excellent care.
Less than 10 percent of the centers that were
originally studied in the Cost, Quality, and
Outcomes Study (Peisner-Feinberg and others
1999b), including California programs, were
judged to be of high quality. Rather than bene-
fiting from early care, young children are often
adversely affected by groups that are too big,
by undesirable adult-to-child ratios, by teachers
with little training, and by programs with low
teacher pay and high teacher turnover.

What are the long-range benefits of
high-quality programs?

James J. Heckman, a Nobel laureate in
economic sciences, analyzed the impact of
early experience on a person’s later success and
concluded that society should invest in the very
young. He states (2000, 3):

Learning starts in infancy, long before formal
education begins, and continues throughout life. .
. . Significantly, this is a time when human ability
and motivation are shaped by families and non-
institutional environments. Early learning begets
later learning and early success breeds later
success, just as early failure breeds later failure.
Success or failure at this stage lays the founda-
tion for success or failure in school, which in
turn leads to success or failure in post-learning.

Heckman goes on to say that when one
considers the long-term economic benefits of
having a society of self-confident, motivated
learners, no other period in life is more impor-
tant.

Guided by research, practice, and the
advice of experts, this publication identifies
policies and practices that beget early learning
and development and pave the way for later
success. Making an investment in infants, tod-
dlers, and families means making an invest-
ment to support the preparation, continuing
professional development, and appropriate
compensation of infant care teachers.

Do infants and toddlers need teaching
or caring?

Adults who care for infants and toddlers
spend every moment both teaching and car-
ing.2 In centers and family child care homes,
early childhood professionals are simultane-
ously caregivers and teachers, as their work
affects infants’ health, safety, development,
and learning. They attentively care for a
child’s well-being as they discover ways to
support the individual child’s curiosity and
exploration. What to name this complex role
is a challenge. This publication uses the term
infant care teacher to emphasize the compre-
hensive nature of providing care and facili-
tating learning and development. Infant care
teachers treat caregiving routines as learning
opportunities for the infant and set the stage
for learning by providing developmentally
appropriate, safe, inclusive, and engaging
learning environments. They also introduce
materials, make comments, offer suggestions,
and ask questions of children based on obser-
vation and study of the children’s learning and
development.

How are the infant/toddler guidelines
linked to the CDE’s Desired Results
system?

As stated earlier, the purpose of the guide-
lines is to help programs improve the quality
of the early care and education they provide.
Improved quality in turn should lead to better
outcomes for infants, toddlers, and their fami-
lies. Progress in implementing these guide-
lines is tracked and the outcomes of program
improvement are documented through the
California Department of Education’s com-

2 The word adult is used to describe the role of the adult,
including a teenage parent who has taken on adult responsibili-
ties as a parent.

prehensive assessment system called Desired
Results for Children and Families. This system
defines four general goals for children, includ-
ing those with disabilities or other special
needs, and two goals for families:

1. Children are personally
and socially competent.

2. Children are effective
learners.

3. Children show physical
and motor competencies.

4. Children are safe and
healthy.

5. Families support their
children’s learning and
development.

6. Families achieve their
goals.

The Desired Results
system consists of three
components. Children’s
developmental progress is
first assessed through the
California Department of
Education’s Desired Results
Developmental Profile-Re-

Teaching and Caring Occur
Together from the Beginning
of Life

Infants learn the rhythms of
speech, gestures, social rules,
and the meaning of facial
expressions from adults during
the first months of life. Every
moment in which an adult
provides care to a young infant
is a moment rich with learning.
Above all, young infants learn
how people respond to their
communication and behavior.
For example, when an adult
responds to a young infant who
is crying because of hunger, the
infant not only experiences the
satisfaction of being fed but also
learns that his crying will bring a
response from an adult.

vised (DRDP-R). These profiles address the
first four Desired Results for children and give
a comprehensive picture of individual chil-
dren’s learning and development. The DRDP-
R provides a profile of each child across
indicators such as self-concept, self-regula-
tion, social interaction skills, language de-
velopment, preliteracy knowledge and skills,
cognitive development and problem solving,
premathematics knowledge and skills, motor
development, and awareness of health and
safety. Then the program’s progress in meeting
goals for families is assessed through a family
interview form. A program gains insights from
information reported by families on how well
it is helping families support their children
and achieve their goals. The third component
of the Desired Results system focuses on
program quality. Depending on the type of
setting it is, a program periodically uses the
Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale, the
Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale, or
the Family Day Care Rating Scale to assess its
quality.

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In addition to informing programs on
how well they are implementing the guide-
lines, the Desired Results system is an integral
part of facilitating the learning and develop-
ment of infants and toddlers. Programs use the
DRDP-R to plan learning environments and
experiences that fit children’s current level
of development and provide an appropriate
amount of challenge. Because the infant/tod-
dler guidelines and Desired Results system
work hand in hand, the link between them will
be referenced throughout this publication.

How do the infant/toddler
guidelines relate to the prekindergar-
ten guidelines?

This publication is a companion to the
Prekindergarten Learning and Develop-
ment Guidelines published by the California
Department of Education in 2000. The pre-
kinder-garten guidelines describe high-qual-
ity programming for preschools and make
recommendations for curriculum and prac-
tice. The infant/toddler guidelines resemble
the format and approach of the prekindergar-
ten guidelines. The infant/toddler guidelines
were developed to link to the prekindergarten
guidelines and focus on experiences that help
young children make the transition to pre-
school programs.

