知道

Curiosity drives infants and toddlers to investigate and explore their environment. Through exploration, infants and toddlers play with and manipulate a variety of materials while repeating enjoyable actions and gaining a sense of pleasure while learning.

Most infants learn to explore objects with all of their senses: seeing, touching, hearing, tasting and smelling. Through safe exploration, they also begin to develop ways of learning and gathering information about objects. Researchers have found that 12-month-old infants can remember and copy some actions they see up to four weeks later, even without practicing the actions in the meantime (Klein & Meltzoff 1999).

Understanding infant and toddler development, as well as the role of play, can help caregivers select materials to meet young children’s unique needs and interests and support their development and learning.

Selecting Materials

Caregivers have many choices when selecting materials for an infant or toddler environment. The materials help set the stage for learning. Infants and toddlers may feel a sense of security when they are able to see and play with materials also found in their home.

While infants and toddlers explore materials that are interesting to them, it is the caregiver that helps make the experience meaningful. Caregivers should select materials that are:

• 文化相关：做these materials reflect and respect the racial, ethnic, cultural, linguistic and family diversity of the program and of the broader community?
• 发展恰当：做these materials allow infants and toddlers to play in a variety of ways? Do these materials help us reach important learning goals for infants and toddlers?
• Linked to children’s interests:这些材料是否反映了婴儿和幼儿的当前兴趣，帮助引发新兴趣？

Culturally Relevant

Infant and toddler play and learning materials should be culturally relevant. But what does that mean? Cultural relevance means your choice of materials should reflect the backgrounds, knowledge and experiences of the diverse children in your room. By choosing materials that validate and empower children of all racial, ethnic and social backgrounds, you will build a bridge between children’s home and school lives that will provide a strong foundation for learning.

有许多简单的方法可以将孩子们从各种背景中展示人们的积极形象：

• 显示代表程序中所有子项，家庭和员工的图片。
• 显示各种工作（警察，建筑工人，老师，厨师）的男人和妇女的照片。
• Include items that represent cultures from around the world (scarves, cooking utensils, musical instruments)
• Stock your learning space with books that give positive messages about age, gender, race, culture, special needs, different families and linguistic diversity (e.g., alphabet and counting books from various cultures).
• Ask family members to lend you items from their homes.
• 娃娃应该代表一系列年龄，种族和能力。
• Play traditional and contemporary music from around the globe.

Above all, remember to engage families in making your learning space a culturally appropriate space. Display framed pictures of families. Create family books with the children. Encourage family members to share their home language and help you label items in the room with words from that language.

发展恰当

Toys and materials in your learning space should be developmentally appropriate. This means they should match the stage of development of the children in your care. Because children develop at different rates, choosing developmentally appropriate materials means you should have a range of toys available that can accommodate differences between individual children’s skills, interests and characteristics. A room stocked with developmentally appropriate materials “fits” the child—the child should not have to adjust to “fit” the learning space!

In infancy and toddlerhood, children develop and change dramatically. Caregivers should consider what toys and materials match their current development and how materials can support ongoing development and learning. For example, looking at and reading books with infants and toddlers can support the following types of development:

• Emotional:书籍阅读和安静的书籍区域给婴儿和幼儿一个放松和充电的机会。
• Social:Looking at books with a caregiver or friend can help strengthen a relationship.
• Motor:转到书籍的页面，并提高精细电机技能。
• Language:Caregivers can read with and help infants and toddlers explore books, pictures and new words.
• Cognitive:Infants and toddlers are introduced to new words, text and pictures.

Developmentally appropriate toys facilitate learning through play. When such toys are offered in a safe environment, infants and toddlers can move around and interact with them and with each other. If toys are too difficult or advanced, infants and toddlers may become frustrated. In addition, if toys are too simple, they may become bored and seek to entertain themselves in unsafe ways (e.g., running throughout the room or climbing on furniture). Through interactions, caregivers can help infants and toddlers explore developmentally appropriate materials and see themselves as competent learners.

Part of developmentally appropriate materials includes having multiples of favorite items whenever possible. Having duplicates of coveted items (e.g., dolls, trucks or musical items) will decrease infant and toddler frustration and encourage positive interactions between children. It is important to remember there are many other natural opportunities for infants and toddlers to begin learning about “turn-taking” with caregiver guidance; for example, as toddlers negotiate who will go down the slide next, or as older infants learn to each share their song ideas during group time.

