Course Description
In this course, students will build on their knowledge of developmentally appropriate curriculum and learn the skills required to promote healthy development in infants and toddlers. Emphasis will be placed upon working in close partnerships with parents in the context of infant/toddler programs.
Course Content
The following global ideas guide the design and delivery of this course:
- Quality practice in infant and toddler group care grows out of an understanding of infant and toddler attachment with their primary caregivers.
- To build reciprocal relationships with infant and toddlers, caregivers must recognize this primary attachment.
- Quality infant/toddler care requires knowledge of infant/toddler’s brain development.
- Quality care with infants and toddlers requires an understanding of holistic development as well as a multisensory approach.
- In quality programs, children learn through routines and play, both indoors and outdoors.
- Caregivers recognize the early development of social and emotional behaviours in infants and toddlers.
- Quality practices in the care of infants and toddlers recognizes the myriad of emotions that infants and toddlers exhibit and encourages self regulation, resilience and coping skills.
Learning Activities
- Lectures
- Discussions
- Observations
Means of Assessment
This course will conform to Douglas College policy regarding the number and weighting of evaluations.
- Projects
- Reports
- Observation Assignments
- Class Presentations
Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Understand attachment, and its impact on physical and psychological growth and development over the life time
- Recognize the incredible abilities of infants and toddlers to develop relationships with their primary caregivers.
- Be familiar with individual differences of infants and toddlers that contribute to developing attachment.
- Understand the contributions of primary caregivers for developing secure attachment and apply those in group childcare settings.
- Understand rapid brain development during prenatal and the first three years of postnatal and its relationship with primary caregivers and stress.
- Understand the developmental characteristics and patterns of each sense (e.g., hearing, smell, taste, touch, sight) from the prenatal period to the first three years of the postnatal period and their impacts on building attachment
- Understand the relationship between brain development and perception development.
- Be familiar with individual differences of infants and toddlers that contribute to perception development.
- Understand the contributions of primary caregivers for perception development and apply those in group childcare settings.
- Explore the integrated views of perception development as a whole child and apply those in group childcare settings.
- Understand rapid physical growth, the developmental characteristics and patterns of gross and fine motor development from the prenatal period to the first three years of the postnatal period and their impacts on building attachment.
- Distinguish different reflexes and their characteristics.
- Be familiar with individual differences of infants and toddlers that contribute to motor development.
- Understand the contributions of primary caregivers for motor development and apply those in group childcare settings.
- Explore the integrated views of physical development as a whole child and apply those in group childcare settings.
- Understand the developmental characteristics and patterns of cognitive development from the prenatal period to the first three years of the postnatal period and their impacts on building attachment.
- Be familiar with individual differences of infants and toddlers that contribute to cognitive development.
- Understand the contributions of primary caregivers for cognitive development and apply those in group childcare settings.
- Students will be able to integrate views of cognitive development as a whole child and apply those in group childcare settings.
- Understand the developmental characteristics and patterns of language development from the prenatal period to the first three years of the postnatal period and their impacts on building attachment.
- Be familiar with individual differences of infants and toddlers that contribute to language development.
- Understand the contributions of primary caregivers for language development and apply those in group childcare settings.
- Explore the integrated views of language development as a whole child and apply those in group childcare settings.
- Understand the developmental characteristics and patterns of social and emotional development from the prenatal period to the first three years of the postnatal period and their impacts on building attachment.
- Be familiar with individual differences of infants and toddlers that contribute to social and emotional development.
- Understand the contributions of primary caregivers, especially co-regulation for social and emotional development and apply those in group childcare settings.
- Explore the integrated views of social and emotional development as a whole child and apply those in group childcare settings.