Answer:
Curriculum for babies?” The answer is “Yes.” The development that
occurs from birth to 3 years lays the foundation for all later learning
(National Research Council and Institute of Medicine, 2000). To ensure an
effective foundation for later development and success, infant/toddler experiences
should be designed to meet the individual needs of each child.
Infant/toddler learning is also largely relationship and context dependent: the
support and interactions of adult caregivers are critical to the growth and learning
of these youngest children. Many infants and toddlers spend
this important period nurtured in the context of their families.
However, the National Household Education Survey conducted
in 2005 found that 42 percent of children under 1 year of age and
more than 50 percent of 1- and 2-year-olds spent a portion of each
week in nonparental care (Iruka & Carver, 2006).
Because the developmental foundation built during this period
has lifelong implications, the responsibility for children’s
learning while in out-of-home care is too significant to be left
to chance. An individualized curriculum provides a way for
teacher-caregivers to be intentional about the way they support
development and learning in children under 3 and ensures that all
aspects of development are being monitored and appropriately
supported in a variety of ways.
The implementation of a well-planned, individualized curriculum
is a hallmark of high-quality programs for infants and toddlers. But the question
often surfaces: “Just what is an infant/toddler curriculum?” According to Frede
and Ackerman (2007), “At its simplest, curriculum is defined as what to teach and
how to teach it.” (p.2) For most educators this concept is self-evident, especially
in discussions of school-aged or even preschool children. When the teachercaregiver is working with infants or toddlers, however, the idea of curriculum
becomes more difficult to conceptualize.
The purpose of this module is to familiarize consultants with the concepts
of curriculum and individualization as means of promoting infant/toddler
development through intentionally designed early learning experiences, and
to prepare them for consultation that will support quality in infant/toddler care
environments
Explanation:
