Relationship-Based Care for Infants and Toddlers

Learn how to create and nurture communities of care for diverse children, families, and practitioners through responsive practice. In this text, the social and emotional worlds of babies and toddlers, their peers, and their caregivers come to life in the everyday moments of infant-toddler care and education. The authors show infants and toddlers as active, agentic, and intentional social partners from the start of life, highlighting their unique capacities for social engagement with both adults and peers. Interwoven within each chapter’s narrative are insights culled from extensive observations, teacher interviews, and video analyses. Part I emphasizes play, peer friendships, and humor as essential elements of infant learning, illustrated throughout with anecdotes of praxis in early care and education settings. Building on these aspects of babies’ ways of being in group care, Part II examines the complex roles of infant-toddler professionals and the critical importance of supportive and caring environments. Readers will explore the elements needed for in-depth and specialized professional preparation, including overarching principles of relationship-based practice.

Book Features:

• Illuminates particular and understudied ways that infants and toddlers actively contribute to their own social learning and development.
• Shares how teachers learn to engage with and nurture infants’ and toddlers’ social capacities and experiences within child care settings.
• Uses anecdotes and vignettes from the authors’ research and practice with infants, toddlers, and caregivers to bring their experiences to life.
• Discusses themes that are important and unique for infancy and toddlerhood, such as play, friendships, humor, and professional love.
• Presents a unique set of chapters that reveal infants’ and toddlers’ perspectives, while also considering the caregiver’s actions within a responsive care framework.

Susan L. Recchia is a professor emeritus in the Department of Curriculum and Teaching at Teachers College, Columbia University. Minsun Shin is an associate professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning at Montclair State University. Eleni Loizou is a professor in the Department of Education and Early Childhood Education Program at the University of Cyprus.

Contents (Tentative)

Acknowledgments

1.  Introduction: Ways of Thinking About, Talking About, and Taking Steps Toward Social Inclusion
The Many Faces of Inclusion
The Need to Broaden the Research Framework
Traditional Ways of Looking at Inclusion
A Challenge to the Dominant Discourse about Inclusion
An Inclusive Learning Environment: Classroom Components and Teacher Competencies
Organization of the Book

2.  Welcoming Children with Disabilities to the Table: Classroom Components that Value Individual Differences
What Researchers Say about the Social Competencies of Young Children with Special Needs
Positive Responses to Diversity of Ability
Mario’s Story: Meeting the Needs of a Child with Cognitive Delays Who Is Motivated to Play with Others
Adam’s Story: Meeting the Needs of a Child with Physical Disabilities Who Is Highly Motivated to Move Independently
Joey’s Story: Meeting the Needs of a Child with Social Challenges Who Demonstrates Unusual Social Behaviors
Final words: Bridging Developmental Differences
How Can You Make a Difference?Questions for Further Reflection

3.  Rethinking Social Inclusion: Classroom Components That Empower All Children
What Other Researchers Say about Social Inclusion of Children with Challenging or Inappropriate Behaviors
Ira’s Story: Dealing with a Child Who Is Marginalized in the Classroom
Cody’s Story: Responding to an Aggressive Child
Abigail’s Story: Dealing with a Quiet Child Who Loses the Teachers’ Attention’
Final Words: ‘’Moving toward Inclusive Classrooms That Value Everyone
How Can you Make a Difference? Questions for Further Reflection

4.  Becoming a Teacher that Makes a Difference: Examining Values, Reconsidering Expectations, and Developing Competencies to Transform Classroom Practice
Challenges of Inclusion
What Other Researchers Say about the Role of Teachers in Facilitating Social Interactions in Early Childhood Classrooms
A Reconceptualization of Early Childhood Inclusive Teaching
The Six Teacher Competencies for an Inclusive Classroom
Teacher Competencies as a Framework for Transforming Teaching and Learning in the Early Childhood Classroom

5.  Early Childhood Classrooms as Inclusive Learning Communities: Our Visions for the Future
Synthesizing the Components and Competencies Through a Relationship Lens
Overarching Principles for Inclusive Practice
Bringing Early Childhood Inclusion to Life: Applying the Classroom Components and Teacher Competencies
Where Do We Go from Here? Implications for Teacher Preparation and Ongoing Teacher Development

References

Index

About the Authors