top of page
INFANTS & TODDLERS
12 months – 23 months
Infant classroom offers strategies for building positive relationships, helping children develop self-regulation and responding to challenging behaviors in a sanitized and safe environment.
Social Skills
● Imitation and Mimicry
Infants and toddlers often display early social skills through imitation and mimicry. They observe the actions and behaviors of their peers and caregivers, and they attempt to replicate these actions. This behavior fosters a sense of social learning and helps them understand the dynamics of interaction.
● Nonverbal Communication
Even before they can speak, infants and toddlers utilize nonverbal cues to communicate and interact with others. They may use gestures, facial expressions, and body language to express their needs, preferences, and emotions. This early understanding of nonverbal communication lays the foundation for future social interactions and relationships.
● Parallel Play and Cooperative Play
In nursery settings, infants and toddlers engage in both parallel play and cooperative play, which are crucial for developing social skills. Parallel play involves playing alongside others without direct interaction, while cooperative play involves collaboration and interaction with peers. Through these play experiences, infants and toddlers learn important social concepts such as sharing, taking turns, and empathy, which are essential for healthy social development.
● Feeding Independence
Infants and toddlers begin to develop self-help skills related to feeding. They may learn to hold their bottles or cups, use utensils, and feed themselves snacks or meals with increasing independence. Caregivers often encourage this development by providing age-appropriate utensils and food choices that promote self-feeding.
● Dressing and Undressing
Toddlers start to explore dressing and undressing themselves, albeit with varying degrees of success. They may attempt to put on simple clothing items like shirts, pants, or shoes, although they may still require assistance from caregivers. This process helps them build fine motor skills and a sense of autonomy as they learn to take care of their basic clothing needs.
● Toileting Skills
Many toddlers begin the process of toilet training, which involves learning to recognize bodily cues, use the toilet independently, and eventually manage personal hygiene tasks like wiping and handwashing. Caregivers play a crucial role in supporting toddlers through this process by providing consistent routines, positive reinforcement, and appropriate accommodations such as child-sized toilets and step stools.
● Early Language Development
Infants and toddlers begin to develop communicative skills through early language acquisition. They may babble, coo, and produce their first words, gradually expanding their vocabulary through exposure to language-rich environments and interactions with caregivers and peers.
● Gestures and Pointing
Infants and toddlers often use gestures such as pointing, waving, and nodding to communicate their needs, desires, and interests at the nursery. These nonverbal cues serve as important tools for expressing themselves and initiating interactions with others before they have fully developed verbal communication skills.
● Turn-Taking and Social Interactions
Infants and toddlers engage in turn-taking behaviors during interactions with caregivers and peers. They learn to take turns in conversations, respond to social cues, and engage in simple back-and-forth exchanges, laying the foundation for more complex communication skills later in life. Caregivers play a key role in facilitating these interactions by modeling conversational turn-taking and providing opportunities for social engagement.
Self-Help Skills
Communicative Skills
bottom of page