Infant & Toddler Program

The Infant Program is designed to stimulate & nurture within a carefully prepared environment that focuses on trust, happiness, safety & sanitation & continuity of care. Our staff are educators who possess knowledge of the specific developmental characteristics of young children that build upon one another. This then becomes the basis for experiences in the broad categories of sensory-motor, cognitive, language and social-personal activities for the infants.

The Early Learning Center Mission

The Early Learning Center Mission is to provide a safe, supportive, nurturing environment designed for exploration and learning for our youngest children and to provide supportive relationships for families. We hope through policies and practice to serve as a model for quality early childhood education achieving these goals:

Goals for Children:

• a sense of belonging to the family and the culture of the family
• the capacity to trust people in whose care they have been placed by the parents
• a caring and respectful approach to interacting with others
• a positive sense of themselves enabling them to act with pleasure and competence
• the ability to convey needs, wants and feelings and to communicate in ways that can be understood by others
• the beginning of an understanding of how the world works
• competence in the management of their body
• to develop autonomy and independence

Goals for Families:

• Acknowledgement from the program that families are the most important people in their child's life
• A sense of control over and involvement in the child's care
• A sense of confidence in the policies and practices of the program that their child is receiving excellent care that takes into account the family needs, beliefs, priorities, and values.

Goals for Staff:

• a feeling of recognition from the program that they are important and valued
• a sense of competence and confidence that they can nurture and guide children and partner with families
• recognition in program practices that quality is an outgrowth of observation, reflection, program planning and continued professional growth

Infant & Toddler Educational Philosophy

The first three years of life are extraordinarily important for cognitive and emotional development and for language acquisition. Our philosophy draws on the theories of noted authorities such as Piaget, Erickson and Bruner and ideas suggested by Vygotsky, Speike, Greenspan, and other influential scientists.

We believe that learning is an active process for young children, learning through play and actual experiences within a carefully arranged environment that promotes exploration and cooperative play. Teachers facilitate learning and positive interactions among children.