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Coming up with lesson plans for a group of infants (birth to 12 months) seems like a daunting task. Each child is at a different developmental stage, and their skills often change at a very rapid pace. Because infant lesson planning does not focus on a curriculum to be taught but rather on skills to be developed, it can be a very creative process.
Understanding the development milestones for each age group of children will help guide the choice of activities for each infant in your care. Thinking about lesson planning through the lens of developmental milestones will also ensure you know which skills infants are expected to be developing at their age group, and monitor their progress. Read below for a general guide to infant developmental milestones and the key principles of infant lesson planning, as well as specific milestones for 4 month olds, 6 month olds and 9 month olds. In each section you will also find ideas of how to integrate the development of these skills to the daily routines of the infants in your care.
Table of contents
- How to write a lesson plan for infants
- Why developmental milestones matter in infant lesson planning?
- What to consider when preparing lesson plans for infants
- Developmental milestones for infants by age
- Infant lesson plan templates
How to write a lesson plan for infants
Writing lesson plans for infants has a lot of similarities with lesson planning for older children, but also certain unique aspects. For older age groups, lesson planning tends to focus on the curriculum and includes specific activities that the group will do in a given week or month. More information on how to develop lesson plans for preschool children can be found in The Complete Guide to Preschool Lesson Plans. If you have toddlers in your program, we invite you to reference our post on How to Create Lesson Plans for Toddlers.
For infants, lesson planning differs in two key ways which we will examine in this section:
- 1. The focus is on developmental milestones, rather than a curriculum-based approach.
- 2. It is more responsive to the developmental stage and the daily routines of the children.
It is important to be familiar with developmental milestones in general, as well as the specific ones of the age group in each case, to adequately cater to their needs and learning objectives. This can be achieved through daily routines and tasks, as well as through playtime, so there are plenty of opportunities to be creative when it comes to infant lesson planning!
Why developmental milestones matter in infant lesson planning?
Developmental milestones outline things most children (approximately 75 percent) can do by a certain age. They are a useful way to monitor and develop a child’s abilities and skills. You can identify clues of a child’s development in their everyday activities: how they play, how they move, and how they learn. And you can use these very activities as ways to help the child develop further.
Later in this article, we will examine the developmental milestones set by the CDC for infants by age, and the ways in which they can be integrated into lesson planning. The main areas of developmental milestones for infants that you should keep in mind when you write a lesson plan are:
Social-emotional development:
Infants are gradually learning to identify and manage their feelings and how to build relationships with other people.
Physical development:
Infants are developing their ability to move and to use gross and fine motor skills.
Language development:
Infants use sounds to communicate with those around them, and develop their understanding of verbal and nonverbal messages.
Cognitive development:
The brain of infants develops and creates new connections very rapidly, affected by the activities they participate in.
Keeping these developmental milestones in mind while developing your lesson plans will ensure you are providing a well-rounded educational experience that is tailored to their development and needs. Seeing how children perform in activities that have been tailored to developmental milestones specifically will also help you monitor if their progress is in line with the expectations for their age group.
What to consider when preparing lesson plans for infants
There are a few best practices to keep in mind to help infants reach the developmental goals outlined above.
Cross-functional learning
While the developmental milestones are divided into domains, as described above, this does not mean that your lesson plan needs to also be divided in separate blocks of learning. In fact, infants often learn different skills from each activity. For example, while you are doing an activity with blocks to teach them about different shapes, some children may be primarily developing the ability to sit up on their own (physical development), or to understand verbal instructions (language development). Avoid having a narrow focus to your activities, and instead encourage cross-functional learning where each infant can take each opportunity to learn something different. This does not mean that you should not have learning objectives in mind when choosing your activities, but rather that each activity, toy, or song you select can serve multiple developmental milestones in one.
Responsive planning
Lesson planning for infants needs to be flexible with and responsive to the wide range of spontaneous learning opportunities that arise. Instead of creating a rigid lesson plan, think about ways in which you can create learning opportunities through the daily routines of the infants in your care. For example, you can incorporate the development of fine motor skills during meal times, or their social-emotional development through group play opportunities. Responsive planning means that learning happens throughout the day and is integrated into the routines of each child.
Repetition of activities
When creating lesson plans for infants, it is best to allow for opportunities to repeat activities. It is important to make the learning process fun by repeating when you see an infant enjoying an activity. It is also important to do additional practice to develop skills and to reach developmental milestones for infants. Allowing for the repetition of activities means that you increase the chances that infants will remember what they have learned.
Monitor development milestones
Lesson planning should also provide opportunities for ongoing assessment of the infant’s growth and whether they are reaching the developmental milestones for their age group. This will help make the plans better tailored to their needs. This does not mean you need to create an entirely different lesson plan for each infant, but monitoring their development closely will enable you to pick group activities that can address the varying needs of the group. Beyond deciding on specific activities, keeping a close eye on their progress and any upcoming developmental milestones enables you to speak with more precision to the families, which builds confidence that their infant is supported adequately in their development.
To help educators and caregivers stay on top of the different milestones and best practices when they develop their lesson plans, consider using a digital tool such as brightwheel’s Experience Curriculum. This will give you access to more tracking tools, lesson plan templates, and activity suggestions and materials, to ensure lesson planning for infants does not become too complicated and time consuming.
Developmental milestones for infants by age
In this section you will find a summary of the key developmental milestones for 4 month old, 6 month old, 9 month old and 1 year old infants, as well as suggested activities suitable for each age group.
4 month old milestones
According to the CDC, infants by 4 months reach the following milestones:
- Social/Emotional Milestones: Smile on their own; they chuckle when you try to make them laugh; and they look at you, move or make sounds to get your attention.
