Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
Reflection in Teaching and Learning With Infants and Toddlers: Where Meaning-Making Begins
Justine Visceglia
EDU 336-01
Professor Campanelli
20 April 2018
TEACHING AND LEARNING WITH INFANTS AND TODDLERS 2
Abstract
There are many essential keys and factors to infant care and infant development. In Teaching and
Learning With Infants and Toddlers: Where Meaning-Making Begins, Maguire-Fong presents to
her readers an unsullied guide that delivers every last factor of the crucial years beginning with
infancy and into the toddler years. Maguire-Fong focuses on reflection – the importance of
rumination and contemplation – and how it is needed in infant care. She offers an extremely
important guide not just for parents or caregivers alone but also for teachers and future teachers,
that embodies the importance of developing infants and toddlers. Maguire-Fong writes, “Infants
are learning from the moment of birth, and, in the words of scientists Ed Tronick and Jerome
Bruner, they are ‘making meaning.’” In her 2014 innovative and user-friendly guide, Teaching
and Learning With Infants and Toddlers: Where Meaning-Making Begins, Maguire-Fong
explores the factors and importance of the meaning-making characteristics of all infants and
toddlers.
Babies are born learning. This is something that Maguire-Fong focuses on in “How
Infants Learn,” the first part of the book. Infants embody an incredible sensitivity to even the
subtlest of things including differences of facial expressions and the variances between emotions
such as happy, sad, and surprised. This is a critical understanding because babies are often
observed as objects, as purely articles, because they are perceived as underdeveloped but babies
are not objects. They are subjects. This is important because as individuals who seek to dedicate
their work surrounded by and nurturing babies and children in their early years, we must
understand that babies are born learning. They are meaning-making from the very first day. In
order for us to succeed in aiding their development, there are dynamics that we must not only be
aware of, but also use to our own ability for their benefit. For instance, the architecture of the
brain is built during infancy and every single experience, whether positive or negative, play a
vital role in the shaping and forming of the brain. Therefore, as future early childhood educators,
it is up to us to assure that the infant is developing to their best ability. We are the caregivers. To
assure that we are allowing them to reach their greatest potential during their infancy, we must
embody and incorporate the method of reflective teaching. To do this, we must excel at
observing. We must observe the infant in every single element and plan around it. There are no
TEACHING AND LEARNING WITH INFANTS AND TODDLERS 4
identical children and by incorporating these reflective methods by observing, we will discover
their individual ideas, feelings, and interests. By reflecting on these observations, we (as future
educators) can better prepare the next approach we take toward the infants in our care.
To further succeed, we must have a very clear understanding not just about how they
learn, but what they learn. In the next part, “What Do Infants Learn?” Maguire-Fong focuses on
the content that infants observe and absorb. The preliminary knowledge that an infant acquires is
based solely on their first feelings. Because they are so young and unaware, the knowledge that
they are introduced to first is through their emotional development. This begins with attachment.
Attachment, as one might assume, is not always a bad thing. It is almost inevitable that a child
will form a secure attachment to their caregiver. It is when the attachment is insecure when an
issue will develop. An insecure attachment might form from an inattentive and negligent
caregiver. The child will ache for any portion of attention that the caregiver is not delivering. It is
often these insecure attachments that will lead to misbehaved children. As future educators for
infants and toddlers, we must understand this. Often times, when a child lashes out or throws a
tantrum, it is a mask for some alternative reason. Maguire-Fong insists that defiant behavior can
be a child’s disguised plea for help. Therefore, this poorly learned behavior stems from that
critical point that babies are born motivated to engage in social interaction. It is quite possibly,
after food, the most important thing in their development. Babies are born looking for us, the
caregivers, because they are unaware of anything else. They want nothing more than to
communicate. Through what Maguire-Fong calls Circles of Communications, they do just that. It
might start with a smile from the caregiver that the infant returns but it will continue to develop
TEACHING AND LEARNING WITH INFANTS AND TODDLERS 5
over the course of infancy as a back-and-forth exchange until there is an actual conversation to
be had. Infants look to their caregivers, their educators, to understand their relation to what
surrounds them. They will furthermore subconsciously reflect and learn through their
environment. Therefore, it is again dependent on the caregiver to aid in this social development.
