LP 1 - Eced 19 - Itp
LP 1 - Eced 19 - Itp
1.1 Introduction
Can you imagine how a child grows instantly to a teen? Child development draws
the interest and imagination of anyone who cares for kids. Buttfield (2019) describes Child
development as to the sequence of physical, language, thought and emotional changes that
occur in a child from birth to the beginning of adulthood.
In this unit, you will find the basic principles of child development, highlighting
how children are viewed in various context. We will also explore the developmental
milestones of children as they act as a useful guideline of ideal development.
Furthermore, we will be learning about developmental tasks expected from
individuals at a certain developmental age and the ways in which an early childhood
education teacher can possibly help nurture their development.
Thus, at the end of this unit, you are expected to develop a timeline chart
showcasing the development of children. Hopefully, this unit will let you discover your
crucial role during the early years of life and explains that in achieving a high-quality
program. Are you ready? Let’s fly!
In this learning packet, the youngest children—those from “newborn to walking” —are called infants. The
children who are walking (from about a year old to two years) are called young toddlers. Children from
two to three are called older toddlers. Children from three to five are called preschoolers.
All children are born to grow, to develop, to live, to love, and to articulate their needs
and feelings for their self-protection.
- Alice Miller
C. M. D. Hamo-ay
2
1| Infant and Toddler Programs
1.2.1 Developmental Milestones in Infancy
Rewind: Do you know how you were formed in your mother’s womb? From conception
to germinal stage, to embryonic stage, to fetal stage, and until waiting for childbirth. All of these
are stages of prenatal development. When the mother is about 38 weeks in her pregnancy, she
will go into labor.
Labor
This stage is the longest one and is characterized by the narrowing of the uterus and the
dilation of the cervical opening where the baby will pass. This lasts an average of 12 to 14 hours
with a first birth and half as much for succeeding childbirths (Berk, 2013).
Delivery
This stage begins when the fetus starts to pass through the cervix. The mother will
experience long contractions and the intervals will be much shorter. This stage will end once the
baby comes out of the birth canal or vagina (Vasta, Haith, & Miller, 1999).
Afterbirth
This stage lasts for about five to twenty minutes. The new mother will continue to
experience contractions to expel the placenta and the remaining umbilical cord from uterus to
the vagina. (Crandell, Crandel, & Zanden, 2009).
A newborn baby looks quite odd, with the head that is larger in relation to the
potbellied trunk and bowlegged lower extremities. It is always interesting to know if he/she is
discovering what is going on around him/her.
Reflexes
A newborn infant has a large collection of
inborn and automatic responses to a particular form
of stimulation called reflexes. Some of the reflexes
are crucial for the baby’s survival such as sucking
and swallowing reflexes.
Although these reflexes disappear as the baby matures, they serve as foundations to the baby’s later
abilities.
The baby’s reflexes reveal how healthy his/her nervous system is, especially with babies who experience
birth complications and trauma (Berk, 2013).
C. M. D. Hamo-ay
3
1| Infant and Toddler Programs
Table 1 below shows important facts associated with the different infant reflexes (Pearson
Education, 2017).
C. M. D. Hamo-ay
4
1| Infant and Toddler Programs
movement (REM) and non-rapid-eye-movement (NREM) to determine normal development of
the cerebral cortex, which affects the maturation of the central nervous system and its overall
function (Ednick et al., 2009).
REM sleep affects the development of the neurosensory and motor systems in the fetus
and neonate. On the other hand, in the NREM sleep, the body is almost not moving, the heart
rate, breathing and brain-wave activity are slow and even.
• hunger;
• temperature change;
• discomfort;
• sudden noise;
• painful stimulus; and
• sound of another baby crying.
Some infants cry more than others per day. Research shows that there are various ways of
soothing a crying baby. Here are some techniques to soothe a crying baby:
• cuddling/rocking;
• carrying in arms;
• providing a pacifier;
• swaddling;
• playing soft rhythmic sounds; and
• letting the baby cry for a while.
A. Given that there are certain reflexes and behavioral states that are crucial to a
newborn’s development, how important is it for couples to monitor their baby’s
progress? Explain your answer.
C. M. D. Hamo-ay
5
1| Infant and Toddler Programs
Read Me
Lea is exploring some toys. She looks at them, noting the different colors. She looks at the caregiver while
touching the toys, exploring the shape and texture. She puts them in her mouth and then smiles at the
caregiver when she hears, “You really seem to like those, Lea. How do they taste?” She keeps looking at
the caregiver then turns to the center of the room when she hears another caregiver comment about
getting ready for a snack. She sniffs slightly and seems to be noting the smell of the bread. She drops the
toys and crawls over the area where the snack is found.
