Babies develop in key areas from the very beginning: physical, social, emotional, cognitive and language.

In the early years of development, your baby’s principal way of learning and developing is through play – exploring and observing the world around them.

Babies experiment with new sights, sounds, senses and movements.

We provide a safe, warm environment to allow your baby to build confidence and feel secure and loved.

A baby’s development

We know that each baby learns and grows differently.

We also know they need different approaches for learning and for feeling loved.

At Petit we use the following guidelines to assist educators in observing and reflecting on your baby’s development during the first 2 years of life:

1st year of life

Physical
  • Moves whole body
  • Squirms, arms wave, legs move up and down
  • Startle reflex when placed unwrapped on flat surface or when hears loud noise
  • Plays with feet and toes
  • Makes effort to sit alone, but needs hand support
  • Raises head and chest when lying on stomach
  • Makes crawling movements when lying on stomach
  • Rolls from back to stomach
  • May stand alone momentarily
  • May attempt to crawl up stairs
  • Grasps spoon in palm, but poor aim of food to mouth
  • Uses hands to feed self
  • Alerts peripheral vision
  • Rolls ball and crawls to retrieve
Social
  • Smiles and laughs
  • Alert and preoccupied with faces
  • Reacts with arousal, attention or approach to presence of another baby or young child
  • Responds to own name
  • Recognises familiar people and stretches arms to be picked up
  • Shows definite anxiety or wariness at appearance of strangers
Emotional
  • Cries when hungry or uncomfortable and usually stops when held
  • Shows excitement as parent prepared to feed
  • Becoming more settled in eating and sleeping patterns
  • Laughs, especially in social interactions
  • May soothe self when tired or upset by sucking thumb or dummy
  • Begins to show wariness of strangers
  • May fret when parent leaves the room
  • Happy to see faces they know
  • Actively seeks to be next to parent or principal caregiver
  • Shows signs of anxiety or stress if parent goes away
  • Offers toy to adult but does not release it
Cognitive
  • Looks toward direction of sound
  • Eyes track slow moving target for brief period
  • Looks at edges, patterns with light/dark contrast and faces
  • Imitates adult tongue movements when being held or talked to
  • Learns through sensory experiences
  • Repeats actions but unaware of ability to cause actions
  • Able to coordinate looking, hearing and touching
  • Enjoys toys, banging objects, scrunching paper
  • Explores objects by looking at and mouthing them
  • Develops preferences for foods
  • Explores objects with mouth
Language
  • Expresses needs and cries
  • When content makes small throaty noises
  • Soothed by sound of voice or by low rhythmic sounds
  • Imitates adult tongue movements when being held and talked to
  • May start to copy sounds
  • Coos and gurgles
  • Enjoys games such as peek-a-boo or pat-a-cake
  • Babbles and repeat sounds
  • Smiles and babbles at own image in mirror
  • Says words like ‘dada’ or ‘mama’
  • Waves goodbye
  • Imitates hand clapping
  • Imitates actions and sounds

2nd year of life

Physical
  • Walks, climbs and runs
  • Takes two to three steps without support, legs wide and hands up for balance
  • Crawls up steps
  • Dances in place to music
  • Scribbles with pencil or crayon held in fist
  • Turns pages of book, two or three pages at a time
  • Climbs onto chair
  • Kicks and throws a ball
  • Feeds themselves
  • Can drink from a cup
  • Tries to use spoon/fork
Social
  • Begins to cooperate when playing
  • May play alongside other toddlers, doing what they do but without seeming to interact (parallel play)
  • Curious and energetic, but depends on adult presence for reassurance
Emotional
  • May show anxiety when separating from significant people in their lives
  • Seeks comfort when upset or afraid
  • Takes cue from parent or principal carer regarding attitude to a stranger
  • May ‘lose control’ of self when tired or frustrated
  • Assists another in distress by patting, making sympathetic noises or offering material objects
Cognitive
  • Repeats actions that lead to interesting or predictable results, e.g. bangs spoon on saucepan
  • Points to objects when named
  • Knows some body parts
  • Points to body parts in a game
  • Recognises self in photo or mirror
  • Stacks and knocks over items
  • Selects games and puts them away
Language
  • Comprehends and follows simple questions/commands
  • Says first name
  • Says many words (mostly naming words)
  • Begins to use one to two word sentences, e.g. ”want milk”
  • Reciprocal imitation of another toddler: will imitate each other’s actions
  • Enjoys rhymes and songs

Educators embed the practices and principles of the EYLF into their daily practice and naturally the EYLF outcomes follow.

What makes Petit different?

In addition to a strong learning framework for babies, we offer the following:

  • New, clean, purpose-built centres
  • Indoor and outdoor playscapes and learning environments
  • High quality, highly trained staff
  • Menus designed in association with child nutritionist – all meals prepared fresh on-site
  • Inclusion of nappies, wipes, sunscreen, sunhat, linen (linen provided at certain Centres)
  • Storypark app for documenting and communicating important moments and milestones
  • Secure PIN entry to the building
  • Natural elements – we shy away from plastic

Individual journey portfolios

We provide each child with an exceptional and individualised learning experience.

We also document this journey and share it with you.

Through maintaining individual journey portfolios for each child, we give families an opportunity to share and discuss the elements of their child’s day and education.

Educators also use the portfolios as a learning tool for the child to reflect back on their own work and thinking process.

What’s in a portfolio?

Compiled by the studio’s educators, the portfolio contains a collection of:

  • Work samples
  • Observation records
  • Group project annotations
  • Photos
  • Videos
  • Notes

Individual learning portfolios act as an extraordinary communication tool for families.

Further questions?

If you have additional inquiries, be sure to check out our FAQ page or contact us directly today.