Motor development follows in about the same time and it is all in regard to the actions
that infants take. There are patterns and progressions that caregivers and educators must be
aware of in order to support their sense of balance, their strength, and their grace as they begin to
develop their muscle systems. Through careful observation, their actions and play bare
indications as to what is going on internally – what they are thinking, feeling, and their
intentions. The small movements, such as rolling over and supporting the weight of their heads
represent as much as the bigger movements such as crawling and taking their first steps. As
future educators, it is important that we fully understand that the actions that infants take and the
movements that they make are both closely associated to their ideas and concepts. This returns to
the idea of meaning-making in which both ideas and concepts influence. Reflecting on this will
allow for the infants to be offered the education suitable for their development. Alongside this,
Maguire-Fong discusses the stages of thinking and memory, spatial relations, and the emergence
of speaking and first words. A caregiver or an educator must always reflect while the infants are
developing within these stages in order to assure that they will receive what they are suitable for
next. Maguire-Fong discusses these factors with rich detail but it is important to note and
recognize that she also dedicates a portion of her ideas to research conducted on the basis of the
topic at hand. This research that she shares allows for her readers to be placed into real-life
In the final part, “Infant Care in Practice,” Maguire-Fong presents to her readers the
application of research that she conducted in regard to how infants learn and what they learn. She
divides the final part into sections. The first part addresses policies that build strong relationships
among infants, their families, and teachers. We, as educators, must provide a policy that supports
optimal well-being and learning for all of our students. Next, she describes how to plan play
spaces as contexts for learning. She describes how to design care routines that invite infants as
active participants, she then goes into the exploration of how to use respectful conversation to
help infants negotiate conflicts and experience the joy of making friends and keeping friends,
and finally she discusses the visual narrative as a tool for sharing with others the story of infants’
meaning-making.
As future educators, we must understand that relationships play such a vital role in an
infant’s development. Therefore, when we are presented with these children in their earliest
years, we must consider the likelihood that they are afraid and unaware of anybody that is not a
part of that primary relationship. Consequently, we must use our knowledge and ability to form a
relationship with these infants. These relationships must embody an irrefutable trust in order for
that infant to thrive. In order for our infants to even further thrive, we must present to them
spaces that allow for wonder and learning. Therefore, if we are surrounded by a large group of
infants, it is important that we share a space that allows for wonder and learning for all of the
children equally. The space shared must be one of comfort and safety. The environment in which
the infant is in supports the preliminary factor of relationships. If an infant feels comfortable and
safe within a space that we (as teachers) provide, they will furthermore feel comfortable and safe
Children are autonomously capable of making meaning from their daily life
With that said, it is our duty to assure we are doing all that we can, as educators, to encourage
and promote the utmost growth and development in infants. We must consider curriculum
planning, assessment, family engagement, development of ourselves and of our program, and
advocacy for services that support young children and their families. By doing this, we are being
In Teaching and Learning With Infants and Toddlers: Where Meaning-Making Begins,
Maguire-Fong presents to her readers an unsullied guide that delivers every last factor of the
crucial years beginning with infancy and into the toddler years. She offers an extremely
important guide not just for parents or caregivers alone but also for teachers and future teachers.
By dividing this book into the specified parts and by offering research and real-life infant care
scenarios, Maguire-Fong is offering to her readers what there is to know in regard to caring for
infants and developing them not only educationally but in social, emotional, and physical aspects
as well. This offering is valuable in the sense that teachers and future teachers can refer to it at
any moment of uncertainty regarding infant care. Maguire-Fong focuses on reflection – the
importance of rumination and contemplation – and how it is needed in infant care. She asks,
“What will you take with you?” in the final chapter and as a future educator, I will take the
importance of listening and observing the infants in a deep and reflective manner. I will take the
importance of interpreting what thoughts and ideas infants are revealing within their play. It will
TEACHING AND LEARNING WITH INFANTS AND TODDLERS 8
now be embedded in myself, as a future educator, that we serve as guides to infants as they
progress through their lives. With this book on my shelf, I will never forget that.
TEACHING AND LEARNING WITH INFANTS AND TODDLERS 9
References
Maguire-Fong, M. (2014). Teaching and Learning with Infants and Toddlers: Where Meaning-