Infant
The children in this room range from 6 weeks to 18 months old. The state required teacher to student ratio is 1 to 4. Each child is provided with their own crib and their own bins for personal belongings. There is no set schedule for this room, allowing the flexibility for the teachers to work with parents to provide the best quality care for their infant. Parents fill out “Basic Infant Information” forms upon enrollment that remain on file in the classroom for teacher reference. Room For Growing requires an intake conference for every infant and parent.
Communication is crucial at this stage of development. It is both the teachers’ and parents’ responsibility to inform one another of the infant’s schedule changes. Parents will also receive daily logs that document diaper changes, feeding times, amounts fed, nap times, and other activities the infant participated. Also in this room, children begin to form routines in their daily schedules such as story, art, and gym time.
Some developmental Milestones for this room include:
- Social interaction with adults through hugs, coos, babble, and smiles
- Becoming aware of one’s self by sucking on fingers, observing their own hands, and reaching for toys
- Motor skills, such as, lifting their head, sitting up without support, rolling over, crawling, pulling self up, and standing while holding on to furniture
- Body awareness, such as throwing objects, crawling, and walking
- Looks at picture books with interest
- Points to objects
- Curious to learn the names of objects
- Creates long, babbled sentences
- Shakes head "No" & says a few words clearly
- Identifies one or more body parts
- Feeds oneself
