Developmental Stages

• Infants primary tasks is head control
• Lifts head briefly
• Can turn head to clear nose for breathing
• Most arm and leg movements are reflexive and under infants conscious control

Small Muscles

• Cannot control hands- often keeps them clenched
• Grasps whatever is put into hands because of reflexive action
• Stares at objects specially faces; begins to coordinate eyes

• Crib or bassinet, a place to feel secure while sleeping
• Mat, rug or blanket in a safe space to lie unencumbered with room to move around
• Few toys needed yet because environment is stimulating enough
• Faces are interesting and so is a bright colored scarf
• Don’t put rattles or toys into hands because they can’t let go of them

• Use sensitive observation to determine infants’ needs
• Provide a feeling of security when necessary (wrap infants in a blanket and place in a small enclosed space)
• Let infants experience wide open space like the floor, at times
• Provide peace and quiet and minimal amount of stimulation- people infants associate with (caregiver and other children) provide enough stimulation
• Put infants in a safe spot where they can be part of the center but not over stimulated
• Call infants by name

• Infants show only satisfaction or dissatisfaction
• Infants do no differentiate self from the rest of the world

Social

• May smile
• Make eye contact
• Are soothed by faces
• Respond to being held

• Infants need to be where safe and secure and needs can be easily met
• Large playpen provides safety from more mobile toddlers (should be large enough to hold both adults and children)

• Encourage infants to focus on caregiving tasks
• Respond to infants messages and try to determine real needs (remember that dissatisfaction is not always due to hunger)
• Provide for attachment needs by having a consistent caregiver
• Hold during feeding

• Can coordinate eyes and follow objects or faces as they move
• Respond to faces or objects they see
• Suck and gum objects that near the mouth
• Display reflexes that are the beginnings of the sensory skills, which in turn provide the basis for development of intellectual skills

• Infants need an interesting yet safe environment with a limited variety of soft, washable, colorful toys to be looked at or sucked on (be sure there are no small parts to come off and be swallowed)
• Allow space for infants to move freely (though they cant yet go anywhere)
• Don’t prop infant seat or other restrictive device

• Provide for infant-to-infant contact
• Minimum adult-interference- infants should be free to develop at their own rates
• Give them faces to look at (specially that of the primary caregiver) and opportunities to see, touch and gum objects
• Don’t force anything on them
• Place them on their backs so they can have a broader view, both ears can hear, and they can use their hands

• Listen
• Cry
• Respond to voices

• At this level, people are more important for language development than is physical environment
• Set up environment so that infants’ needs are easily met and they don’t have to wait for long periods of time

• Listen to infants
• Try to interpret their cries
• Talk to infants, specially during caregiving times; tell them what will happen; give them time for a response; tell them what is happening as it happens

• Beginning to lose reflexes and have voluntary control of arms and legs
• Can lift head and control it better when held in upright position

Small Muscles

• Grasp reflex no longer takes over hands all the time
• Reach for objects with both arms but with hands fisted
• Swipe and miss

• Large playpen, big enough for caregivers and several infants
• Variety of washable objects within reach of infants for them to look at or stretch for
• Rugs or mats for infants to lie on
• Avoid restrictive devices

• Sit with children periodically and watch attentively
• Respond when called for
• Don’t continually distract them with unnecessary noise or talk; entertainment isn’t necessary
• Allow infants freedom to explore through looking, sucking, stretching and reaching

• Show wider variety of feelings and use voice to express them
• Begin to see hands and feet belong to them and begin to explore them, as well as face, eyes, and mouth, with hands
• Begin to recognize primary caregiver
• Respond differently to different people
• Coo and babble when talked to

• People are more important than objects

• Provide for attachment needs because infants need to develop a primary relationship
• Recognize and respect infants’ feelings: talk about what infants seem to be expressing, especially during caregiving

• Respond to what they see
• Attend longer than at first
• Look from one object to another
• Can hold object on their own and manipulate to some extent
• Give signs of remembering
• When they hear a noise, they look for the source
• Look and suck at the same time but have to stop sucking to listen

