What Does Intentionality Look Like in Infant and Toddler Programs?
By Rebecca Parlakian
Lynn, the director of an early education program, waits in line for coffee as the person behind her strikes up a conversation. They ask what she does, and she explains that she runs an early education program for children ages 6 weeks to 5 years. The other person laughs and says, “Well, I know that 4- and 5-year-olds are getting ready for school, but babies just lie there. Sounds like a pretty easy gig!” Lynn turns to get her coffee and heads back to the center. Too often, this is the reaction she gets in the world outside of early childhood, but she has trouble shaking her frustration today (maybe she needs more coffee!).
When she opens the doors to the center, instead of turning into her office, Lynn walks down the hall to the infant room. She looks in the window and sees Ms. Graciela placing fabrics and objects with different textures on the floor. Babies crawl to them and touch, grab, and run their hands over them as Ms. Graciela describes their experiences and reactions: “Yes, that one is rough! It’s a little scratchy and bristly. I see you frowning. But this one is soft and fleecy. Ah . . . you like it; you’re putting it on your face. It feels good.”
Continuing down the hall, Lynn sees Ms. Tanika offering snacks to her class of 12- to 18-month-olds. As she asks each baby “Do you want more?”, she pairs her language with the sign for more. One of the children begins throwing food on the floor, and Ms. Tanika asks, “Are you all done?” while she signs all done. Watching from the door, Lynn notices how Ms. Tanika responds to each child. “Just lying there?” she thinks to herself. “No way! There’s real teaching—and real learning—going on here. You just have to look for it.”
Incredible learning unfolds in infant and toddler settings. The period from birth to age 3 represents a time of vast and exciting change as children move from early milestones like visually tracking objects and holding up their heads to making jokes and running to kick a ball. Educators support development during this time by honoring the growth and change that’s unfolding. By providing age-appropriate challenges and engaging learning experiences, infant and toddler educators offer exactly what very young children need to grow and learn (Dean & Gillespie 2015).
Intentionality is critical for early childhood educators as they plan experiences, gather materials, and offer support for infants and toddlers. It is, quite simply, being clear about and able to articulate why certain choices are made. Intentional teachers use their knowledge of how children develop and learn to thoughtfully plan activities and opportunities that guide them toward specific learning and developmental goals. In the infant and toddler setting, this includes providing very young children with experiences that help them develop knowledge and capacities (like self-confidence) that will form the foundation for later school and life (Schmidtke 2025).
During the early years, intentionality includes exploring the what, how, and why of learning experiences (Chazan-Cohen et al. 2017):
The what entails the planned experiences, daily routines, and materials offered to children, and the ways in which the environment is structured to spark engagement, exploration, and learning.
The how is the approach taken by the educator—the relationship they establish with each child. This relationship is characterized by responsivity (contingent back-and-forth interactions), individuality (honoring each child’s unique capacities and needs), and shared pleasure (the enjoyment and mutual engagement that builds the child’s sense of trust and nurture).
The why is an understanding of the practices that help children progress toward important goals through child- and adult-guided experiences.
Examples of Intentionality in Infant and Toddler Settings
Cassandra, a 2-year-old in Sheril’s toddler classroom, has started pinching peers, and Sheril wonders why: Why is the act of pinching so motivating for Cassandra? Is it the dramatic response she receives from her peers? The physical act of pinching? The sensory experience?
Sheril thinks about how she can take a “pinch” and make it positive. Soon, she offers all the children in her setting the opportunity to hand-wash doll clothes and use clothes pins to hang them on a line. She introduces the clothes pins as tools that require a “friendly pinch” to open. She also identifies other activities that call for pinching, like salt-dough pinch pots, to offer children a variety of positive entry points for this behavior. Over time, Cassandra stops pinching peers while all the toddlers in Sheril’s setting benefit from fine motor experiences that nurture hand and finger strength.
Intentional teaching requires an understanding of both child development generally and each child’s current skill levels and what they’re working toward (NAEYC 2020; 2025). These dual foci allow educators to purposefully select materials, design activities, and plan for learning settings that will offer the richest opportunities for practice and mastery (Mincemoyer 2016; Masterson & Mazzocco 2025). In the infant and toddler setting, this means “discovering a very young child’s interests and structuring activities and the environment to extend and support these within a supportive relationship” (Chazan-Cohen et al. 2017, 6).
