Young Children - May 2008 - (Page 40) Relationship-Based Infant Care Responsive, On Demand, and Predictable Sandra Petersen and Donna Wittmer Miriam loves taking care of the young infants, but feeding, diapering, and napping seem to take the whole day. She feels frustrated and wonders when she will have time to be the teacher she is trained to be. Her supervisor observes and says, “Miriam, you’re doing a great job. You’re doing everything right!” is filled with urgent bodily sensations of hunger, elimination, tiredness, or need for comfort! Even people taking care of only one baby feel that the day seems full of routine care. What does Miriam’s supervisor see that is so impressive? Miriam quickly and respectfully responds to every communication from each of the four young infants in her care, actively trying to understand what the babies want or need. So much of each young infant’s day Sandra Petersen, MA, is a program analyst/writer for the Early Head Start National Resource Center at ZERO TO THREE. She writes and teaches about quality issues and is coauthor, with Donna Wittmer, of Infant and Toddler Development and Responsive Program Planning: A Relationship-Based Approach. Donna Wittmer, PhD, taught early childhood/early childhood special education at the University of Colorado–Denver for 17 years. She is the author of A Focus on Peers in the Early Years (forthcoming) and coauthor, with Sandra Petersen, of Infant and Toddler Development and Responsive Program Planning. This article is adapted from S. Petersen and D. Wittmer, Endless Opportunities for Infant Toddler Curriculum: A Relationshipbased Approach (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall; forthcoming). Photos © Ellen B. Senisi. Illustration © Diane Greenseid. ® She stays physically and emotionally available to them. She and her coteacher keep a homelike, well-organized, clean, and safe environment. Her interactions with the babies and the homelike routines of the classroom provide numerous learning opportunities. Every moment can be filled with language, the sharing of quiet attention, or the practice of new physical skills. Miriam uses documentation of her observations for individualized planning and for maintaining daily communication with families. She understands that each baby needs to learn how to live in his or her own culture, and when she feels the need to correct behavior and offer guidance, she knows that that is a social part of learning. All of this wonderful, responsive caregiving is occurring while Miriam attends to the routine needs of the babies. Shela, Miriam’s coteacher, also provides primary care to four babies. For these two good partners, that means that one teacher is almost always available to respond quickly to any baby in real distress while the other teacher divides her attention among the rest of the babies. If Miriam is in the middle of a diaper change and one of her babies awakens crying, Shela will comfort the crying baby. 1, 2, 3, 5 40 Young Children • May 2008
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