Child care providers sometime feel shy about talking with babies, because they think the babies don’t understand what you are saying. But brain research tells us that talking with babies is important. Talking with babies helps them to learn a great deal about language and communication, even before they are old enough to understand the meaning of the words you say.
One of the easiest ways to talk with babies in child care is to build conversation with babies into …
Long before they can talk, babies are developing thinking skills. As a child care provider, you probably know that most babies put objects in their mouths. But did you realize that mouthing things helps babies learn about the shape and texture of objects? Infants are constantly exploring their world, making sense of things around them, and listening to language. Child care providers can help babies practice these important thinking skills by giving them interesting objects, encouraging them to explore, asking …
Infancy is one of the most important stages in a child’s life. Child care providers need to understand how infants develop in order to provide sensitive, responsive child care programs that meet the needs of individual infants. The following articles give child care providers some basic information about infant development.
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Babies start forming attachments with the important adults in their lives from the moment they are born. They learn to trust their parents, child care providers, and other important adults, and learn that other people will meet their needs. During the infant years, child care providers can help babies build a sense of trust and security by being responsive to each individual infant. Responding consistently to babies’ cries, spending one-on-one time with each infant, observing and responding to babies’ cues, …
If you are a child care provider working with infants, you may be amazed by how quickly the babies in your child care program grow. By the time they are 1 year old, babies have almost tripled their birth weight. They learn to control their head, arms, hands, legs and feet, eventually start crawling and may even take a few first steps.
Child care providers help infants develop physically. Providing nutritious foods, encouraging their growing motor skills and providing safe …
