TEACHING AND LEARNING WITH INFANTS AND TODDLERS 1

Reflection in Teaching and Learning With Infants and Toddlers: Where Meaning-Making Begins

Justine Visceglia

EDU 336-01

Professor Campanelli

20 April 2018
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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,

which will be further dived into in this paper.

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Mary Jane Maguire-Fong has an irrefutable understanding and knowledge on everything

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
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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

preliminary knowledge of their first feelings.

Following emotional development is social development. Maguire-Fong makes it a very

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
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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

situations in order for them to learn and develop further as educators.

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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

within the relationship. Maguire-Fong quotes,

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Children are autonomously capable of making meaning from their daily life

experiences… The central act of adults, therefore, is to activate, especially

indirectly, the meaning-making competencies of children as a basis of all learning

(Maguire-Fong, 2014, p. 164).

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

advocates for the most fitting infant care.

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
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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.
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References

Maguire-Fong, M. (2014). Teaching and Learning with Infants and Toddlers: Where Meaning-

Making Begins (1st ed.) Teachers College Press.