Positive Teacher – Child Interactions: Infant and Toddler Staff.

Positive Teacher – Child Interactions: Infant and Toddler Staff

In the first three years of life, a child develops:

• Mental model of self• Mental model for relationships• Stress management• Ability to pay attention• Motivation to achieve

Because of this knowledge, we must be about RELATIONSHIPS and not about items or equipment we can buy or curriculums we can add to our programs!

We must be all about the relationships we build with them!

If you stick your tongue out at a newborn, they will automatically stick out their tongue back at you. They do this because their mirror neurons are firing; these help them to imitate what they are seeing.

Mirror neurons are important for understanding the actions and intentions of other people, and for learning new skills by imitation. They are involved in planning and controlling actions, abstract thinking, and memory. As children observe an action, their mirror neurons fire and form new neuro-pathways as if they were performing the action themselves.

Anything You Can Do…I Will Do

Efficient mirror neuron activity leads to good overall development in all areas and leads to higher emotional intelligence and the ability to empathize with others.

Why Is This Important?

This connection “downloads” to the child’s frontal lobe, just as data downloads to a computer.

The frontal lobe is home to the child’s personality and emotion control center.

Making a Connection with Your Eyes Is a Critical Component

• The motivation to behave comes from being in a relationship

• Connections made with others literally wires the brain for impulse control

CONNECTION = COOPERATION

Ingredients for Connection Eye contact Gentle touch

Being present in the moment

Playful interactions

Sophia, 10 months old, enters the class one morning with her

mother just as the teacher is changing another child’s diaper. “You can set Sophia over there and give her a book. I’ll be done in a minute.”

Break Out Session: Improve These Connections

Thelma, the Lead Toddler teacher,

is sitting at a table, snapping photographs of the children as

they played. DeShante approached, gripping a block in his hand and says “Bl….bl….”

Thelma says “DeShante, take the block back to the rug, please.”

Thelma, the Lead Toddler teacher,

is sitting at a table, snapping photographs of the children as

they played. DeShante approached, gripping a block in his hand and says “Bl….bl….”

Thelma says “DeShante, take the block back over to the rug.”

The relationships you build with the children must be the most

important component of your work; these develop with solid

connections. ALL social, physical, and emotional development starts with a

CONNECTION, so teachers must

always be “on.”

Teachers must be conscious of their state at all times…and always be in a place of peace.

Relationships Matter

Your Inner State Downloads into the Child

Your state becomes a child’s self-regulatory system. If you’re frustrated, the child can –and probably will—be frustrated too!

What do you do when a child cries?

Group Discussion

• Relax Yourself: take a deep cleansing breath and blow it out

• Bring child close (let him rest his head on your chest, close his arms and legs in)

• Take a deep breath and exhale with a soft “shhhhhh”

Helping a Crying Baby

When a baby stays in a distressed state for an extended period of time, the amygdala- the lower center of the child’s brain--gets overdeveloped!

Should You Let a Baby or Child ‘Cry it Out?’

The amygdala is the most primitive area of the brain and is constantly alert to the needs of basic survival. If this center gets over-stimulated. it will continue to grow. An over-developed amygdala will result in other parts of the brain being under-developed, causing delays and possibly a lifetime of problems!

Relax Yourself: take a deep cleansing breath and blow it out

• The goal is to help the child be acquainted with his feelings state, so why not try this:

“Your face is telling me you’re sad because it’s going like this….” and then mirror the expression.

Helping a Crying Toddler

The biggest gift we can give to children is the gift of ourselves by being conscious and present with them at all times!

…One Final Note…

• Conscious Discipline for Infants and Toddlers Workshop: Dr. Becky Bailey

• Baby Doll Circle Time, Dr. Becky Bailey and Elizabeth Montero-Cefalo, 2014

• Your Child’s Growing Mind: Brain Development from Birth Through Adolescence. Jane Healy, 2014

• Internet sites: childcareexchange.com, consciousdiscipline.com

References