Introduction

American child care managers need to come to grips with the fact that much of what they are requiring of their caregivers with regard to curriculum and lesson planning is inappropriate for infants and toddlers. Many program managers in the United States relate to infant-toddler care as if it were a watered down version of preschool or a glorified version of baby sitting. In practice what we see is the implementation of curriculum extremes. One major camp sees attention to curriculum issues with infants and toddlers as inappropriate. It is believed that very young children only need safe environments and tender loving care. Attention to intellectual activity is unnecessary because learning will happen naturally. The other camp believes that in order for infants to grow cognitively they must be stimulated intellectually by adult-directed lessons that are carefully planned ahead of time so that they will be of appropriate rigor, developmentally appropriate and interesting. In many other nations where the profession of infant - toddler caregiving has been developing for over thirty years neither of these approaches are believed to meet the infants needs. Rather, it is understood that tender loving care is an essential prerequisite to intellectual development but that it is not enough. It is also understood that an infant's intellectual development must be based on the caregiver's understanding that very young children need to have a hand in selecting the learning content. This approach couples tender, loving care, and attention to the child interests, curiosity, and motivation as the basis for learning. In these countries infant -toddler curricula are broadly defined. Curricula do not focus on games, tasks, and activities but on how to best create a social, emotional, and intellectual climate that supports childlikeness learning in all developmental domains. In Italy and Germany, for example, caregivers study the children in their care, and keep detailed records of each child's interests and skills so that they can best facilitate each child's learning. They are trained to search for and keep alive the children's curiosity and also trained in how to assist infants in learning early lessons about things that are naturally of interest and important to the child. It would serve us well if we learned from their approach.

Curriculum and Lesson Planning

Planning for work with infants, if done correctly, cannot be static. It must be flexible and dynamic by design. Any plan for infants should recognize that once an interaction with children begins a caregiver will have to adapt his or her plans and actions to meet the momentary needs and interests of each child. The child's unique thoughts, feelings, needs, and interests must be seen as part of the equation.

Lesson plans should, in addition to specifying particular content and materials, include strategies to broaden the caregiver's understanding of, and deepen the relationship with each child served. Good plans :

1. start with activities that orient the caregiver to the role of facilitator of learning rather than the role of teacher, and
2. assist the caregiver to read the cues of each infant served.

Good plans also include a number of alternative approaches that could be attempted once a caregiver sees that a child's reactions to his or her initial approach is not as anticipated. Planning for adaptation and change should be a critical part of the planning process.

A most essential part of curriculum and lesson planning is the attention paid to the context for learning. Much of what infants need is not specific lessons, but a wise adult who can create a rich setting for learning. The planning of learning environments--and the policies of care that create the climate for learning--are more important to infant development than specific lessons or specific activities. The environment must be seen as part of the curriculum. It is not just a setting for learning, it provokes interest and stimulates exploration. Research has shown that much of how infants learn best comes not from specific adult-directed lessons, but from caregivers who know how to capitalize on natural learning opportunities.

The Search for A Responsive Curriculum

For the past twelve years the Program for Infant Toddler Caregivers has developed video and print materials to assist center-based and family child care providers implement high quality infant and toddler care. We have developed strategies that help caregivers read and respond to the intellectual, social, and emotional messages of the infants in their care. We have also recommended policies that help programs focus on the importance of the relationships between caregiver and child, and the caregiver and family. These strategies and policies form the foundation of good care and should form the foundation for curriculum development and lesson planning.

Although our materials and approach have been used to train many trainers and caregivers throughout the country they are not a curriculum. They can however be used as a framework for curriculum planning. It has recently come to our attention that many programs need help in developing or selecting an infant care curriculum, and also need help in designing appropriate lesson plans for infants. It is imperative that curricula and lesson planning formats selected for work with infants and toddlers center on activities, environments, and interaction styles that are responsive to the needs and interests of infants and toddlers, respect the competencies they bring to each interaction, and reflect their need for relationship-based experiences. Because of the power that a curriculum or lesson planning format can have in driving practice, we believe that much attention should be given by each program manager to:

• the curriculum selection process with particular attention paid to developing an infant centered definition of the term curriculum, and,
• the lesson planning format that they select that caregivers will be expected to use to develop plans with particular attention paid to developing an infant centered definition of the term lesson plan.

One general warning to assist those selecting a curriculum or a format for lesson planning: Do not select a curriculum or lesson planning format that is simply a prescribed sequence of adult-directed activities that leaves the infant out of the process of selecting the topics of the lesson. Both the infant and the caregiver should play a role in the selection process, sometimes the child initiating the activity and sometimes the caregiver.

