Home / Educators / Professional Development (3 - 5 YEARS) / Supporting Young Infants’ Learning
- Introduction
- Build a Special Bond with Each Baby
- Talk Together—All Day Long
- Help Babies Connect with Their World
- Try It
- Wrap Up
- Learning Guidelines and Standards
- attunement: understanding and smoothly responding to a baby’s nonverbal signals and communications; getting “in tune” or “on the same wavelength” with a baby as you get to know each other and build a special bond
- being present with a baby: giving the baby your full attention so you can get in tune
- bonding: the mutual love and trust between a baby and a family member or educator who gets in tune with him
- en face: (pronounced “on fas”) face-to-face, making eye contact, and attuned (or getting in tune)
- open-ended questions: questions that require critical thinking, invite opinion or explanation, and have the potential to result in multiple-word answers
- primary caregiver: the educator in an infant room or mixed-age setting who has primary responsibility for a particular baby, builds an enduring relationship with him and his family, and can help him connect with others in the program
- responsive interaction: back and forth conversation, play, or interchange in which partners take turns answering each other’s words, sounds, actions, or other communications
- verbal mapping: putting words to a baby’s actions or telling him what is happening or what will happen
Wrap Up
Now you're ready to implement the best practices you’ve learned with the infants in your program. Complete the second half of the Self-Assessment to discover how much your skills may have improved.
Congratulations! Whether your progress was subtle or dramatic, you've undoubtedly increased your understanding and strengthened your skills. But this is just the beginning—there are many ways to improve and support your children’s learning experience. Look for more informative self-paced tutorials in the Professional Development section of this website.
For a summary of best practices, download the Best Practices (PDF). To see the standards this module correlates to, download the Learning Guidelines and Standards (PDF).