Infant

Infant Program  (6 weeks to 16 months)

The Infant program is planned to meet the special needs of very young children and their families. Our goal is to create a partnership with parents that will ensure that each child receives the very best care while at the center. A partnership begins with open communication and mutual respect between families and staff. Parents are welcome to visit at any time.

Kids Depot’s daily classroom practice and programming objectives are designed to support the program’s philosophy and the established long-term goals. Goals for infants in our care include: Respecting each child as a unique and special person; attending to each child’s physical and psychological needs; fostering and developing a relationship with a caregiver the child can trust; providing a safe, healthy and developmentally appropriate environment; creating opportunities to interact with other infants and toddlers; and, supporting children in their exploration and use of all their senses.

Written records are kept on each child’s day at our center including eating, sleeping, and diapering patterns as well as anecdotal notes about daily happenings and developmental landmarks. We encourage both parents and center staff to talk frequently to keep each other informed about the children.

Curriculum

All children, no matter how small, can learn and curriculum is a plan for learning. The two main components of that plan for infants are care giving and play. During care giving routines, such as feeding or diapering, the teacher gives each child their full, focused attention, speaking gently and explaining what they are doing to the child in a warm tone. Through care giving interactions, opportunities arise for children to learn important social, language, and self-help skills.

The curriculum throughout the center, beginning with our infants, focuses on the developmental needs of the child —emphasizing the integration of cognitive, physical, and social/emotional development. Summarized below are some of the ways the curriculum meets the needs of and challenges the infant.

Motor Development:

Our program encourages exercise by providing a safe environment for children to practice emerging skills. We have safe places to climb and pull up; equipment to grasp to help walking; open spaces for scooting, crawling and walking; and, carts to push. To improve small motor development, there are rattles to hold, shake and handle; teething toys, shape toys; and, objects to stack. Teachers further encourage physical development by expressing an interest in and acknowledging the child’s accomplishments.

Language Development:

Children are spoken to frequently throughout the day. Songs are sung and stores read. We build upon the children’s vocabularies by talking about the foods they eat, the things they see, objects we use in play and the names of the children and their friends.

Cognitive Development:

Our program encourages cognitive development by providing an interesting “hands-on” environment that invites learning. Through exploration and discovery, children begin to learn such cognitive milestones as object permanence and cause and effect.

Social Development:

An important component of social development is ‘self concept’. Infant schedules are individualized, which fosters the child’s security about his or her environment. Holding, hugging and one-on-one interaction between teachers and children help to build a trusting bond and encourage their awareness of themselves. Children use this bond as a security base from which they explore their environment and learn about the world.