Infant/Waddler Program
6 weeks -2 years Early development is fundamental to the growth of children. This program gives your child a variety of opportunities to master the social, emotional and physical tasks of each developmental stage in a healthy, safe, and Jewish environment.
Development of Language Skills
- Share songs and finger play with rhyme and repetition.
- Use self-talk throughout the day to boost vocabulary and model language skills. For example, “I’m going to wash my hands and put your bottle in the warmer.
- Read books and tell stories about pictures throughout the day.
Introduce early math concepts
- Provide items for infants to explore different textures, shapes, sizes and colors.
- Read stories and sing songs that include counting and numbers.
- Establish daily routines.
Introduce science concepts
- Provide toys for infants to grasp and mouth.
- Encourage infants to push buttons on a pop-up toy.
- Spend time outdoors with infants to teach them about the sights and sounds they see in nature, allowing them to explore and react to outdoor surfaces and changes in weather.
- Create opportunities for infants to observe and experience their environment, both inside and out, using all five senses.
Social-emotional skills
- Respond to an infant’s smiles, coos, babbles and cries.
- Hold, sit or lie on the floor with infants to be close to them during playtimes.
- Create opportunities for infants to observe and interact with other infants in the environment.
- Help infants distinguish between familiar and unfamiliar adults.
Physical skills
- Provide infants with floor time to explore their environment
- Encourage infants to roll over, sit up or crawl and walk to people or toys.
- Provide opportunities for infants to begin to learn to feed themselves.