Did you notice how many different senses Lea was using to explore the toys? She also
seemed to use the caregiver’s words even the smell from the bread.
Very young children are immediately involved in the process of gathering information
and using it. Sensation is the stimulation of the sense organs (for example, eyes, ears, and taste
buds), and perception is the ability to take in and organize this sensory information.
As infants and toddlers repeat experiences, they begin to make meaningful connections
about the people and objects in their world. Neural pathways, or the dendrite connections
between brain cells, are strengthened as they gather, apply, and
benefit from their sensory encounters.
Sensory Integration
The increasing public awareness of early brain development
has validated what many parents and caregivers have known for a
long time—learning for infants and toddlers is interrelated, and
C. M. D. Hamo-ay
6
1| Infant and Toddler Programs
growth in one area influences growth in another. Sensory integration is the process of combining
and integrating information across the senses and is critical to the development of perception.
As infants become aware of their sensory experience, they can discriminate between
people and make attachments. They learn to move their bodies in specific ways to accommodate
new sensory information. They begin to relate what they have learned about an object or person
through one sense (for example, sight) to what they have learned through another sense (maybe
touch). This interrelatedness between sensory experience and motor experience is strong, and it
provides the base for cognitive development. Young children need sensory experiences with
opportunities for lots of repetition if they are to build healthy learning pathways in the brain.
Infants come into the world wired to perceive it, and their early experiences complete their brain
circuitry.
Touch: The primary sensory cortex is
responsible for touch. This critical area of the
brain can process tactile sensations by the fourth
month in utero. By week 10, skin nerves appear.
C. M. D. Hamo-ay
7
1| Infant and Toddler Programs
Infants also know when someone is singing to them. Their behaviors are different when
their mothers are singing to them as opposed to talking to them. When mothers sing, babies move
less and stare more intently at them. Certainly, infants need the opportunity to experience a
variety of sounds, but remember that they need quiet times to appreciate the differences in
sounds.
If the noise level in the environment is too high, the infant
spends a lot of energy tuning out and focusing. The optimum noise
level varies with each child. Sensitive caregivers can determine what
is more or less right for the individual after they get to know the
child. Part of this awareness comes from knowing your own optimum
noise level.
An environment rich in smells adds to a toddler program. They can be part of the daily
program, such as food cooking, or they can be introduced by caregivers in such ways as “smell
bottles.” Be careful of making things that aren’t edible smell delicious—such as chocolate shaving
cream or peppermint flavoring in play dough—unless the toddlers are well conditioned to the
idea that play dough and shaving cream are not for eating.
Infants show disgust over bitter tastes and seem to have an innate sweet tooth. Since
breast milk is quite sweet, taste is another sense that may
contribute to the mother’s attachment.
C. M. D. Hamo-ay
8
1| Infant and Toddler Programs
Touch
Sensitivity or responsiveness to discomfort and pain,
increases rapidly after birth. Some parts of the body are more
sensitive than others. The head, for example, is more sensitive than
the arms and legs. Individual babies vary in their sensitivity to
touch, and for some, touch is unwelcome. Caregivers need to
learn to handle those babies who are touch defensive in ways that
cause minimal discomfort. One way is to lift such young infants
on a pillow instead of picking them up as you would other babies. Some babies and toddlers
respond better to strong touch than light touch, which seems to pain them.
Give toddlers words for what they are feeling—soft, warm, fuzzy, rough, and smooth. Be
sure they have plenty of soft objects in their environment. Some programs occur in
predominantly hard environments because hard surfaces and objects last longer and are more
sanitary. Here are some ideas for offering toddlers tactile experiences that involve the entire
body:
A dress-up area filled with silky, slinky, furry, and other textured
clothes
C. M. D. Hamo-ay
9
1| Infant and Toddler Programs
Sit-in sandboxes
Read Me
Tyler is sitting up on the rug looking at his caregiver, who is close to him. She smiles. He smiles back. He gets up on
all fours and takes off, stopping for a moment when he notices that he has left the soft, thick rug. He crawls back
and sits back down. He looks at his caregiver, who is idly poking her fingers into the rug. He also pokes his fingers
into the rug. “Soft,” she says, and he cocks his head to listen to her. Then Tyler gets up on all fours again, headed
for a shelf of toys. Along the way, he encounters an infant smaller than himself lying on her back on a blanket. He
stops to investigate, and as he leans over to get a closer look, he notices a caregiver has come to sit beside him. He
reaches for the baby’s face, touching the smooth skin and patting the hair. He puts his lips on the baby’s head and
looks up at the caregiver and smiles. She smiles back. He gets more vigorous in his investigations, and a hand comes
down over his, touching him lightly. “Gently, gently,” the caregiver says. He goes back to the original soft stroking.
