Bona Vista's Child Care Solutions

With August just around the corner, many teachers are gearing up to restart preschool curriculums that they have let slide over the summer months. This is the perfect time to do a quick check to make sure that your curriculum is meeting the educational needs of your little ones, particularly two-year-olds. All too often two-year-olds are roped into participating in full preschool programs which they are not ready for. Two-year-olds are still mentally toddlers, in that they learn primarily through repetitive use of senses. When you try and force preschool style learning on two year old brains the results can be explosive, resulting in incidents of biting, tantrums, regression, and other challenging behaviors. So what should a curriculum for two-year-olds involve? Here are some quick learning experiences for two-year-olds that should be incorporated into any developmentally appropriate curriculum

• Daily reading experiences that include interaction with book through turn taking, finger plays, and re-enacting stories
• Comparing differences in size
• Frequent conversations about diversity that recognize differences in a positive way
• Simple sorting experiences such as sorting item by color or size
• Exposure to the natural world with an emphasis on caring for items in nature such as watering flowers or feeding birds
• Daily physical exercise that allows for jumping, throwing, crawling, tumbling, and yelling to allow children to explore their body’s strengths and challenges
• Simple science experiments that encourage questions

1. For example placing ice in a sensory table with water, hammers, sponges to explore melting
   

• Large blocks of uninterrupted play with toys that promote early learning such as

1. Dramatic play toys that allow children to recreate scenes that relate to real life
2. Block sets that include different sizes and shapes of blocks
3. Matching games
4. Art materials that are open-ended or are not focused on an end result but rather focused on learning how to hold tools and be creative
5. Quiet area that allows for reading and snuggling
   

Spring is here. The flowers are in bloom, the sun is shining, and temper tantrums are escalating. That is right; it is not just your imagination, temper tantrums do get worse in the spring. When the seasons change children are more sensitive to the atmospheric shifts and his or her behavior often reflects this sensitivity. So what do you do with those baby meltdowns?

It is important to keep in mind that tantrums are normal for all young children, but that does not mean that adults are powerless when they occur. The first step in helping your child(ren) through a tantrum is to understand what the cause of the tantrum is.

The most common cause of temper tantrums in toddlers and two year olds is a child’s frustration at his or her inability to communicate. Children in general, but toddlers in particular, become frustrated when he or she is attempting to communicate a need or desire with someone and the other person does not understand. For example, your toddler feels hungry and would like a snack. He or she points to the counter and grunts. You think he or she wants the toy you placed on the counter earlier and hand that to him or her. He or she knows then that his or her communication attempts have failed and suddenly you have a screaming terror on your hands.

Chances are if you have a toddler, this sounds familiar. So what are you to do? Prevention is your best course of action. Work on helping your child expand his or her vocabulary by talking to your child every day. Try to expand on babbling and grunts by saying things like, “Oh do you want to hold the spoon?” rather than simply handing them the spoon. Learning a few simple baby signs and teaching them to your child can also make a huge impact. Because children develop coordination in their hands and arms before they develop the mouth coordination necessary for speaking, a very young child can use a few simple signs to communicate his or her needs before they can talk. Teaching your child how to say more, eat, and drink, for example, can alleviate much of your child’s frustration and thereby, decrease the number of tantrums. Not only will this help decrease the number of tantrums, but research shows that baby signs can also help children build a stronger spoken vocabulary over the first three years of life. Bona Vista’s Child Care Solutions offers free one hour classes on baby sign. If you think this might be helpful to you and your child call, 1-800-493-3231 to schedule a class.

It is also important to remember that a child who is struggling with a communication delay may need additional support. A child should be babbling and imitating sounds by eight months, saying a few words by 12-15 months, and should have a vocabulary of more than 25 words by the time he or she is 24 months old. If you are concerned that your child is not speaking, or is struggling with speech, you can have a developmental screening done to ensure that your child’s development is on track. First Steps in Indiana offers free developmental screenings to all children under that age of three. If you are located near the Kokomo or Peru areas Bona Vista also offers free developmental screenings.You can also always talk to your child's pediatrician about the best place to have a screening done in your area. If you are concerned about your child’s speech or any other area of development, please contact a professional to have a developmental screening done.

With a better understanding of tantrums, you can approach your little one with a new mindset. Ultimately helping you tame those temper tantrums.

In child care we are supposed to be the experts in helping soothe the fussiest most challenging babies. Even the greatest infant teacher will from time to time come across a baby who is difficult and seems impossible to soothe. When this happens there can be a mix of emotions from guilt to frustration to anger. It is easy to blame the parents, “this baby is spoiled” or to blame yourself, “I don’t know what I am doing I must be stupid”. The blame game is never helpful in fixing a situation so here are some tips and techniques to keep in mind to help you problem solve with the babies family how to soothe the fussiest baby.

1. Make sure you have run through your basics- food, diaper, calm period to rest etc.
2. Strip the baby down and make sure nothing is irritating her skin. Remember for a sensitive baby socks that are too tight can cause a day of crying.
3. Find out what works at home. Does mom use a cradleboard? Do they have a special CD that plays? How does the family hold the baby? All of this matters. Compare it to how you relax. We all have specific things that we do to calm ourselves down and what works for me might not be at all what works for you. Just because I like a cup of hot tea and a jazz CD does not make that the only way to calm down. This is true for children too. Take some time and have a conversation where you listen to the parents share what they do to calm the baby at home. Who knows maybe it is a combination of rap music and fan that works wonders at home. Do not judge parents, just listen and keep an open mind.
4. Try to adapt techniques used at home to the child care setting. This often takes creativity since there are more complications in a child care setting (i.e. other children playing laughing and even hollering), but you can adapt almost anything with a little creativity.
5. Do not expect miracles. Especially when babies are new to care, everything is different. Smells, sounds, temperatures, and you are all new. All that change is scary so expect some crying. Even if a child has been in your care for some time, as children go through different developmental stages crying at change is normal. As you make your adaptations, give each adaptation at least a week, preferably more, to work before changing anything else. Nothing works instantly and patience is essential when working with young children.
6. Ask for help. If you have tried to adapt and use different techniques and it is not working, call your mentor or infant toddler specialist and ask for help. Also keep in mind that there can be medical reasons for a child to cry. If the baby is crying and is inconsolable both at home and school, you should keep a log of the times the baby cries and what you have done to soothe. This log can be helpful for the child’s family to take to the pediatrician to talk about what else could be causing the crying.

Try not to be too hard on yourself or on parents. Babies cry for a reason. They are not spoiled nor are they out to get you. By working patiently with the family you should be able to help soothe most of those babies through even the roughest patches.

For more information on helping out parents click here

When thinking about helping babies sleep always remember Safe Sleeping guidelines check out this article for more information

For more great Infant & Toddler Information Check out these websites:

Zero to Three
National Association for the Education of Young Children
The Program for Infant & Toddler Care

Have Fun, But Stay Safe!
Now that summer is in full swing, kids are spending more and more time outdoors. With outdoor play come many great opportunities for healthy exercise, free exploration of nature, and sensory fun! To make the outdoor experience fun and safe, remember that sun screen and protective clothing should always be used for children over the age of six months. For children less than six months, sunscreen should be used sparingly and only after consulting with a pediatrician; however, babies can still have fun playing outdoors in the shade of an umbrella, canopy, or even with a hat and protective clothing. For older children, sun screen should be applied 30 minutes before exposure, and reapplied after water play or excessive sweating. For more specific information about outdoor health and safety click here to check out the American Academy of Pediatrics recommendations.