• Some interesting toys and objects for infants at this level of development include bright scarves, soft balls, rattles, squeeze toys, plastic keys and large plastic beads

• Encourage exploration and curiosity by providing a variety of objects of different textures, shapes, and sizes
• Allow children freedom and peace to explore by putting them on their back in a safe area large enough for them to move freely
• Provide for interaction with other infants

• Listen up attentively
• Coo, whimper, gurgle and make a variety of other sounds
• Cry less often
• “Talk” to themselves as well as to others, particularly primary caregivers

• People are still more important than equipment or objects for language development
• Some toys to give auditory experiences- let them try making noises with bells, rattles and squeaky toys

• Talk to infants, especially during caregiving routines; prepare them ahead of time for what is going to happen
• Respond to babbling and cooing- ;ay sound games with infants

• Have control over head
• Turn from back to stomach and stomach to back
• May move from place to place by rolling
• May creep or inch forward or backward
• May almost get to sitting while rolling over

Small Muscles

• Reach with one arm and can grasp at will
• Hold objects and manipulate them
• Can grasp with thumb and forefinger but not well yet
• Change objects from one hand to the other

• Need more open space and freedom than before
• Need a variety of textures under their body- hard floor, rugs, grass, wooden deck, etc.
• Need a variety of interesting objects to move and reach forward

• Place objects far enough from them so that infants must work to get them
• Provide plenty of room and motivation for moving around as well as manipulating and grasping objects
• Provide for interaction with other infants
• Keep infants in positions they can get in by themselves

• Display a wider variety of feelings
• Becoming aware of body parts
• See difference between self and rest of the world
• Respond to name
• Have taste preferences
• May want to start self-feeding

Social

• May respond with fear to strangers
• Call to primary caregiver for help
• Enjoy games with people (pee-a-boo)

• Space large enough for exploration and social interactions will promote relationships

• Talk to infants, especially during caregiving; place special emphasis on naming body parts
• Call children by name
• Encourage children to take over self-help skills as they are able

• Visually alert a good part of waking hours
• Recognize familiar objects
• Can see and reach for objects they want
• Can pick up and manipulate objects
• Look for dropped objects
• Can use several senses at once
• Memory is developing

• Infants continue to enjoy all the toys and objects listed in Level II under Intellectual Development
• Can now appreciate a wider variety of objects at once
• Place objects around a safe area so that infants have reason to move around and reach for them

• Provide for attachment needs and let children use primary caregiver to provide security in presence of stranger
• Play games like peek-a-boo
• Allow children freedom to explore
• Change or rearrange objects in the environment periodically
• Provide interaction with other infants

• Respond to different voices tones and inflections
• More control over sounds produced
• Use a variety of sounds to express feelings
• Imitate tones and inflections

• Cloth or cardboard books

• Respond to children’s communication
• Talk to children, especially during caregiving routines
• During playtimes, comment on what children are doing if appropriate (be care not to interrupt so the words get in the way of the experience)

• Crawl
• May crawl stiff-legged
• May crawl while holding a object in hand
• Pull to stand on furniture
• May stand alone
• May or may not be able to get back down from standing
• Getting into sitting position
• May move along holding unto furniture

Small Muscles

• Can pick up small objects easily with thumb or forefinger
• Explore or manipulate with forefinger
• Growing eye-hand coordination

• Infants need more room to explore and a greater variety of objects, textures, experiences, toys
• Plastic or wooden cars and trucks, play or real telephones, blocks, dolls, balls of different sizes, nesting toys
• Pillows and low platforms (or steps) can be added to the environment to provide a variety of levels for children to explore
• Rails or low furniture needed for standing or cruising

• Watch for Children who stand up but cant sit back down; help when they indicate they are stuck
• Be sensitive about helping children who get stuck; don’t rescue them but promote problem solving
• Provide open spaces and safe climbing opportunities
• Allow children to explore with little adult interference
• Encourage infants to use manipulative skills, such as pulling off socks, opening doors, taking apart nesting toys

• Clearly attached to primary caregiver and may fear separation
• Reject things they don’t want

