Infant Toddler Learning & Development Foundations

espond to adults and engage with
them first through predictable interactions
in close relationships with parents
or other caring adults at home
and outside the home. Children use
and build upon the skills learned
through close relationships to interact
with less familiar adults in their
lives. In interacting with adults, children
engage in a wide variety of social
exchanges such as establishing contact
with a relative or engaging in storytelling
with an infant care teacher.
Quality in early childhood programs
is, in large part, a function of the
interactions that take place between
the adults and children in those
programs. These interactions form
the basis for the relationships that
are established between teachers and
children in the classroom or home
and are related to children’s developmental
status. How teachers interact
with children is at the very heart of
early childhood education (Kontos
and Wilcox-Herzog 1997, 11).
Relationships with Adults
Close relationships with adults
who provide consistent nurturance
strengthen children’s capacity to
learn and develop. Moreover, relationships
with parents, other family members,
caregivers, and teachers provide
the key context for infants’ socialemotional
development. These special
relationships influence the infant’s
emerging sense of self and understanding
of others. Infants use relationships
with adults in many ways:
for reassurance that they are safe,
for assistance in alleviating distress,
for help with emotion regulation, and
for social approval or encouragement.
Establishing close relationships with
adults is related to children’s emotional
security, sense of self, and evolving
understanding of the world around
them. Concepts from the literature on
attachment may be applied to early
childhood settings, in considering the
infant care teacher’s role in separations
and reunions during the day in
care, facilitating the child’s exploration,
providing comfort, meeting physical
needs, modeling positive relationships,
and providing support during
stressful times (Raikes 1996).
Interactions with Peers
In early infancy children interact
with each other using simple behaviors
such as looking at or touching
another child. Infants’ social interactions
with peers increase in complexity
from engaging in repetitive or routine
back-and-forth interactions with peers
(for example, rolling a ball back and
forth) to engaging in cooperative activities
such as building a tower of blocks
together or acting out different roles
during pretend play. Through interactions
with peers, infants explore
their interest in others and learn
about social behavior/social interaction.
Interactions with peers provide
the context for social learning and
problem solving, including the experience
of social exchanges, cooperation,
turn-taking, and the demonstration
of the beginning of empathy. Social
interactions with peers also allow older
infants to experiment with different
roles in small groups and in different
situations such as relating to familiar
versus unfamiliar children. As noted,
the foundations called Interactions
with Adults, Relationships with Adults,
Interactions with Peers, and Relationships
with Peers are interrelated.
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SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT