Infants and toddlers in your care: How does your program measure up to play-based educational standards, family-centered strategies, and great ideas for daily activities?
This workshop / seminar format is designed for family members, parents (infants can come, too) and professionals, whose educational experiences with infants and toddlers may vary widely. The central message for the session is that families are increasingly considered to be “in charge”, and that parents, their infants and toddlers, siblings, teachers and other “pros” are partners, sharing expertise and making mutual decisions. Teachers and others need to gain an understanding of parents as competent partners, and focus their educational efforts toward the needs and wants of parents.
The session is divided into several segments during the day (8:30a.m. – 3:00 p.m.)
- Segment 1: Infant/toddler innovative and therapeutic play
- Segment 2: Great ideas for daily routines and activities for infants
- Segment 3: Characteristics of infant/toddler development and behavior
Participants will be challenged to think “outside the traditional program box”. They will have an opportunity to practice practical ideas that fit into the daily program routine, combining play, principles, policies, and developmental teaching and learning.
The following is a sampling of questions that may be addressed as participants engage in dialogues and conversations regarding:
- How do infants and toddlers brains work?
- What specifically do infants and toddlers learn in “group” settings?
- How can parents and teachers play and teach, as well as nurture, gently?
- What pleasant experiences promote infant/toddler cognitive and social development?
- How much do teachers expect from infants/toddlers?
- Do 0-3 year-olds really need a curriculum of specific tasks, games, and manipulative/motor activities to encourage communication and language?
