As ECE professionals, we know how important it is to build meaningful, trusting relationships with each of the children in our care. Quality interactions that are responsive to a child’s needs, learning styles, interests, and experiences is fundamental to ensuring an equitable early learning environment and experience for all children.
This free booklet from Vroom and Child Care Aware of America (CCAoA) highlights the positive impacts on early brain development of high quality interactions between young children and their caregivers. The booklet includes tips and recommendations, organized by topic and age range, for supporting early development through high-quality caregiver-child interactions.
A few examples are included below:
- Musical Conversations (0-2 years old): As you sing with children, use a variety of facial expressions, such as smiling or looking excited or surprised or sad. Move around or wave your hands. Do the children copy your movements or sounds? Repeat their actions and see if you can go back and forth like a game of catch. Because children learn through repetition and back and forth interaction at this age, Musical Conversations help them build communication skills in a fun way that will later be used in learning to talk, read, and write.
- Close Your Eyes (2.5-5 years): Play a fun guessing game with children by encouraging them to close their eyes as you place different objects into their hands and see if they can tell you what they’re holding. Ask questions such as, “Is it furry? Is it soft or hard? What do you think it is?” to spark the child’s investigative skills! This game engages children’s senses while encouraging them to practice problem solving, an important skill for later learning!
Download the free, printable booklet in English or in Spanish.
