Early childhood programs with infants and toddlers are bustling and alive in ways different from programs that have only preschoolers. Infants and toddlers can make group care environments more caring and family focused spaces, nurturing the well-being of all adults and children participating in the program. The number of infants and toddlers who…

Britt and Gillespie make suggestions for teachers' professional New Year's resolutions, including challenging oneself. They include a collection of resources and urge teachers to join NAEYC's Infant/Toddler Professionals Interest Forum. (Contains 27 resources.)

Outlines the characteristics of a good caregiver and good surroundings for babies, examining the differences among different types of care, discussing costs, and suggesting ways to find an appropriate caregiving situation. (KS)

Most Family Today share the care of their babies and toddlers with someone else--often an early childhood professional, a teacher, or a family child care provider. Each family and professional must learn to work and make decisions together to support the child's healthy development and to ensure the family's well-being. Although it is the norm for…

Discusses the importance of cultural sensitivity and specific cultural knowledge when providing care for infants and toddlers. Makes suggestions for responding to cultural differences. Describes dialogue and reflective-thinking strategies for identifying and responding to cultural differences. Asserts that caregivers need diversity training to see…

Provides guidelines on diapering and potty training toddlers in child care settings. (BB)

Reflects upon the nature of caring and teaching in the infant care setting. Presents two scenarios of caregivers interacting with infants and toddlers who are having difficulty with a motor activity to illustrate caring. Urges caregivers to consider caring as an attitude of total, focused presence with the child and at the heart of teaching. (KB)

Discusses three major characteristics that are important for child care professionals: experience, knowledge, and special personal qualities. Among the special personal qualities discussed are those of anticipating and planning, protecting, listening, comforting, and caring for the whole family. (BB)

Maintains that parents and teachers of toddlers need to see "toddlerhood" as a special and distinct stage of development with its own set of tasks and behaviors, when creating age-appropriate activity programs in home or group settings. Gives eleven ways that such programs can be made to fit toddlers. (BB)

Discusses ingredients of quality infant/toddler caregiving; these include individualized attentive loving, respect for children's tempos and exploration needs, language mastery experiences, activities shared by caregiver and child, nutrition and health care, promotion of babies' altruism, continuity of care and cognitive facilitation. (BB)

Discusses some of the problems that infants and toddlers experience in infant and toddler day care programs, and suggests four program features that are vital in aiding infants and toddlers in the early years of care. (BB)

Discusses the major theorists of infant/toddler emotional development. Lists behavioral warning signs of infant/toddler emotional distress or mental health problems. Describes methods for fostering babies' mental health and reducing their stress, and caregiver behaviors that promote infant mental health. (BB)

Notes that the majority of brain development occurs in the first three years of life. States that infant and toddler interactions are beneficial to both ages, provided contact occurs in a safe environment. Discusses how infants and toddlers learn from each other through play, even if they are nonverbal, and further benefit from insights and…

Maintains that infants and toddlers, parents, and child caregivers are vulnerable to a variety of infectious diseases from infant-toddler child care centers. These diseases include infectious diarrhea; rubella; cytomeglovirus; hepatitis A, and haemophilus influenza type B. Suggests ways to prevent the spread of such diseases. (BB)

The primary caregiving model provides for teachers to have primary daily responsibility for the same small group of toddlers or infants. The system allows for creation of strong bonds between teacher and child and provides parents with a trusted care partnership. Challenges to the system include large child-to- caregiver ratios, matching teachers…