Community School
Infant Room
Our NE Center Infant Room is a group of up to 6 children and 2 to 3 teachers. In general, children in the Infant Room are between the ages of 5 to 12 months. In this classroom we use a primary caregiving model. Children's needs throughout the day are met by their primary teacher. This establishes trust, and a strong reciprocal relationship. Primary teachers are responsible for changing, feeding, and helping the children in their primary group fall to sleep. All teachers are responsive to the needs of the class; however, the strong bond each child forms with their primary teacher gives them added security at this special stage of development, and allows for a gentle, secure transition into a group care environment.
Children follow their own individual feeding and napping schedules. Diapers are changed every 2 hours, or as often as needed. Parents provide cloth or disposable diapers from home, as well as diaper cream, and wipes.
For outside time, we take neighborhood walks using our multi-child stroller, and infant carriers, or use our age-appropriate infant/toddler deck.
Our infant teachers practice RIE (resources for infant educarers), and view each child as an initiator, explorer, and self-learner. They show trust in each child to develop at their own pace, and to process the wide range of emotions so integral to learning self-regulation.