Social

• Feed selves biscuit
• Drink from cup holding handle
• Usually a willing performer if asked
• Becoming sensitive to and interested in the moods and activities of others
• Tease

• Need the tools for self-help, such as cup and spoon

• Provide enough of a schedule for infants to come to anticipate the sequence of events
• Allow opportunities for uninterrupted concentration
• Encourage problem solving
• Don’t help until they’re really stuck
• Allow them to discover the consequences of their behavior whenever it is safe to do so

• Remember games and toys from previous days
• Anticipate people’s return
• Can concentrate and not get interrupted
• Pull over off toy they have seen hidden
• Enjoy taking things out of container and putting them back
• Solves simple manipulative problems
• Interested in discovering the consequences of their behavior

• The objects and toys listed under Physical Development are also appropriate for promoting intellectual development
• Also provide interesting and safe objects from the adult world- pots, pans, wooden spoons and junk such as discarded boxes, both big and little (infants appreciate real objects as much as toys)

• Provide opportunity for infants to become assertive
• Help children interpret the effect of their actions on others
• Give plenty of opportunities for children to develop self-help skills
• Help children express separation fears, accept them, and help them deal with them
• Provide for attachment to primary caregiver
• Provide good models for children (adults who express hones feelings, neither minimized nor exaggerated)

• Pay attention to conversations
• May respond to words other than own name
• May carry out simple commands
• Use words such as “mama” and “dada”
• Have intonation
• May repeat a sequence of sounds
• Yell

• Appreciate a greater variety of picture books

• Include infants in conversations
• Don’t talk about them if they’re present unless you include them (especially important at this stage)
• Promote interactions with other infants
• Respond to infants’ sounds
• Encourage use of words
• Ask questions infants can respond to

• Can stand without holding on
• May walk but probably prefer to crawl
• Climb up and down the stairs
• May climb out of crib

Small Muscles

• May use both hands at the same time for different things
• Use thumbs well
• Show preference for one hand
• May undress self or untie shoes

• Need lots of space both indoors and outdoors to enjoy crawling and practice walking
• Need lots of objects to manipulate, explore, experiment with and carry around

• Provide for safety and plenty of movement
• Don’t push children to walk- allow them to decide when they are finished with crawling

• Show wide variety of emotions and respond to those of others
• Fear strangers and new places
• Show affection
• Show moods and preferences
• May know difference between their possessions and others’

Social

• Feed self
• Help dress self
• Obey commands
• Seek approval but are not always cooperative

• Provide an Environment that encourages and facilitates self-help skills
• Provide needed tools and equipment for self-help skills

• Provide for self-help skills
• Acknowledge infants’ possessions and help protect them
• Give approval
• Set reasonable limits
• Accept uncooperative behavior as a sign of self-assertion
• Encourage self-help skills

• Good at finding hidden objects
• Increased memory
• Solve problems
• Use trial-and-error method effectively
• Explore new approaches to problems
• Think about actions before doing them (sometimes)
• Imitate people who are not present

• Children at this level enjoy most of the toys and household objects already mentioned but use them in more sophisticated ways
• Also enjoy large beads to string, large Lego blocks, small building blocs, stacking cones, wooden snap trains, etc

• Promote active problem solving
• Provide for interaction with other children
• Set up environment so children see new and more complex ways to use toys and equipment

• Know words stand for objects
• Begin to sound like they speak the language of their parents (use same sounds and intonations)
• Use gestures to express self
• May say two to eight words

• Toy telephones, dolls and books promote language development at this level
• Any toy can become a reason to talk as children play
• Music promotes language development

• Promote interaction among children; children learn to talk from adults, but they practice as they play with other children
• Give simple instructions
• Play games with children
• Sing songs and do finger plays
• Encourage expression of feelings
• Fill in missing words and expand utterance for children when responding

• Walk fast and well
• Seldom fall
• Run, but awkwardly
• Walk up stairs holding a hand

Small Muscles

• Can use a crayon to scribble as well as imitate marks
• Better control at self-feeding

• Need room to walk and run
• Enjoy taking walks if adult isn’t too goal-oriented
• Enjoy plenty of sensory experiences such as water play and sand

