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Infant & Toddler Development Course Objectives

Understanding the phases of development for infants and toddlers is important so educators and parents can set reasonable expectations of a child's capabilities. Creating course objectives for teaching others about child development should take into consideration all aspects of children's physical, social, emotional and cognitive growth as well as safety and care guidelines for child care.

  1. Physical Development

    • Set course objectives related to children's physical development according to age-appropriate standards. For infants, course objectives should be developed for fostering sensory development of sight, sound and touch. Develop hand-eye coordination, balance and motor-skills development objectives for toddlers and 2-year-olds. Special emphasis should be placed on providing a safe and nurturing learning environment.

    Social Interactions

    • Foster an understanding of the importance of a child's ability to socialize with children of various age groups as well as with adults, caregivers and parents. Recognize that each of these social groups set different parameters for a child's level of interaction and development. Understand the importance and effect of an infant's ability to engage in facial recognition, development of "stranger anxiety," and appropriate play interaction with peers.

    Emotional Development

    • Identify the influences on a child's emotional development from environmental, familial, cultural and social sources. Set learning objectives that teach parents and caregivers about appropriate benchmarks for a child's emotional cues and outlets for euphoria, anger, grief and frustration. Teach methods of nurturing children as well as appropriate techniques for discipline.

    Cognitive Growth

    • Teach parents and caregivers how to set age-appropriate lesson plans to expand a child's cognitive boundaries. Provide reading and activity lists for students to use for instructing children on basic language development, organization, color recognition and counting.

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