What might be the pros and cons of each?
Good curriculum for infants and toddlers is significantly different from curriculum for preschool and older children in many ways, but it is grounded in the same principles of DAP (described in Chapter 1) that apply throughout the early childhood years (Gestwicki, 2011). Curricula for children from birth to age 3 focus on developing a warm and secure relationship between child and adult and providing an environment that is safe, calm, orderly, predictable, responsive to the child’s needs, and engaging (Copple & Bredekamp, 2009; Gestwicki, 2011).
A key to planning a curriculum for infants and toddlers is applying the concept of the zone of proximal developmentthat is, anticipating what skills are likely to emerge soon, actively working on what is current, and practicing what has already been mastered (Deiner, 2009, p. 515). Curricular goals for infants and toddlers focus on attainment of expected milestones in each of the developmental domains, primarily:What might be the pros and cons of each?