Infants and toddlers have unique child care needs! Nurturing relationships and quality care environments are vitally critical to healthy development.
In the first year of life, a well-cared-for baby has one million brain connections created every second. When a child feels secure, protected, and loved by a caring adult in the earliest years, he or she develops trusting relationships and enjoys positive interactions that set the stage for a lifetime of strong social, emotional, and physical health.
In the absence of strong and nurturing relationships with adults, this rapid period of early development in young children can easily go awry. Too often, young children from birth to age three fail to achieve good outcomes because they languish in overcrowded and poor quality child care environments that lack a trained and nurturing caregiver.
Young children thrive when they are healthy, safe, feel loved, and are happy. Only then, can infants and toddlers develop the positive skills need for school-readiness, including social-emotional and self-regulation skills.