Infants are born ready to learn, and they all develop at different rates. The first few years of life are a phenomenal time for humans. At Building Kidz, we proactively evaluate and support the developing brains and bodies of our infants and toddlers in a nurturing environment to enable a strong foundation for success in school and in life. As early childhood educators and caregivers, we use developmental domains to support the different aspects of each child’s overall development. By grouping related behaviors and skills into domains, we easily assess each child’s growth. The four development domains used in our proprietary infant and toddler curriculum are Cognitive, Perceptual Motor, Speech & Language, and Social Intelligence.
Infant and Toddler - Building Kidz School
Cognitive Development
Cognitive development involves how children think, how they see their world, and how they use what they learn. Cognitive Development relates to reasoning and learning through the development of problem-solving skills, expanded thought processes, and memory.
Perceptual Motor Development
Perceptual motor development for infants and toddlers are at work the entire time they are awake. Perception refers to the process of taking in, organizing, and interpreting sensory information. Perception is multimodal, with multiple sensory inputs contributing to motor responses; motor development refers to changes in children’s ability to control their body’s movements. These movements range from an infant’s first spontaneous waving and kicking movements to the adaptive control of moving, reaching, touching, and grabbing objects.
Infants are different then the older children we take care of in that they still think in symbols and are developing their ability to form memories. Perceptual motor development focuses on the brain functions necessary to form memories and make plans and decisions.
Speech and Language Development
Speech and language development for infants is less about our infants speaking and more about us speaking to them. Throughout the day, your infant will be listening to music, being read to, and generally being spoken to. This kind of infant ‘teaching’ helps to accelerate the development of important synapses in the part of the brain that is responsible for language. The more words our infants hear, the stronger the connections get! Our toddlers are engaging with us in structured ways to enable enhanced communication capabilities which supports accelerated verbal communication.
Social Intelligence Emotional Development
Social intelligence emotional development represents the sophisticated understanding of people, things, and themselves. The social-emotional development in children as young as infants and toddlers is critical to their sense of well-being. Through our proprietary curriculum, we continuously support and evaluate this essential development.