• Keep environment full and interesting; may need to change arrangement periodically and introduce new toys
• Promote interactions among children
• Allow for enough physical exercise

• Imitate adults in dramatic play
• Interested in helping with chores
• Interested in dressing process; can undress to some extent
• Ma be beginning to get some bladder and bowel control

• Provide the tools for dramatic play such as dress-up clothes, dolls, housekeeping equipment, dishes

• Allow children to help as they are able
• Set limits and gently but firmly enforce them
• Encourage self-help skills
• Help children with their interaction and talk them through aggressive situations

• Can begin to solve problem in their head
• Rapid increase of language development
• Beginning of ability fantasize and role-play

• Provide a variety of toys available on low shelves for children to choose from- small people, animals, doll houses, containers filled with small objects, measuring cups, spoons, etc

• Provide a number of choices
• Help children work on a problem uninterrupted
• Encourage use of language

• May use words to gain attention
• Can use words to indicate wants
• May know 10 words
• Enjoy picture books

• Books with clear, simple pictures

• Provide a variety of experiences and help children put language to them
• Ask questions and encourage children to ask them too
• Read aloud

• Run headlong, have trouble stopping and turning
• Walk up and down stairs (may hold on)
• Throw a ball
• Kick a ball forward

Small Muscles

• Put on some easy clothing
• Hold spoon, fork, cup but may still spill
• Can use a paintbrush but doesn’t control drips
• Can turn pages of a book

• Low climbers and slides
• Large balls, both lightweight and heavier
• Low three-and-four wheeled, steerable, well-balanced vehicles both with pedals and without
• Swings children can get into and out of themselves
• Hills, ramps, low stairs
• Space to run
• Large, lightweight blocks
• Wooden puzzles with two to four large pieces
• Pegboards
• Stacking toys
• Big beads to string
• Construction sets (easy to put together)
• Play dough
• Rhythm instruments
• Texture matching games
• Felly boxes
• Sand and water and toys to play with them
• Dolls to dress and mostly undress
• Books
• Felt pens, crayons, finger paint

• Encourage freedom to move in anyway they like (within limits, of course)
• Allow for plenty of physical and sensory experiences
• Encourage children to fin new ways to combine and use familiar toys and equipment
• Offer choices
• Allow loving chases of loving wrestles
• Play circle games and sing songs with movements (but not with the whole group as a circle time compulsory activity)
• Encourage small-muscle use by offering a wide variety of choices
• Offer a number of sensory activities
• Allow children to combine materials and toys in unique ways (within limits, of course)
• Allow children to use toys and materials in creative ways (within limits of course)
• Facilitate problem solving when children get stuck

• May understand personal property concepts (“That’s mine”; “That’s Daddy’s”)
• May tend to hoard possessions; may resist sharing
• Assert independence (“Me do it!”)
• Take pride in accomplishments
• May say “no” even to things they want

• Provide space for personal possessions (cubbies or boxes)
• Provide duplicates of favorite toys so sharing isn’t such an issue
• Hand puppets sometimes allow children to express their feelings
• Art, music, and dramatic play experiences (listed under Small Muscles) allow children to express their feelings
• Large muscles experiences also allow children to express their feelings

• Respect children’s need to hold on to their possessions
• Model sharing rather than require it
• Allow children to try things by themselves, even when you know you can do them better or faster
• Help them have accomplishments they can take pride in

• Can identify parts of a doll-hair, ears, etc.
• Can fit forms into a form board
• Can solve many problems on their own
• Can work simple puzzles

• Provide books, puzzles, records, in addition to toys listed above that allow choices and provide opportunities for concept development and for problem solving

• Provide a variety of choices of materials to use and ways to spend time
• Give freedom to use materials in creative ways
• Encourage problem solving
• Allow exploration

• Use personal pronouns (I, me, you) but not always correctly
• Refer to themselves by name
• Use two and three word sentences
• May know as many as 50 to 200 words
• Talk about what they are doing

• Provide a good variety of books (children can use them carefully now)
• Pictures of child’s eye level around the room, changed often, give children something to talk about
• Allow and set up “happenings” experiences that give children something to talk about
• Provide for music experiences