C. M. D. Hamo-ay
10
1| Infant and Toddler Programs
Sight
Infants can distinguish between light and dark at birth. The pupillary
reflex (the automatic narrowing of the pupil in bright light and widening in
dim light) can be seen at birth, even in premature infants. Within a few hours,
infants are capable of visual pursuit. Their fixed focus seems to be about eight
inches away. In other words, infants are equipped to see the mother’s
face while breastfeeding.
Within a few weeks, infants can discriminate among colors and prefer warm ones (red,
orange, yellow) to cool ones (blue, green). Eye movements are somewhat erratic at first, but they
rapidly become more refined. By the end of the second month, infants can focus both eyes to
produce a single, though probably blurred, image. By the fourth month, they can see objects with
clarity, and by six months, the average infant’s vision is nearly 20/20.
Most newborns find all people and objects placed in front of them interesting—though
some are more so than others. The human face is the most interesting of all (because newborns’
visual abilities are clearly designed to promote attachment).
Infants of all ages need to be able to see interesting things. However, in the first weeks,
eating and diaper changing provide sufficient visual input. As infants get older, a variety of
visual material becomes more appropriate because it encourages them to move around in their
world. Something interesting to see becomes something to reach for and eventually to move
toward. Too much visual stimulation, however, can lead to a “circus effect.” Infants become
entertained observers rather than active participants and grow into passive toddlers who
demand entertainment instead of inventing their own. Toddlers’ visual worlds are larger, as they
move around more. They also have a better understanding of what they are seeing.
To get an idea of what toddlers’ visual environments are like, get down at their level and
look around. Things look very different from down there.
Aesthetics, or that which is judged beautiful, is a worthy but often unconsidered goal when
designing an environment for infants and toddlers. Children are more apt to grow up with an
appreciation for beauty if the adults around them demonstrate that they value aesthetics.
Remember, too, that sensory integration is fostered naturally when young children can play
outside in well-designed, aesthetically pleasing environments.
The sights and sounds of nature provide some of the most beautiful experiences and
memories that many adults cherish. Yet for a growing number of young children, nature is
increasingly becoming an abstraction—something seen in a picture or gazed at from a window.
Some programs, even for infants and toddlers, still favor more indoor “learning-oriented”
activities. But outdoor experiences, and the integration of the senses that they naturally provide,
are extremely valuable and contribute a great deal to a well-balanced, quality early childhood
setting.
C. M. D. Hamo-ay
11
1| Infant and Toddler Programs
Table 2 Guidelines for Multisensory Experiences
Remember, any child may demonstrate some of these behaviors and not be having
difficulty. Certain behaviors may be part of a particular child’s personality or temperament and
should be looked at in the light of the whole child.
Source: Information adapted from the California Department of Education, the California Child Care Health Program, and the Portage
Project TEACH, Region 5 Regional Access Project, 1999
C. M. D. Hamo-ay
12
1| Infant and Toddler Programs
1.2.3 Insights into Early Learning and Development
Teaching young children involves constant decision-making. Some of the decisions
are simple, almost unconscious:
This part of the lesson, we will investigate the importance of providing young children
with a safe, nurturing environment as well as the stimulation needed to prepare them for the
transition to the early grades. There is a need to explore topics such as early identification,
socialization, language, and cognitive development as well as social development.
For many years, in many countries, there has been some form of early childhood
education. There have been many names ascribed to it- kindergarten, nursery school, pre-school,
and other names. Early childhood education has become a vital integral robust part of American
education and literally around the world.
Basically, all sane, rational reasonable parents want their child to do well in school and
in life. However, not all parents are knowledgeable in early childhood growth and development,
C. M. D. Hamo-ay
13
1| Infant and Toddler Programs
not all parents are aware of the importance of play and early stimulation and not all parents have
the skills needed to recognize if there is a developmental delay, an audiological, or speech or
language problem or a vision or gross or fine motor problem. Thus, it is fortunate that there are
early childhood centers and Head Start facilities in the United States and around the world.
Many parents, as is well known, use the kindergarten classroom as a way to provide
enrichment for their children. Their definition of “enrichment” varies from parent to parent, and
the administration of stimulation and enrichment varies from teacher to teacher and school to
school.