For example, in the above vignette, Sheril paused to reflect on a behavior and consider the reasons behind it. Was it aligned with toddlers’ development and with their interests and preferences? She understood that toddlers are exploring and testing limits in their environments and are just beginning to understand that others experience feelings (like they do). They also are rapidly mapping the patterns and cause-and-effect relationships in their world, testing actions to see what happens—both one time and consistently. And they are seeking opportunities to be independent and to have an impact on the world.
Sheril knew that pinching is an early fine motor skill that toddlers refine as they grow toward using writing utensils. She also knew that pinching a peer is likely to elicit feedback that taps into many of the areas described above. Yet it is a behavior that cannot persist over time.
To support Cassandra’s emerging social and emotional skills, Sheril approached this dilemma with the frame of a skills gap (Hemmeter et al. 2022). Rather than treating the behavior as a problem, Sheril decided to offer opportunities to model pinching in appropriate ways that toddlers are likely to enjoy: Through real-life tasks like hanging items on a clothesline and through rich, sensory play. These experiences provided sensory feedback, cause-and-effect discovery, and opportunities to be independent in ways that encouraged parallel play and positive peer interactions.
Families are often the best sources of information about the skills that infants and toddlers are working on (or have mastered) and the types of activities they prefer. Conversations with them offer rich insights into their children in ways that program-only observations cannot. These discussions are also an important way to engage and uplift families as the experts on their children (Koralek et al. 2019). Sheril had been speaking with Cassandra’s family over time, sharing instances of the pinching behavior and the steps she was taking to reduce its frequency. Cassandra’s family noted that she loved sensory play and sought it out whenever she could. This information gave Sheril the idea to add a salt-dough activity to her “pinching plan.”
Supporting Children Through Scaffolding
Carly has observed her class of infants become increasingly interested in exploring balls. Currently, her room has four babies, ranging in age from 3 to 9 months. She decides to introduce smooth, plastic balls in different sizes (small, medium, and large) as objects to explore.
Some babies are able to sit up and reach for the balls. Carly watches as one picks up a ball, examines it, and mouths it. Another baby lies on their back, grabs a ball, and shakes it in the air. The youngest baby sits on a caregiver’s lap and gazes at a ball the teacher holds. He activates his arms but does not reach for the ball with intention.
These observations give Carly the idea to vary the kinds of balls offered. She chooses some that make sounds when shaken and some with different textures. Carly observes babies watching as their peers shake balls to make sounds and explore the balls’ textures with their hands and mouths. As they play, she labels their explorations with words like smooth, bumpy, blue, yellow, jingly, and noisy. She asks questions (“Do you like the bumpy one?”) and describes how the babies respond to the balls (“You like to put the smooth ball in your mouth. You dropped the bumpy one. Maybe it didn’t feel good in your hands?”).
Carly wonders if she can extend this activity to nurture emerging social and emotional skills. She and her co-teacher sit across from each other, each with a baby on their laps. They roll the balls back and forth to one another, then begin to hand the balls to the older babies to see if they will hand them back.
Scaffolding and intentionality are not separate strands in our work. Rather, they move hand-in-hand as a braided approach to engaging with infants and toddlers.
As defined by NAEYC, scaffolding is “a process through which educators intentionally support children’s development and learning by offering help (in the form of interactions and materials) at the right time and in the right way” (NAEYC 2022, 15). This approach invites teachers to make many invisible but important decisions that provide learners with the support necessary to eventually perform a task or skill independently. As they scaffold, educators must continuously adjust their support to promote children’s independence and mastery while also shifting strategies if their initial efforts are ignored or misunderstood (Renninger & List 2012).
For example, in the vignette above, Carly had to consider many factors as she implemented the ball exploration. First, she considered the developmental capacities of the babies in her classroom; specifically, their motor abilities and sensory-driven approaches to learning and exploration. Next, she chose balls with different properties (texture, sound, size). She then considered the setting in which to offer the ball activity and the rich descriptive language she could use to describe the babies’ explorations. She also made the decision to introduce a structured activity when she initiated rolling the ball back and forth with the children.
