Active Supervision for Infants and Toddlers

Infant/toddler care is responsive, individualized care. And it’s important to think about infants and toddlers that are cared for in small groups with a primary-caregiver system of care and also to think about the flow of the day as being responsive to the individualized needs of the children. Staff work very closely with children throughout the day guiding them through individual or small-group routines and experiences. Staff are providing responsive, individualized care, and they will know each child well. That’s an important piece of both individualized care and active and responsive supervision. They have a good sense of how each child gets through the day, what their abilities are, what their temperament is. Even as they grow and change from day to day, they’re able to follow each child in their care with an understanding of how it is that they’re growing.

In center-based programs or larger family child care homes, more than one caregiver is working together in a team. And the other thing that’s important to remember is the kind of communication that develops between the two teachers in a classroom or a family-childcare provider and an assistant — a communication that supports a child’s safe movement throughout the day as well as their ability to explore and grow in a nurturing environment. Adults provide support to each other, particularly at key times of the day, like transitions. All of those important, individualized routines require both adults to work together, such as individual sleeping times, going indoors and outdoors, changing times, feeding and eating times for infants and toddlers, and other times during the day when there may be a particular child that needs individualized care. It’s so important that the staff working with them are working together to support continuity of care. The environment itself can be a partner in caring for infants and toddlers, particularly when it comes to keeping children safe.