Babies

“The child’s experience must always be central to the thinking of every practitioner. Babies, toddlers and young children thrive when they are loved and well cared for. High-quality care is consistent. Every practitioner needs to enjoy spending time with young children. Effective practitioners are responsive to children and babies. They notice when a baby looks towards them and gurgles and respond with pleasure…”

Development matters (2023:p.5)

The key person approach is therefore fundamental to the organisation and focus of all early years’ settings, ensuring a loving and close relationship between the child especially a baby, their parents / carers and the staff.

“Elfer et al. (2003) defines the key person and the key person approach as consisting of a close triangular attachment between the child, the key person and the child’s parent / guardian or main carer…” 

Nutbrown, C. and Page, J. Working with babies and children from birth to three (2013: p.47).

“The child’s experience must always be central to the thinking of every practitioner. Babies, toddlers and young children thrive when they are loved and well cared for. High-quality care is consistent. Every practitioner needs to enjoy spending time with young children. Effective practitioners are responsive to children and babies. They notice when a baby looks towards them and gurgles and respond with pleasure…”

Development matters (2023:p.9)

Top tips when working with babies

Each key person working with babies:

• Provides comfortable small areas for babies and adults, to share emotional bonding and interactive play such as playing peek-a-boo, counting toes etc
• Uses time spent on personal care, as an opportunity to develop interactions and build relationships
• Communicates warmth and respect, responding to the baby’s signals, including cuddling
• Observes what the baby needs next and enhancing the learning environments, both indoors and outdoors, to provide appropriate learning experiences
• Talks to the babies about what they are doing, before carrying out the task
• Provide daily opportunities for babies to be physically active several times a day, for example, through tummy time, crawling etc

Toddlers

The loving relationships along with the ways that we communicate with young children, impact greatly on their learning and development. The physical and emotional environments we provide for these children also play an invaluable part in their well-being and development.

“The brain of a toddler is fizzing with activity. But all this activity is happening in a brain not yet equipped to make sense of it. The brain is developing very quickly but is now focused on organising all the frantic activity going on in it.”

Kate Cairns Associates (2013) Five to Thrive: The things you do everyday that help your toddler's growing brain; a supplement for parents of toddlers.

Top tips for working with toddlers

• Provide a secure base for your toddlers to explore from and a safe haven to retreat to along with cosy and relaxing places where children can go with adults or be alone
• Organise the environment to ensure there are spaces that offer children the freedom to explore, use their senses and be physically active and exuberant
• Plan daily for sensory experiences both indoors and outdoors, eg develop a growing area, set up a mud kitchen
• Share books with your key children throughout the day, as well as providing opportunities for them to play with language through songs, rhymes and games.
• Encourage schematic play (i.e. when a child has a pattern of repeated behaviour or play which he or she uses to explore ideas and thoughts). This repeated action of doing things over and over is actually building up the connections in the brain

Taken from: Tuning in to 2-year-olds: 4Children