From all we know about how infants learn best we have concluded that they must have a hand in selecting what they learn. Curriculum therefore should include the infant as an active partner in the process of selecting curriculum content and be dynamic enough to move and flow with the infant's changing interests. In this way it is a curriculum that is responsive and respectful of what the infant brings to and wants from early experience.

Curriculum materials should anticipate developmental stages, but also allow for individual variations in learning style. They must be broad enough in scope to respond to all developmental domains simultaneously. For example, just because one may think he or she is giving a child a cognitive lesson in object permanence doesn't mean that is what the child is learning. The child may instead be learning the social lesson that to get along with this caregiver I must always follow his or her lead.

In a responsive curriculum a good portion of lesson planning has to do with caregivers preparing themselves and the environment so that infants can learn -- not in figuring out what to teach infants. For program managers, planning a responsive curriculum involves helping caregivers understand and relate to infant and toddler development both generally and specifically. Much of lesson planning then involves exploring ways to help caregivers get 'in tune' with each infant they serve, and learn from the individual infant what he or she needs, thinks, and feels. With this kind of approach the lessons that are most appropriate for an infant often become quite obvious. Yet even 'in tune' caregivers need to plan and re-plan how to form a relationship with each individual child, and best meet that child's needs and relate to her or his unique thoughts and feelings. Very little positive learning will take place regardless of what lessons are planned if the curriculum or lesson plan does not include:

• attention to the development of a safe and interesting place to learn,
• the selection of appropriate materials geared to the individual needs and interests of the children served,
• the organization of care in small groups,
• management policies that maximize the child's sense of security in care and continuity of connection with the caregivers,
• ways to optimize program connections with the child's family,
• a grounding of caregivers in the cognitive, social, and emotional topics that infants and toddlers are naturally interested in learning about.

Factors to Consider When Selecting or Developing A Curriculum

When developing or selecting a curriculum it will serve you well to rate them on how successful they are at addressing the following factors of infant development.

Infants learn holistically.

Infants and toddlers experience life more holistically than at any other age period. Social, emotional, intellectual, language, and physical learning are not separated by the infant. Adults are most helpful to the young child when they interact in ways that reflect an understanding that the child is learning from the whole experience not just the part of the experience to which the adult gives attention.

Infancy has three stages.

Between birth and age three a child goes through three distinct developmental stages. The type of care given should change when the child's stage changes and also take into consideration transitions between stages.

Relationships are primary to development.

The infant is dependent on close, caring, ongoing relationships as the source of positive, physical, social, emotional, and intellectual growth. Infants develop best when they are assured of having a trusted caregiver or caregivers who can read their cues and respond to their needs. Infant/toddler care policies must be organized to ensure that these relationships exist and prosper. Policies that encourage and nurture secure relationships are the backbone of quality care.

Infants are developing their first sense of self through contact with others.

An infant or toddler learns most of how he or she thinks and feels by imitating and incorporating the behaviors of those who care for her or him -- how they first see themselves, how they think they should function, how they expect others to function in relation to them. For this reason it is particularly important that caregivers be carefully selected, and well trained.

Home culture is an important part of a child's developing identity.

Much of the child's first two years of life are spent creating a first 'sense of self' or building a first identity. Because this is such a crucial part of children's make up, how they first see themselves, early care must, in addition to carefully selecting and training caregivers, ensure that links with family, home culture, and home language are a central part of program policy. If infant/toddler care becomes a substitute for, rather than a support of the family, children will often incorporate a less than positive sense of who they are and where they come from.

Infants are active, self-motivated learners.

Each infant is born curious and motivated to learn, and actively participates in learning each day. Caregivers need specific training in infant learning to understand how to read and respond to infant behavior and to delight in the types of learning in which infants are engaged. They also need training in how to construct environments and activities that keep motivation, experimentation, and curiosity alive as well as how to facilitate the infant learning process.

Infants are individuals with differing temperaments.

All children come into the world temperamentally different from one another. Because of these differences, caregivers need to individualize and adapt care to each child.

Adults exhibit strong emotions when charged with the care of infants.

Parents and caregivers of infants and toddlers often experience a heightened sense of emotionality when they care for infants and toddlers. Developing strategies for dealing with conflicts that can emerge between parents and caregivers must be considered part of the caregiver's role.

Language skills and habits develop early.

The development of language is particularly crucial during the infant/toddler period. Good care provides many opportunities for infants to engage in meaningful, experienced-based communication with their caregivers, and have their communications acknowledged and encouraged.

Environments are powerful.

Infants and toddlers are strongly influenced by the environments and routines they experience each day. This is particularly true for very young infants who cannot physically move themselves from a noxious to a more pleasant environment. The physical environment, group size, daily schedules, lesson plans, and caregiving routines must foster the establishment of small intimate groups in which relationships with trusted caregivers can develop and become the base for social, emotional and intellectual learning in a safe and interesting environment.

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