Your Guide To Infant Care Program

Infant care programs play an important role in children’s development and provide valuable support to families. However, more and more infants are spending time each day in some type of child care setting. All children especially infants need a child care program where they can thrive with caregivers who understand how to promote their healthy growth and development.  In fact, babies a schedule that is responsive to their needs, including appropriate stimulation and time to rest. They need to be talked to and played with love and attention. But there is no “one-size-fits-all” infant care programme. Even though more young parents recognise that infancy is a crucial time for learning but there is no “one-size-fits-all” infant care programme. There are several types of infant care in Malaysia and one of the most consequential decisions that many parents make early on is choosing the right fit for their little one.

What Is Infant Care Program?

Though babies may often seem small and helpless, the infant phase is actually rife with opportunities for them to acquire motor skills as well as cognitive, language and social-emotional development. The infant care programme is designed for 2 months to 17 months old children. It is designed based on brain research that seizes the optimum period for learning in the first 3 years of the young child’s life as fundamental in laying the foundation of overall development in later years. This is the child’s most malleable stage of life. Which is why many infant care centre adopts a relationship-based approach that is child-centred, to provide respectful and responsive care in meeting the child’s personal and physiological.

What Are The Main Areas Of Focus For An Infant Care Program?

1. Physical development.
   Infants love to move, and all actions are learning activities for them. As they try new skills and masters them standing, walking, climbing, the caregiver responds to their growing independence by giving them more complicated toys and materials to explore safely.
2. Social and emotional development.
   From the moment infants are born, they’re ready to learn through meaningful interactions with people who care for them. As our baby grows, the caregiver will have to help them to learn how to share, take turns, treat others gently, and make friends. Encourage and guide them when necessary.
3. Thinking skills.
   Our child is curious about the world around them. The infant care programme provides experiences that help them learn about cause and effect, imitate adults in their play, and use their problem-solving skills.
4. Language development.
   The infant care programme helps them learn new words and understand how conversation works when caregiver talks to them.

Types Of Infant Care Programmes

Play-Based Learning
A play-based program builds on this motivation, using play as a context for learning. In this context, children can explore, experiment, discover and solve problems in imaginative and playful ways. This approach involves both child-initiated and teacher-supported learning. The teacher encourages children’s learning and inquiry through interactions that aim to stretch their thinking to higher levels. For instance, when children are playing with legos, a caregiver can pose questions that encourage problem-solving. The caregiver can also bring the child’s awareness towards mathematics, science and literacy concepts, allowing them to engage with such concepts through hands-on learning. Nevertheless through play. it also supports positive attitudes to learning. These include imagination, curiosity, enthusiasm, and persistence. The type of learning processes and skills fostered in play cannot be replicated through rote learning.

Montessori Based Learning
Montessori is a method of education that is based on self-directed activity, hands-on learning and collaborative play. In Montessori classrooms, children make creative choices in their learning, while the classroom and the highly trained teacher offer age-appropriate activities to guide the process. Children work in groups and individually to discover and explore the knowledge of the world and to develop their maximum potential. It is thoughtfully designed to offer children opportunities to develop their own capabilities, whether it is learning how to dress themselves independently, multiply a multi-digit equation, communicate their needs effectively, or problem-solve with others. Example, colourful picture cards helps the infant to match the cards with the letters and begin to visually associate letter sounds with their corresponding photo.

Relationship-Based Infant Care
The relationship-based infant care also known as Reggio Emilia Approach is an innovative and inspiring approach to early childhood education.  It values the child as strong, capable and resilient; rich with wonder and knowledge. In this case, there is no structured program and infant may stay with one caregiver for up to three years to create a consistent learning relationship. Caregivers will often plan lessons based on each child’s interest and continuously ask the child questions to further engage them, rather than just assigning an activity and observing. This approach is a way of observing what children know, are curious about and what challenges them. For instance, caregivers record these observations to reflect on developmentally appropriate ways to help children expand their academic and social potentials.

Whole-brain Learning Approach
Right brain training alone is not sufficient because infant brain is constantly growing new neural connections and developing stronger connections. Using fun and engaging whole-brain learning approach in infant care, it brings out the greatest potentials in children by boosting the abilities possessed by them. In this approach, infants are provided with curated activities dedicated to enhancing the following elements of their learning abilities to aid in their formal education as they grow. For example, activities that involve touching, smelling, tasting, listening, talking, singing, dancing, running and playing. One activity to connect both hemispheres of the brain is flashcard reading at high speed. Through such an approach, parents are also able to observe and understand their children’s greatest learning strengths to provide effective supplementary learning activities.

Therefore, infant care programmes can help parents identify a child’s learning concerns and needs early on and find the appropriate mediations from the start. When it comes to your children, there is no one-size-fits-all learning style that will guarantee their success. As the education system continues to adapt and improve to better assist your child with the learning process, the need to address special learning needs and accommodations becomes more evident. By identifying the right learning approach during infancy is important because it can be physically and emotionally entrenched in a child’s way of thinking and processing.