Although the overall approach of the two
publications is similar, they are distinct due to
differences between the two age groups. For
example, this publication places the family at
the center of programs for infants and toddlers
since early development unfolds in the context
of the family. By building a relationship with
the family, infant/toddler programs take the
first step in facilitating the child’s learning
and development. In addition, because much
of what children learn in the first months and
years of life occurs during caregiving routines
(greetings and departures, diaper changing,
feeding, napping), the infant/toddler guide-
lines pay close attention to everyday routine
interactions. Preschool-age children still have
much to learn about themselves, but they have
already established a basic sense of identity. In
contrast, identity formation is just starting for
infants and toddlers. Their emerging sense of
self, sense of belonging, and sense of confi-
dence are intimately connected to their family
and culture. The messages family members
convey during interactions profoundly influ-
ence how infants and toddlers feel about them-
selves and what they expect from relationships
with adults and children. Finally, this publica-
tion necessarily places greater emphasis on
health and safety considerations than do the
prekindergarten guidelines. Because infants’
immune systems are still developing and they
are beginning to learn to move their bodies,
both the caregiving routines and the physical
environment require special attention.

What do the infant/toddler guidelines
offer?

The Infant/Toddler Learning and Devel-
opment Program Guidelines is based on the
field’s current understanding of young children
during the first three years of life. Designed
to encourage continuous improvement of
programs, the guidelines offer a blueprint
for early care and education. They focus on
several areas:

• Research-based practice. This publica-
tion summarizes research findings that can
guide day-to-day decisions and practices
when combined with information from
the children’s families, from teachers’ ex-

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perience and education, and from special-
ists supporting individual children.

• Relationships and experience. The guide-
lines place relationships at the center of
healthy learning and development. Each
relationship—between child and teacher,
the family and teacher, staff members and
administration, and staff members and
specialists supporting individual children
and families—helps programs provide
high-quality early care and education.

• Alignment of curriculum with children’s
learning and development. In the guide-
lines, curriculum is defined as a process.
Teachers observe children, document their
observations, assess children’s develop-
mental progress, reflect on their observa-
tions and assessments, discuss them with
colleagues, and plan and introduce learn-
ing experiences based on this process. By
respecting children as active participants
in learning, teachers create an environment
of experiences that fit each child’s evolv-
ing interests and abilities. The DRDP-R
works hand in hand with this publication,
offering a framework to teachers as they
align curriculum with children’s learning
and development.

• Professional development, reflective
supervision, and reflective practice. The
guidelines provide direction for ongoing
professional development of teachers. An
important part of professional develop-
ment occurs when teachers reflect upon, or
think about, day-to-day experiences with
children and families as well as spend time

with supervisors reflecting on practice.
Research indicates that having well-pre-
pared staff is one of the key components
of high-quality care and education. In
settings with well-prepared teachers, all
infants and toddlers have a wider range
of language experiences, engage in more
complex play with objects, and are more
creative in solving problems and making
discoveries (Howes 1997).

• Context. The guidelines take into account
the impact of context on learning and
development. A young child’s life is in-
fluenced by everything—from the expres-
sion on a teacher’s face to neighborhood
sounds at night. Every moment of a child’s
life is a learning experience. The context
for learning and development includes the
social, emotional, and physical world in
which a child lives—all of which influ-
ence a child’s daily experience in care and
education, a family’s participation in the
program, and a teacher’s ability tqVre-
spond sensitively to a child’s strengths,
needs, and interests.

How is this publication
organized?

Part One summarizes the research and
ideas supporting these guidelines. Four chap-
ters make up Part One:

• Chapter 1 focuses on building relation-
ships with families. This chapter describes
how all infants and toddlers enter early
care and education programs as newly

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developing members of families and com-
munities. Important throughout childhood,
the family’s involvement in
the development and care of their child
is intense during the infant/toddler years.
This publication recognizes the family’s
fundamental role by emphasizing a fam-
ily-oriented approach to the care
and education of infants and toddlers.

• Chapter 2 summarizes current research
on early development, including brain
development, that has shed new light
on how to nurture infants and toddlers.

• Chapter 3 defines the role of the teacher.
This chapter gives an overview of the
teacher as a reflective practitioner who
forms close, caring relationships with
young children and their families and ex-
plores ways to facilitate their learning and
development.

• Chapter 4 describes program leadership
and administration. Program leadership
and administration are essential in all

settings—infant/toddler centers where a
director often leads the program; a family
child care home where the provider leads
the program; or kith and kin care where
the child’s relative or neighbor is respon-
sible for both facilitating learning and at-
tending to administrative responsibilities.

Part Two, divided into two chapters, pres-
ents the guidelines. (See Appendix A for
a summary of the guidelines.)

• Chapter 5 contains guidelines for operat-
ing an infant/toddler program, including
developing relationship-based policies
and practices and maintaining a safe and
healthy environment.

• Chapter 6 describes the curriculum pro-
cess of facilitating learning for infants and
toddlers, including children with disabili-
ties or other special needs. Teachers, pro-
gram leaders, and family members share
important roles in responding to infants as
active and motivated learners.

Both chapters open with a brief introduction.
Each section begins with a rationale explain-
ing why the guideline is important. Action
points or recommendations are given for
applying the guidelines in diverse child care
settings. Desired Results and, when appli-
cable, indicators from the DRDP-R are also
identified for each of the guidelines.

Part Three lists resources on which the
guidelines are based. Resources consist of
research publications, curricula for infants and
toddlers, and lists of relevant organizations.

From beginning to end, this publication
invites teachers and program leaders to forge
relationships with families and, together with
families, create high-quality experiences for
all infants and toddlers. Such experiences not
only benefit children and families during the
first three years but also influence their devel-
opment throughout their lives.

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