Infant Toddler Learning & Development Foundations

The Early Months
With regard to very young infants,
Magda Gerber commented:
Everything they see, they hear, they
feel, they touch is new. . . . They are
adapting to all that newness, adapting
to their inner physiological needs,
which are plenty. . . . A very young
baby is busy being a very young baby.
(Respectfully Yours 1988, 5)
During the first four months of life,
babies begin to engage the world and
the people in it (Advances in Applied
Developmental Psychology 1995).
Infants’ motivation to explore and
communicate drives them to move
their bodies, focus their attention, and
send and receive signals—the basis
for development and learning in all
domains. These early behaviors mark
the start of a child’s developmental
progress (Emde 1990).
Young babies seek relationships and
build knowledge. They actively explore
what they can do with their bodies,
people close to them, and the environment.
They are not empty vessels
waiting to be filled with information,
but rather “active participants in their
own development, reflecting the intrinsic
human drive to explore and master
one’s environment” (National Research
Council and Institute of Medicine
2000, 1). Their active engagement
with the social and physical world
works hand in hand with the care they
receive from adults, especially when
the adults are responsive to them.
The Newborn
From birth babies learn to connect
internal sensory experiences to movements
of their bodies. They repeatedly
attend to sensory experiences and
explore movements they can make. In
doing so, they make discoveries about
their bodies—how to use their head,
eyes, mouth, arms, and legs. Young
babies also use their senses to learn
about people and things.
Much of the earliest learning of typically
developing infants comes through
their use of vision. Even very young
babies watch their mothers’ and other
adults’ faces intently, and what they
see influences their behavior (Schore
1994). Babies also seek eye-to-eye
connection with adults. They use their
eyes to both send messages and to
gain information. In the first months
of life, babies are aroused by social
engagement and quieted by mutual
gazing experiences (Stern 1977).
Both the arousal and the calming
positively affect the development of the
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