Ashland Ohio Infant Care

Infant Care in Ashland Ohio: Areas of Development

The curriculum focuses on six areas of development: Cognitive, Communication, Emotional, Fine Motor, Gross Motor and Social Skills.

Cognitive Skills: Infants are building their memories, learning to develop words and learning to recognize familiar sounds. They’re exploring with their hands and mouths. In our infant room, your child will explore different textured materials, play Peek-A-Boo and complete simple wooden puzzles.

Communication Skills: By developing communication skills, infants learn how to express wants and needs to others. We understand the importance of our teachers constantly communicating with your child. Our teachers read books and poems, sing songs and teach your child how to put on finger plays.

Emotional Skills: Emotional development involves infants feeling safe in their environment and secure with the adults in their lives. We help your child build trust and attachments by watching your infant’s signals and responding to them. Our teachers hug, cradle and walk your child around the classroom while talking about everything they see.

Fine Motor Skills: Fine motor skills are developed in the small muscle groups like those in our fingers and hands. Our teachers help infants learn to grasp items and help them eat, color and complete other daily activities. We help improve pincer grasp by putting small foods in their hands, then on their tray, so they can feed themselves. They begin to wave hello and goodbye, and explore clay and other objects with their hands.

Gross Motor Skills: Gross motor development is the growth of the large muscle groups, like those in the legs and arms. Gross motor skills for infants include holding up their heads, rolling over, crawling and pulling themselves up. Kiddie Academy teachers speak encouraging words to help your child roll over. We provide your infant with plenty of tummy time, and our infants dance to different kinds of music and take walks around the academy, inside and out.

Social Skills: An infant’s social skills consist of smiling, making eye contact, imitating facial expressions and wanting to be close to other people. Kiddie Academy is a place where your child will see many different, yet consistent and familiar faces. Our teachers model good manners and proper social skills to your infant. Your child will travel around the academy to meet others—teachers and children—and will play near friends in her age-appropriate classroom to develop the early bonds of friendship.