Safety and CareENVIRONMENTS FOR BABIES

Overview

This slide show provides an overview of baby environments and the considerations that must be taken in account when setting up an environment for babies and toddlers.

Always Check for Hazards

Toys need to be screened for their appropriateness and checked regularly for any damage.

Damaged toys and equipment need to be

replaced immediately.

When purchasing toys, attention should be paid to adhering to age restrictions (i.e.. “Not suitable for children under the age of…”) and Australian Standards.

Baby Walkers are not appropriate for the care situation.

SETTING UP THE ENVIRONMENT

Setting up the child care environment for infants/babies means paying careful attention to:

safety issues provision for rest and sleep use of appropriate toys and equipment hygienic and well organised spaces for nappy

changes, toileting, food preparation and feeding.

Sources – Image Google

General Considerations1. SPACE

2. INDIVIDUAL NEEDS

3. CHOICE OF EQUIPMENT

4. MOBILITY

5. SOCIAL NEEDS

6. SOFTNESS / HARDNESS

7. SAFETY

8. ORGANISATION – STORAGE AND ACCESS TO MATERIALS

9. COMMUNICATION OF EXPECTATIONS

10. AESTHETICS

11. SCALE

12. TRAFFIC

13. FURNITURE

14. BOUNDARIES AND DIVIDERS

GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS

Educators need comfortable and physically supportive seating arrangements for feeding babies

Older babies need freedom to explore their environment- to crawl, cruise, climb, run, ride and jump

Babies need quiet spaces to read, rest, reflect and cuddle

Babies need noisy areas to bang, shake, dance and sing

Babies need to explore their environment through their senses - opportunities for tasting, touching, smelling and watching.

Legislation states that ‘the education and care services premises has at least 3.25 square metres of unencumbered indoor space for a baby’s room’ (Regulation 107)

What is an Appropriate Environment for babies/infants

Environments need to be aesthetically pleasing to infants and babies. This means that they are pleasing to the eye – visually interesting and satisfying.

The ‘aesthetics’ of an environment refers to a combination of factors that affect our feelings and our mood.

Elements that contribute to the aesthetics of an environment include:

Lighting

Colour

Texture

Natural and living things

Displays of photographs

soundSources – Image Google

Appropriate environments may include: pictures and posters draped material or mosquito

nets light reflecting materials such

as crystals and cellophane hanging mobiles organizational systems for

toys such as appropriate shelving and tables at the baby’s height

cubby houses photos covered mattresses for sitting

on and big soft cushions

Infant and toddler spaces

When planning for baby and toddler environments, there are 8 considerations listed below:

Safety

Health

Comfort

Convenience

Child-Size Space

Flexibility

Movement

Choice

In summary, there are many considerations in providing a safe and educational environment for babies and toddlers.

Educators need to be “tuned in” to baby’s needs and adapt the environment to suit. Baby’s needs are constantly changing, and the resources and materials selected for the baby environment needs to reflect their ever-changing needs.

Sensory stimulation

Hearing Sensory

It is important for carers to ensure that children’s sensory hearing is stimulated and always developing as it is necessary for children to develop their sensory hearing to their full potential.

Reading out loud helps stimulate brain development

Sensory touch contributes in crucial ways to the brain development. Stimulating the senses sends signals to children’s brains that helps to strengthen neural pathways important for all types of learning. When they explore different textures and materials they are developing their sense of touch. It is exceedingly important for children to stimulate and broaden their knowledge of touch as it lays a foundation for learning other skills including identifying objects by touch

Touching different types of material such as play dough or shaving cream helps to stimulate a child’s senses and helps the brain to learn how to distinguish different objects, materials, textures etc. from one another.

Exploring and playing with different substances such as water stimulates a child’s senses. This child is playing in a puddle of water which is engaging his touch sensory but also smell and sight sensors.

Smell sensory

The child is exploring the smell of a flower. It is stimulating his smell sensory which is developing his brain and allowing him to identify through smell.

Taste Sensory

This infant is exploring the taste of fruit, which is stimulating the infants taste senses but also touch, smell and sight. It is important to allow children to experiment and explore various foods to help develop their brains.

Sight Sensory

It is very significant to develop and stimulate a toddler or infants sight sensory, as it is a very important sense that we all use daily. Children’s eyes need colour, movement, shapes, space, objects and different surroundings and environments to develop their eye sight.

Safe Environments inside

It is extremely important to prevent children having access to cupboards that contain dangerous items such as knives and chemicals

Outside safety

It is important for child care workers to ensure that outdoor as well as indoor environments are safe and clean.

Every child needs to be given a chance to be independent. It is how humans grow and become able to look after themselves. It is extremely important for child care workers to support independence with toddlers and infants. There are many things a child care worker can do help contribute to a child’s independence, such as cooking, walking and hand washing.

Physical milestones

Here are a few examples of infants and toddlers achieving physical milestones

Treasure Baskets

Treasure baskets Elinor Goldschmied developed the concept of

treasure baskets.

Treasure baskets offer maximum sensory exploration and help babies make connections and construct knowledge about their environment and themselves.

Every treasure basket is unique with different household and natural objects.

Treasure baskets Time- allow up to an

hour of time where there is minimal distraction and no changes of routine.

Space- the basket should be placed on a soft mat with cushions to help support the baby

Adult should be close by

Baby should be alert, comfortable, fresh and emotionally content.

ActivityTask : Poster

For this task you need to collect images that show the following key elements of a quality physical environment for infants and toddlers.

Offer an abundance of sensory stimulation

Are safe for exploration

Support independence

Support mastery of major physical milestones

Are appropriate for sleep times

Are appropriate for meal times

There must be at a minimum eight images on your poster and the images must cover all areas above.

Under each of the images you will need to briefly explain the aspects of the environment/experience that support each area above.