Infant and Toddler Mentoring Program
The Infant and Toddler Mentoring Program provides in-classroom mentoring of new infant and toddler teachers to increase their understanding of quality infant and toddler care. An experienced Infant and Toddler Mentor, utilizing the LENA Grow digital recording program, helps infant and toddler teachers build their capacity with language and responsive interactions, expanding their professional skills in promoting young children’s optimal development in the first three years of life.
Participating Infant and Toddler Mentoring Program teachers showed a 44% increase in knowledge of appropriate practices with young children as measured by pre and post assessment.
80% of teachers participating in the project achieved their LENA Grow certificate; 97% of those infant and toddler teachers attending training earned their LENA Grow certificate.
Of the 48 infant and toddler teachers who were a part of the classrooms participating in this project, 79% remained in their positions at the end of the project year while 100% of the 28 infant and toddler teachers who participated in the training remained in their positions at the end of the project year.
Why the Infant and Toddler Mentoring Program Matters
The first three years are the foundation for all later learning as social-emotional and language development advance when infants and toddlers experience language-rich responsive relationships. Of the 36 teachers participating in the classroom mentoring program, 53% are relatively new early learning educators holding just their DCF state-mandated certificate, indicative of their relative novice status in early care. Reaching teachers in their first year of teaching with targeted support may make a positive difference in encouraging them to see early childhood as a career and to remain in the profession. That all the infant/toddler teachers who participated in training were still employed in the same center at the end of the program year is significant, as well as the fact that just under 80% of the teachers who participated in the classroom mentoring component were still at their centers.
The LENA Grow recordings documented infant/toddler teachers using 2,421,519 words with the children in their care with 59,056 responsive interactions between teachers and children over the course of this project.
The ELCOC would like to thank the Orlando Magic Youth Foundation for their continued support of our early childhood programs, and for making a difference in the lives of Orange County’s youngest citizens!
LENA Grow
Because many children spend up to 60% of their waking hours in a child care setting, LENA Grow focuses on helping child care providers to increase interactive talk with their young charges. The LENA System™ measures talk with children from birth to age three, a critical factor in early brain development. The ELCOC has utilized the LENA Grow system in support of increased language use with infants and toddlers and responsive caregiving since 2017.
Once a week, teachers in participating classrooms have children wear a vest with a pocket containing a small digital recorder. The recorder captures the amount of language and “serve & return” responsive interactions between teachers and infants/toddlers. Weekly reports provide teachers with a way to consider how to better build a language-rich environment that will support their students’ language and social-emotional development.
Making a Difference!
