In these vignettes, educators used questions to help children understand and initiate play sequences, elicit children’ s opinions, and scaffold their social and emotional behavior( Cekaite & Simonsson 2025). As they ask questions, teachers can recognize, incorporate, and offer support for deeper, more complex periods of play that align with learning goals( Pursi 2019).
Aligning Experiences with Children’ s Development
Children’ s explorations are driven by their desire to learn and master the challenges found in the world around them( Bass & Bonawitz 2024). While relationships provide the emotional foundation for these explorations, opportunities for age-appropriate discovery unfold within environments that invite infants and toddlers to actively engage and learn. These include during repeated daily routines( for example, singing the same song during diapering so that children become familiar with it) and during guided play experiences.
When children are given the opportunity to act intentionally on their environments, their learning deepens, and their confidence grows.
As infant-toddler educators plan for meaningful guided play, they must consider individual contexts and differences to support specific areas of growth. Imagine a baby who is walking at 9 months in a peer group with five non-walking infants. The teacher must create learning experiences that nurture this walker while supporting the others in developing the skills necessary for walking( all while keeping everyone safe!). The teacher might choose to position interesting objects( a stuffed animal, a soft ball, fabrics with different textures) along a railing installed on the wall of the room. These objects, within reach if the child stands up and walks, create an authentic opportunity for their exploration. Non-walking peers may find a similar discovery path of interesting objects on the floor, each one far enough from the next to invite crawling or creeping. This type of guided play is developmentally appropriate because it addresses each child’ s emerging skills and abilities while providing an overarching goal for all of the children.
Considering Power Dynamics
Between 8 and 10 months, infants’ reflexive actions transition to more goal-oriented and intentional communication( Lally & Valentine-French 2026). They begin to seek opportunities to impact and learn from their environments, including the people and things they find within them. Infants and toddlers exercise these independence-seeking behaviors when they decide what to play, who to play with, what explorations to undertake, what risks to act on, and what preferences they express. These are the“ foundational experiences of agency” in early childhood( Thomson 2025).
Supporting this autonomy means“ offering guidance without removing choice”( Thomson 2025). While it is sometimes necessary for adults to step in to ensure safety and to guide learning, it is equally necessary for them to know when to step back and allow children to test, explore, problem solve, make mistakes( safely), and learn from their social and physical environments. Finding the balance between action and interaction requires educators to examine how power is shared in the early education setting( Curtis et al. 2013).
Reggie and Ja’ Von, 12 months old, are seated in front of a floor mirror with a selection of chunky toy cars for them to explore. They are both beginning to scoot and crawl. Their teacher, Michelle,
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