However, basically, we in early childhood education want to teach the child the letters,
numbers, colors, shapes and forms as well as teach them to interact with other children.
There is an attempt to encourage language, discussion, give and take and develop some
preliminary social skills. Early childhood professionals provide a clean, neat, well-lit
environment, with snacks, often breakfast, and a secure sense of safety and nurturance. This
supplements what parents attempt to provide in the home environment.
Identification
The early childhood environment provides an opportunity to ensure that all children
begin school “ready to learn “.
In this regard, kindergarten teachers and pre-school teachers are trained to listen for
speech language defects, problems, stuttering, articulation
disorders and slurred speech. The child is then referred to a
speech language pathologist or an audiologist for screening
and evaluation. It is well documented that early intervention
assists in the child’s growth and development. Thus, the
sooner the child can receive services the better the prognosis.
In many cities and states, graduate students in speech
language pathology and audiology conduct routine screenings of all children enrolled in a pre-
school environment. This enables these graduate students to receive some supervision and
training in early childhood assessment and enhances their consultation and collaboration skills
and prepares them for later practice. Many of these individuals assess both expressive and
receptive language skills and do preliminary screening of speech and language as well as an
examination of the oral cavity. This early documentation provides a foundational baseline for
ascertaining if the child is improving in their vocabulary and language skills and if intervention
has been fruitful.
Although difficult in terms of a final diagnosis, the early childhood teacher is often the
first to notice developmental delays. There may be such significant delays that the teacher
begins to suspect mental retardation, but there is hesitancy about the finality of such a diagnosis
C. M. D. Hamo-ay
14
1| Infant and Toddler Programs
or labeling at this time.
Socialization
Part of the early childhood curriculum is to prepare children to play, interact with and
engage in age appropriate developmental activities that would assist with their later socialization
process. Courtesy, appropriate behavior, “ give and take “ and learning the rules of various
childhood games should all be emphasized. There are some schools that have specific
curriculums, and others are more informal in their approach.
Piaget extensively documented the importance of play, the stages of play and how play
contributes to the child’s understanding of the world. The pre-school environment provides a
rich, robust domain for the child to engage in play of various sorts, with materials that may not
be present in the home, with toys that parents may not possess and with children that may
encourage them in terms of future growth.
The active aspects of play are more important than the passive receiving of stimulation
from various cartoons on the television. There are different views about different types of play-
parallel play, practice play, solitary play, pretend or symbolic play, construction play, game play,
and playing with other children’s toys play !
Mosiman and Mosiman ( 2009) have indicated that there are various methods to enhance
play- and indicated a plethora of possible avenues for parents, teachers to examine. Often play
will just occur between children and that should be encouraged also.
C. M. D. Hamo-ay
15
1| Infant and Toddler Programs
1.3 References
▪ Berk, L.E. (2013). Child Development. Pearson, Inc.
Buttfield, J. (2019). What is Child Development? Kid Sense Child Development.
https://childdevelopment.com.
Crandel, T.L., Crandell, C.H., & Vander Zanden, J.W. (2009). Human Development. McGraw Hill
Companies, Inc.
De Haan, M. (2001). The Neuropsychology of Face Processing During Infancy and Childhood. In
Handbook of Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience. pp. 381–398. MIT Press.
Ednick, M., Cohen, A., McPhail, G., Beebe, D., Simakajornboon, N., & Ain, R. (2009). A review of
the effects of sleep during the first year old life on cognitive, psychomotor, and temperament
development. Sleep Research Society, 32(11), 1449-1458.
European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education. (2017). Inclusive Early Childhood
Education: New Insights and Tools – Contributions from a European Study.
https://www.european-agency.org/resources/publications/inclusive-early-childhood-
education-new-insights-and-tools-contributions
Porges, S. W. & Lipsitt, L. P. (1993). Neonatal Responsivity to Gustatory Stimulation. Infant Behavior
and Development. pp. 487–494.
Shaughnessy, M. F. (2012). The Importance of Early Childhood Education. Research Gate.
Vasta, R., Haith, M. M., & Miller, S.A. (1999). Child Psychology: The Modern Science. John Wiley &
Sons.
Zeifman, D., & St. James-Roberts, I. (2017). Parenting the crying infant. Current Opinion in
Psychology, 15, 149-154.
1.4 Acknowledgment
The images, tables, figures and information contained in this module were taken
from the references cited above.
C. M. D. Hamo-ay