• Encourage conversation both between children and between child and adult
• Help children speculate (“I wonder what would happen if…”)
• Go places and talk about what you do and see
• Encourage verbalization of feelings and wants
• Help children begin to talk about differences instead of relying on hitting, kicking and other negative physical behaviors

• Walk, run with control, climb well, throw a ball with aim
• Jump in place
• Balance on one foot for a second or two
• May pedal tricycle

Small Muscles

• Put on shoes but don’t tie laces
• Put on clothing except for buttoning
• Feed self alone and well
• Scribble with more control
• Draw or copy a circle
• Use paintbrush and control dips
• Use construction toys imaginatively
• Exercise bowel and bladder control

Need all the toys and equipment listed for the 24-month-old, but larger versions that provide more challenges. The 36-month-old can being to use the equipment designed for preschoolers and is probably ready to move on from the toddler program.

• May enjoy some large wooden blocks, balance boards, planks, boxes, ladders for building
• Unit blocks and accessories to go with them
• Construction sets with more and smaller pieces
• Small-wheeled vehicles to go with blocks
• Sensory table
• Puzzles
• Objects to sort
• Flannel board and figures
• Small beads to string
• Wide range of art materials, including paint, collage, scissors, glue, crayons, felt pens, chalk
• Dolls and accessories
• Doll house
• Extensive dramatic play equipment
• Puppets

• Offer choices
• Can move gross motor equipment outside for this age group and expect them to be slightly more restrained inside
• Be careful about encouraging gross motor experiences in boys more than in girls (they should get equal encouragement; indeed, girls should get extra encouragement if they are reluctant)
• Allow plenty of choices
• Encourage children to use toys and materials in creative ways
• Find ways that older children can become involved in small-muscle, manipulative activities without being interrupted by younger children who want to dumb rather than build
• Keep small parts from younger children, who might put them in their mouths
• Encourage fine motor activities in both boys and girls (if boys are less interested, find materials that entice them)

• May show regard for people or possessions
• Play with sustained interest
• Play and interact with another child
• Willing to use toilet
• Can conform to group for short periods

• Provide space for personal possessions
• Provide plenty of materials to allow children to share feeling and role-play, such as dramatic play equipment, dress-up clothes, puppets, dolls, small figures, musical instruments and experiences, art materials
• Books that children can identify with also help them express their feelings
• Have toilet readily available

• Being to encourage sharing and cooperative play
• Help children get involved and stay involved in play activities by preventing interruptions to other children
• Can expect children to participate in short active group times, such as circle time
• Encourage interaction among children

• May count to two or three
• May draw face or very simple figure
• Can work simple puzzles
• More sophisticated problem solving
• Call self “I” and other people “you”
• Know he is a boy or she is a girl
• Know most of the parts of the body
• Compare sizes

• The variety of construction materials, manipulative toys, dramatic play, and art materials listed above all contribute to intellectual development
• Objects to sort
• Plenty of puzzles
• Parquetry blocks
• Simple games such as lotto
• Simple, hands-on science displays and experiments

• Provide plenty of choices
• Encourage peer interaction during problem solving
• Encourage absorption, involvement with materials, activities and people
• Encourage an inquiring attitude
• Encourage creative thinking
• Encourage children to think about past experiences as well as future ones
• Encourage development of number concepts in natural context

• Use plurals
• Converse in short sentences, answer questions, give information, use language to convey simple ideas
• Name pictures and label actions
• May have 900- word vocabulary
• Articulate fairly clearly

• Setting up the environment for gross motor, fine motor, social, emotional and intellectual experiences should provide plenty for the children to talk about
• Add to variety of complexity of books and pictures provided for two-year-olds
• Music experience
• Simple hands-on science displays and experiments

• Encourage comparisons of size, weight, etc. of objects in a natural context
• Read books, tell stories, sing songs
• Embedded language in all experiences
• Encourage questioning
• Encourage conversations
• Encourage speculation
• Encourage verbal conflict resolution
• Encourage verbalization of feelings
• Help children listen to one another
• Play language games such as lotto