Responsive Caregiving:

1

• Responsive Caregiving
• The Foundation of Quality
• Sandy Petersen
• ZERO TO THREE

2

• Responsive Caregiving
• The Foundation of Quality
• Sandy Petersen
• ZERO TO THREE

3
Responsiveness as the Foundation of Relationships
and Learning
Responsiveness is the adult sensitivity and
reaction to a childs facial expressions, body
postures, gestures and words.
4
Responsiveness as the Foundation of Relationships
and Learning

• Responsiveness refers to both how well the adult
  understands what the infant or toddler is trying
  to communicate (their Cues) and how the adult
  acts in response to the child.

Wittmer Petersen, 2010
5
Responsiveness Matters

• Infants and toddlers need sensitive responses to
  their attempts to learn everything
• Motor Skills
• Language
• Social Skills
• Learning and Thinking

6
Responsiveness Matters

• It matters most in emotional development
  because emotional reactions are the building
  blocks of the brain
• They create the architecture of the brain
  through connections between neurons and setting
  off the hormones that constantly bathe the brain.

7
Responsiveness Matters

• With the help of responsive adults, infants and
  toddlers achieve important emotional milestones
  which contribute to all other learning
• Regulation
• Emotional expression
• Attachment relationship
• Sense of identity

8
Respect, Reflect, Relate

• Respect, reflect, relate is a process used for
  every part of curriculum planning, when the baby
  really leads the way.
•  

9
Respect

• RESPECT involves observing infants and toddlers
  with a desire to understand their interests,
  feelings, and intentions. Respect means the care
  teacher approaches each encounter or observation
  with the expectation of seeing the infant or
  toddler learning.

10
Reflect

• REFLECT describes your thought process as you
  wonder about the infants or toddlers
  intentions, examine your own internal responses,
  and determine how you might best respond to a
  child.

11
Relate

• RELATE explains the actions the infant and
  toddler care teacher takes (or chooses not to
  take) to best serve the relationship and the
  infants or toddlers intentions.

12
Regulation

• Provides increasing control over reactions to
  internal sensations and external events.
• Helps the infant and toddler
• Pay attention
• Develop memory
• Solve problems
• Categorize
• Engage in symbolic play

13
Emotional Expression

• Is the key to understanding others and having
  others understand you.
• Very young babies use universal expressions of
  interest, happiness, and sadness.
• Very young infants are distressed to see a video
  of a happy face with a sad sound coming out of
  it.

14
Achieving an Attachment Relationship

• Secure attachment comes from the earlier
  development of trust and safety
• Secure attachment allows the mobile infant to
  explore
• Secure attachment leads to better relationships
  in school

15
Developing a Sense of Self

• Everything you do or dont do - registers in
  the infants brain adding to his picture of who
  he is with others and how to act with others
• Every time an infant or toddler figures out
  what to do with a toy, getting in or out of a
  space, or solving any problems, he adds to his
  picture of being a confident, competent person.

16
Responsiveness as the Foundation of Relationships
and Learning
Responsiveness is the adult sensitivity and
reaction to a childs facial expressions, body
postures, gestures and words.
17
Responsiveness as the Foundation of Relationships
and Learning

• Responsiveness refers to both how well the adult
  understands what the infant or toddler is trying
  to communicate (their Cues) and how the adult
  acts in response to the child.

Wittmer Petersen, 2010
18
Responsiveness Matters

• Infants and toddlers need sensitive responses to
  their attempts to learn everything
• Motor Skills
• Language
• Social Skills
• Learning and Thinking

19
Responsiveness Matters

• It matters most in emotional development
  because emotional reactions are the building
  blocks of the brain
• They create the architecture of the brain
  through connections between neurons and setting
  off the hormones that constantly bathe the brain.

20
Responsiveness Matters

• With the help of responsive adults, infants and
  toddlers achieve important emotional milestones
  which contribute to all other learning
• Regulation
• Emotional expression
• Attachment relationship
• Sense of identity

21
Respect, Reflect, Relate

• Respect, reflect, relate is a process used for
  every part of curriculum planning, when the baby
  really leads the way.
•  

22
Respect

• RESPECT involves observing infants and toddlers
  with a desire to understand their interests,
  feelings, and intentions. Respect means the care
  teacher approaches each encounter or observation
  with the expectation of seeing the infant or
  toddler learning.

23
Reflect

• REFLECT describes your thought process as you
  wonder about the infants or toddlers
  intentions, examine your own internal responses,
  and determine how you might best respond to a
  child.

24
Relate

• RELATE explains the actions the infant and
  toddler care teacher takes (or chooses not to
  take) to best serve the relationship and the
  infants or toddlers intentions.

25
Regulation

• Provides increasing control over reactions to
  internal sensations and external events.
• Helps the infant and toddler
• Pay attention
• Develop memory
• Solve problems
• Categorize
• Engage in symbolic play

26
Emotional Expression

• Is the key to understanding others and having
  others understand you.
• Very young babies use universal expressions of
  interest, happiness, and sadness.
• Very young infants are distressed to see a video
  of a happy face with a sad sound coming out of
  it.

27
Achieving an Attachment Relationship

• Secure attachment comes from the earlier
  development of trust and safety
• Secure attachment allows the mobile infant to
  explore
• Secure attachment leads to better relationships
  in school

28
Developing a Sense of Self

• Everything you do or dont do - registers in
  the infants brain adding to his picture of who
  he is with others and how to act with others
• Every time an infant or toddler figures out
  what to do with a toy, getting in or out of a
  space, or solving any problems, he adds to his
  picture of being a confident, competent person.