As infants and toddlers begin to master new skills, educators can build on each child’s individual capacities and create opportunities for them to choose, act, and construct knowledge about the world around them (Salmon & Barrera 2021). As they adjust the way they scaffold explorations, they must consider a child’s emerging skills, how a very young child’s brain is developing through rich and responsive interactions, and what activities will support this emerging development (Schiller 2007). While they observe infants and toddlers exploring the environment through their play, educators should also continually ask
What new learning am I seeing?
What does this child need from me right now?
How can I best offer that?
Intentionality Throughout the Day
Sylvia gathers the babies in her room to watch the rain fall outside the window. Seeing how entranced and delighted they are, she wonders how to extend this delight into a learning experience. She decides to use a watering can to “rain” water over their hands while singing “Rain, Rain, Go Away,” listening to their laughter and babbling as they participate in the activity.
Being intentional does not mean scheduling or planning every moment. Rather, it is a way of thinking about learning environments, routines, schedules, and experiences that center children’s skills and interests (Chazan-Cohen et al. 2017). When mediated by an intentional educator, unplanned situations can be important learning opportunities—a way to tap into children’s interests in how the world around them works (Schmidtke 2025).
For example, in the vignette above, Sylvia observed how captivated the children were by the falling raindrops and quickly pivoted to build on this curiosity and engagement. This openness is why one of the most important components of intentional teaching is flexibility (Zimmer 2021): When teachers are open to exploring children’s curiosities and questions, they can build on infants’ and toddlers’ internal drive for learning and mastery.
When the environment and daily routines are planned with intention, the learning that occurs is “not a free-flowing discussion but a teacher-guided journey of discovery. The children must discover the meaning, but the teacher gently leads them to it” (Bodrova & Leong 2007, 85). Through a cycle of observation, action, and reflection, infant and toddler teachers see the learning opportunities inherent in very young children’s play (State of New South Wales 2024). Guided by their knowledge of early childhood development and the individual capacities of the children in their care, intentional educators see themselves on a shared journey of learning with the children in their settings.
Putting These Strategies to Work
Think About It
What is something you are intentional about in your life outside of work? How would you explain your intention to another person?
Reflect on an experience or material you offered to children recently. What was your intention in offering it? What happened? What did you learn from the experience?
How do the babies or toddlers in your setting show interest in an activity, toy, or material? How do they communicate disinterest or disengagement? Do you see any patterns or takeaways? How can this inform your plans for the future?
Try It
When planning learning experiences for infants and toddlers, take a moment to consider the children’s current development. What skills have they mastered, and what are they working on? Reflect on what children have shown interest in or curiosity about lately. Challenge yourself to design a learning experience using these data points.
Ask a colleague to step in for you for 15 to 20 minutes, so you have time to truly observe the children as they play. Observe three to four children for five minutes each, and note what you see. What can they do independently? What are they attempting? What materials do they seek out? What activities do they engage with? Use this information the next time you plan learning experiences, and share what you observe with families as well.
Consider setting an intention for yourself each morning. What do you need in order to show up as your best self today? What do you want to achieve in the next eight hours? Research has shown that intention setting is a powerful tool for personal growth and motivation (Sweeney & Freitas 2018).
About the Author
Rebecca Parlakian, MA, EdD, is senior director of programs at ZERO TO THREE. She has authored many resources on instructional practices, early STEM, literacy/language, and other topics related to high-quality programs. Her background is in early childhood special education. rparlakian@zerotothree.org
Rocking and Rolling is written by infant and toddler specialists and contributed by ZERO TO THREE, a nonprofit organization working to promote the health and development of infants and toddlers by translating research and knowledge into a range of practical tools and resources for use by the adults who influence the lives of young children.
References
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Chazan-Cohen, R., M. Zaslow, H.H. Raikes, J. Elicker, D. Paulsell, et al. 2017. Working Toward a Definition of Infant/Toddler Curricula: Intentionally Furthering the Development of Individual Children Within Responsive Relationships. OPRE Report #2017-15. Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, US Department of Health and Human Services. files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED592769.pdf.
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Hemmeter, M.L., E. Barton, L. Fox, C. Vatland, G. Henry, et al. 2022. “Program-Wide Implementation of the Pyramid Model: Supporting Fidelity at the Program and Classroom Levels.” Early Childhood Research Quarterly 59: 56–73. doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2021.10.003.
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Photograph: © Getty Images
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