If you think about it, a baby’s day is broken down into fairly simply parts.  There is eating, there is diapering, there is cuddling, there is bathing, and there is sleep.  How do we help babies begin to understand the sequences of those events?  Clearly, consistency is at the root of their understandings.

If you have a sequenced series of behaviors associated with diaper-changing, for example, the babies in your care will come to expect those behaviors to happen in exactly that sequence.  This is how they learn that after they are put up on the changing table, the teacher tickles their nose, puts her hand on her belly, tells her that it is changing time, and then lifts her legs.  If this sequence of behaviors repeats itself every time a diaper is changed, the infant will begin to expect the events to happen in a certain sequence and then when those expectations are met, they build trust with their caregiver and their environment.

This is one (of many) reasons that the primary caregiving model is so critical to the care of infants.  Even if we try to do things like the other teachers in the room, we don’t usually do things exactly the same.  These differences can be really great for older children as they learn to be flexible and adaptable, but can be tough on infants.

We want the infants in our care to learn to trust.  The do this by consistency of routine and caregiving.  This concept of consistency can be clearly described to parents to help them understand that we are thinking about the earliest math concepts when working with their babies and they can support the same emerging understandings by creating consistency in their homes, as well.

Each personal care routine has its own rhythm depending on who is performing it.  At our house, bedtime rituals were very different if I was the one putting Noah to sleep or if Larry was.  Since I was nursing him, I sat in the rocking chair and fed him while listening to music.  Once he was drifting off, I placed him in his crib and snuck out of the room. If Larry was putting him to sleep, I would nurse him and then hand him off to Larry.  He read a book and then sang a song and then rocked him until he drifted off.  Once Noah fell asleep, he tucked him in and snuck out of the room.  Regardless of who was participating in the routine, Noah learned that the events of bedtime happened in a sequence, and that sequence was predictable.  He anticipated the rocking chair, the snuggling, the books, and the songs and came to expect them in that order.

These daily routines create patterns that infants recognize and anticipate.  The consistency of the patterns is important, as new parents learn once their infants show displeasure when their expectations are not met.  However, even the youngest children can be quite flexible and can adjust their expectations depending on who is providing for their personal care routines. (“My teacher is different than my mommy and she changes my diaper differently, but they each do it in a certain and predictable way.”)

It is important that we see the acquisition of early math skills as brain-based and innate for typically developing children.  The mathematical concepts of patterns and sequences described above are not taught outright; they occur naturally in the life of an infant and are internalized by the infant.  Consistency is the key and should be encouraged in all areas of personal care.

The earliest sets of predictable patterns are elicited by the infant herself. When she cries, her adults respond.  When she is pushed in the stroller, people stop and coo at her.  In short order she discovers that her behaviors “cause” the reactions around her and learns to repeat her behavior so she can continue to prompt the desired responses.  This “cause and effect” reaction is her first experience of “predictable sequencing” and lays the foundation for math concepts rooted in relationships.

You can well imagine how a disturbance in these predictable patterns and sequences can be problematic for the infant.  That is why both consistency of care and continuity of care are necessary and ideal for her.  Her learning is dependent on repeated experiences that result in the development of neural pathways that are laid down and then deepened over time.

The infant finds comfort in routine.  She thrives when all of her needs are met in a predictable way.  She enjoys exploring new terrain while returning to the familiar.  Practice and repetition are reassuring and should be encouraged.  Just when you think you can’t play “Peek-a-Boo” for one more minute, you remember that the infant relishes this repetition and is busy building neural pathways because of it.

The  night we brought brand new baby Noah home from the hospital, Larry and I lay in bed with him all snuggled between us and we read Oh, The Places You’ll Go.  We had read all the books, talked to all of our friends who were already parents, and done our research.  The message was clear – Read to your children as much as possible.  So we did.

Now I want the message to be as clear for early math learning.  This does not mean that we should begin counting and sorting and measuring with our babies the night they come home from the hospital, but there are ways that we can begin creating those neural pathways toward building math competencies as early as the first night home.

Exciting stuff!

Dropping off a 6 week old baby at child care is harrowing, even for the most pragmatic of parents.  It may be a bit easier at 12 weeks, and again at 18 weeks, but no matter when it happens putting a baby in outside-of-the-home-or-family child care is hard.

How do you ease this transition for parents of babies?  Many mothers are still experiencing postpartum hormones which could make them weepy, excitable, exhausted, anxious, and fearful.  It is a biological imperative that the new mother will do anything to protect her newborn- and I mean anything.  It is the way nature has designed it throughout the animal kingdom.  Anything that can be perceived as threatening will be treated as such by the new parents.

So, we need to be NON-THREATENING.  Taking a newborn infant into our care must be treated with the utmost respect.  This is a huge leap of faith for parents.  They have to believe that you will love that baby, care for that baby, nurture that baby, love that baby as much as they do.  If they do not believe that, they will not be able to be productive at work anyway.  The baby will sense their anxiety and it will not work out well for anyone involved.

Child care should reflect home-life as much as feasibly possible.  For babies, this means being held, sung to, read to, kissed, snuggled, and cooed at. It also means consistency of routine.  Next week, let’s look at the consistency of a routine and how that related to the earliest mathematical experiences.

If you look through the “Cognitive” area, you will find lots of ideas about math to add to your repertoire.