How Adults Can Meet Infants’ and Toddlers’ Emotional Needs
Source: Pearson Allyn Bacon Prentice Hall
Topics: Social and Emotional (Ages 1-2), Early Years (Birth-5), Social and Emotional (Age 0-1), more...
- Protect children and keep them safe and healthy.
- Develop strong, positive, secure relationships with children.
- Be attuned (read, reflect, and respond) emotionally and physically to children's cues and communication attempts, reflect on their meaning, and respond as needed by child.
- Interact by following a child's lead in a way that is satisfying to the child - take balanced turns (reciprocal interactions) and match the pace of interactions with the child.
- Be approachable, accessible and available to children, both emotionally and physically.
- Maintain a pleasant and positive emotional tone throughout the day.
- Respond to children's distress and intense emotional outbursts and other displays of displeasure calmly and in a way that comforts them and helps them regulate themselves physcially and emotionally.
- Notice, identify, encourage, and show admiration for strengths, interests, and new skills in each and every child in the group.
- Appreciate development and differences - help children feel appreciated for their uniqueness.
Excerpt from Infant and Toddler Development and Responsive Program Planning A Relationship-Based Approach, by D.S. Wittmer & S.H. Petersen, 2006 edition, p. 255.
© 2006, Merrill, an imprint of Pearson Education Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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