- Physical Development Milestones: Hold their head steady without support; they hold a toy when it’s put in their hand; they use their arms to swing at toys; they bring their hands to their mouth; they push up onto their elbows and forearms when on their tummy.
- Language/Communication Milestones: Make cooing sounds (“ooo”, etc); they make sounds in response to someone talking to them; they turn their heads towards the sound of your voice.
- Cognitive Milestones: If they are hungry, they open their mouth when they see food; they look at their own hands with interest.
A few suggestions for lesson planning:
- Create opportunities for “conversation”: Smile and talk back to the infant when they make sounds. Try copying each baby’s sounds and see how long they “talk” back and forth with you.
- Talk, read, and sing to the infants. This will help them develop their language skills and understand words later on.
- Provide safe opportunities for the infant to reach for toys and explore what is around them. For example, put the infants on a blanket with safe toys:Toys that are safe to put in their mouth to explore them.
- Allow for interaction time with people and objects throughout the day. Try not to keep infants in swings, strollers, or bouncy seats for too long, and prefer instead areas where they can move around, to maximize their ability to interact with different objects in the space.
- Pay close attention to how each infant reacts to different things. This will help you learn what they like and don't like and what makes them feel good.
6 month old milestones
Young infants: During the first 6 to 8 months of life, most young infants focus on developing a sense of security-the feeling that they are safe and secure in the world.
According to the CDC, infants by 6 months reach the following milestones:
- Social/Emotional Milestones: Know and recognize familiar people; they look at themselves in a mirror; they laugh in response to stimuli.
- Physical Development Milestones: Roll from their tummy to their back; they push up to straight arms when they are lying on their tummy; they support themselves with their arms when sitting up.
- Language/Communication Milestones: Take turns making sounds with you; they blow “raspberries” (sticking out their tongue and blowing); they make squealing noises.
- Cognitive Milestones: Put things in their mouth to explore them; they reach to grab the toy they want; they close their lips to show they do not want more food.
A few suggestions for lesson planning:
- Incorporate “reading” to the infants every day by looking at colorful pictures in magazines or books and talking about them. Respond to their reactions and any sounds they make during the story.
- Point out new things and name them. For example, point out cars, trees, animals, toys or other objects in their environment.
- Put infants on their tummy or back and put toys just out of their reach. This encourages them to roll over to reach the toys and pick them up on their own.
- Introduce infants to different sounds and voices. For example, whisper, clap, or make funny noises and different voices. This can be incorporated into play or during story time.
9 month old milestones
According to the CDC, infants by 9 months reach the following milestones:
- Social/Emotional Milestones: Show several facial expressions, such as sad, happy, angry or surprised; they look when you call their name; they react when you move further away from them.
- Physical Development Milestones: Get to a sitting position on their own and can sit up without support; they move things from one hand to the other; they use fingers to move food or other objects.
- Language/Communication Milestones: Make a lot of repetitive noises such as “mamamamama” or “bababababa”; they lift their arms to signal that they want to be picked up.
- Cognitive Milestones: Look for objects that dropped out of their sight (ex. A toy or a spoon that falls to the floor); they bang two things together.
A few suggestions for lesson planning:
- Place toys on the ground or on a playmat a little out of reach and encourage infants to crawl, scoot, or roll to get them.
- Teach infants to wave “bye-bye” or shake their head “no.” You can also teach simple baby sign language to help infants tell you what they want before they can use words, such as using signs for toys, peek-a-boo, or food.
- Play by dumping blocks from a container and putting them back into the box together, or make it a game when they drop things. Hand the item back so they can drop it again.
- Play a game that teaches them how to look for things they see you hide, such as a toy under a blanket.
- Ask for behaviors that you want. For example, instead of saying “don’t stand,” say “time to sit.” This will help them learn how to follow instructions.
1 year old milestones
According to the CDC, infants by 1 year reach the following milestones:
- Social/Emotional Milestones: Play games with you.
- Physical Development Milestones: Pull up to a standing position; they walk while holding on to furniture or objects for support; they pick up smaller objects with their fingers.
- Language/Communication Milestones: Wave “bye-bye”; they call a parent “mama” and “papa” or an equivalent special name; they understand “no” and stop or pause when they hear it.
- Cognitive Milestones: Put objects in a container; they look for things they see you hide.
A few suggestions for lesson planning:
- Build on the words the child is trying to say. For example, if they say “ta”, validate and say “yes, this is a truck”. Similarly, respond with words when the child points to an object. For example, if they ask for a cup by pointing to it, say “you want the cup? Here is the cup”, and so on.
- “Read” books with the infant. Reading can be talking about pictures. Babies this age like books with things they can feel or flaps they can lift.
- Play with blocks and other toys that encourage the child to use their hands, and let them push objects around (ex. empty boxes). This helps the child develop their fine and gross motor skills. Be mindful that while the child needs to move around and explore, they need limits to stay safe. Beyond making sure they are in a space with no dangerous objects, teach the child to respond to “no” by stopping unwanted behaviors.
Infant lesson plan templates
To get ideas on how to structure your infant lesson plans, always keeping in mind the developmental milestones of each age group, you can look at the templates below:
Bottom line
Creating lesson plans is crucial for teaching infants new skills, supporting their development, and ensuring they enjoy the process. The CDC's developmental milestones will serve as a guide for your lesson planning. The challenge lies in balancing the customization of activities for each infant's age with developing a unified weekly plan that accommodates the entire group. By identifying shared elements in activities across various age groups and tailoring each activity to meet the needs of individual children, you can strike this balance and provide optimal care for your infants.
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