Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/caring-for-the-little-ones-friendships-in-the-baby-room/5013362/
All good infant or toddler programs put relationships at the center of their focus. Mostly, people have worked on the important relationships of adults and children - the issues of primary caregiving and continuity of care to develop that all-important bond between the child and the caregiver. Much attention is also given to adult-to-adult relationships - staff-parent communication and mutual respect, and good staff-to-staff relationships. There remains one other kind of relationship that deserves our attention - the child-to-child friendships that form. What do these early friendships look like, how can we support them, and how do they impact the child's development?If we believe that it is important for children to learn to relate comfortably to others and not be loners in our society, we should think about pre-friendship skills in the same way that we think about pre-reading or pre-math skills. Infants and toddlers are already capable of demonstrating friendly behaviors. Some of the behaviors are there by instinct. Others are learned through sensitive coaching from the important adults in children's lives.
Infant Friendships
Infants start with a basic instinct of being extremely interested in faces, and they are particularly attracted to the faces of other children. Very young children who are ...