I bought myself a slightly strange Christmas present –
This. It’s the Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale (3rd Edition), otherwise known as ITERS-3. It’s a tool typically used in the US to monitor process quality in early childhood education environments serving 0-3 year olds. The idea of the ITERS is that you can spend 3 hours in a setting and in that time come up with a score for the environment, broken down into:
- Space and furnishings
- Personal care routines
- Language and books
- Activities
- Interaction
- Programme Structure
I find it a helpful tool – detailed and specific. At the same time though, I have to say that there are no real revelations here in terms of what constitutes quality in the baby and toddler room. We know that positive interactions (e.g. speaking warmly, showing genuine interest) are essential for young children and that we should be avoiding negative interactions (e.g. speaking with a cross tone of voice or snapping at a child) as much as we possibly can. We also know that our conversations with babies and toddlers about what they are doing and what they are learning are vital. We know that listening carefully and responding with authenticity matters. We know that there are so many micro-interactions that hold opportunities to enhance a baby’s natural curiosity in the world, whether through early art, music, movement, block play, nature, science, maths and numbers, technology and so on. And this is essentially what the ITERS-3 is designed to look out for. It offers a way of measuring to what extent baby room educators are managing to do these things.
The issue seems to be not so much knowing what makes the difference and knowing what quality looks like. The issue is much more (in my mind at least – I’d love to know what you think) about delivering on these aspirations. It’s easy to know that positive interactions are vital for a young child’s development and wellbeing. It’s much harder to find it in ourselves to keep up the positive interactions day in and day out in the baby room if you’re working long hours and you’re physically exhausted (as I know so many of you are). It’s easy to know that language and conversation and sharing books together are all so beneficial for children’s learning. It’s much harder to keep the flow of language going if you’re struggling in the midst of a negative team culture in the baby room, or you feel emotionally and physically depleted or you’re just uninspired by the work that you’re doing.
Next week I’ll be starting a new course for baby room leaders called ‘The lifelong impact of the baby room on learning and development’. Flicking through the ITERS has prompted me to re-think this course so that it’s less about what you should be doing in the baby room, and more about the realities of trying to make happen what we all know to be good for the babies in our room. What are the things that get in the way of attunement and positive interactions? What are the triggers that lead to negative interactions, where we’re not as responsive as we would want to be? What is hindering us in showing genuine curiosity and interest in babies’ learning? How can we find more inspiration in the work that we’re doing so that this carries over into more imaginative activities and learning in the baby room?