年龄较大的婴儿的发育适当材料的例子（约7-12个月）包括：

• Soft blocks for building
• 娃娃娃娃
• Large balls
• 嵌套玩具（例如，塑料杯）
• Plastic and wood vehicles with wheels

幼儿的发展适当材料（约24个月）的例子包括：

• Wooden puzzles with 4–12 pieces
• 装扮衣服，木偶
• 有大块粉笔的黑板
• Blocks, transportation toys
• More detailed picture books

Refer to the two attachments later in this lesson,Selecting Materials（学习部分）和会议婴儿和幼儿的需求：发展适当的材料(Apply section) for excellent guidelines for selecting toys and materials for infants and young children.

As you learned in the Safety course, you should make sure the materials you provide are safe. All materials in your learning space should be made for infants and/or toddlers. Ensure your room is free of toxic materials (e.g., certain plants or art supplies). Make sure you carefully supervise materials that could be difficult for developmentally younger children.

Linked to Children’s Interests

Caregivers can build on infants’ and toddlers’ play by providing engaging toys during interactions and experiences. Effective materials are safe and complement the infants’ or toddlers’ abilities, strengths and interests. For example, for a toddler who expresses interest in animals, the caregiver can add plastic animal toys to the sensory or block area where he enjoys playing.

Materials that can be used in a variety of ways and that meet infants’ and toddlers’ developmental needs can provide a sense of security. Opportunities created for infants and toddlers to easily access, have fun with and manipulate materials that meet their interests and learning styles help infants and toddlers:

• Feel competent and recognize they have the ability to do different things and express ideas
• Develop self-help skills
• Interact with their caregivers and peers
• Feel calm and supported

Remember some families may not value play the way other families do. Some families may not have an environment that allows for safe play or a tradition of special time or floor play with their infant or toddler. Learn about families, seek to understand differences and find what is most important in the care of their infants and toddlers.

Open-Ended Materials

Not all toys are created equal. Some toys spark imagination and some hinder it. You might have noticed that young children are often more interested in the box than the toy that came inside it. Why? Because the box can become anything. It becomes a drum when you hit it, a house when you put a doll inside it, a hat when you put it on your head and a mask when you play hide and seek behind it. The possibilities are endless. Infants and toddlers learn and explore more when a toy is only limited by their imaginations. Consider the following list and think about why toys spark or limit imaginative play.

可能限制想象力的玩具：

• 采用预设配件或动作的行动数据或塑料娃娃
• 玩具，聊天，唱歌或跳舞
• Toys that are branded, such as with a TV show or popular character

Toys and materials that spark imaginative play:

• Dress-up clothes
• 大盒子
• 娃娃娃娃
• 乐器
• Writing and art materials
• “开放式”的项目或可以以各种不同的方式使用（例如，块，围巾）

Linked to Developmental Goals

考虑为什么选择您房间里的材料也许最重要的是最重要的。问问自己：这个玩具如何帮助婴儿和幼儿符合他们的个人学习和发展目标？yabo电子游艺他们将从玩具中学到什么？利用您对婴儿和幼儿的学习和开发标准的了解以及yabo电子游艺您的课程指导，以塑造课堂决策。选择课堂上个体儿童的材料，以其目前的发展或学习目标工作。yabo电子游艺

寻找以各种方式促进婴儿和幼儿开发的材料。例如，也许你拥有丰富多彩的手机，为年轻婴儿挂起，掌握，踢球，以协助他们的微量和总机发展。这些手机可以由不同的颜色和纹理的织物构成，因此作为婴儿和护理人员与他们互动，看护人可以对不同的特征作出评论（“我看到你刚刚抓住了红色的弦，”或“oooh，那个感觉软件’t it?”) These comments help children’s cognitive understanding of the world around them and build their early vocabularies.

See

有关更多关于选择和使用材料的更多想法，以支持婴儿和蹒跚学步的学习和开发。yabo电子游艺

Making the Most of Materials in an Infant Learning Environment

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When it comes to selecting materials for infants and toddlers, be sure to:

• 与培训师，教练或主管讨论最适合您学习空间的材料。yabo电子游艺
• 提供挑战婴儿和幼儿的材料，但并不是那么复杂，他们造成挫败感。
• Change materials in response to infants’ and toddlers’ growth and development.
• Include duplicates of favorite items.
• 进行适应，以便所有婴儿和幼儿都可以包含在体验中，并可以在学习环境中使用材料。yabo电子游艺
• Ask families to contribute materials from their own homes.
• 反思您的学习空间中的材料。yabo电子游艺如果您注意到任何偏见的材料，请更改。