Empowering Infants’ and Toddlers’ Learning Through Scaffolding

Author(s): Linda Groves Gillespie and Jan D. Greenberg

Source: YC Young Children , Vol. 72, No. 2 (May 2017), pp. 90-93
Published by: National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/90004131

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 Supporting Infants, Toddlers, and Their Families Empowering Infants’
Rocking and Rolling
and Toddlers’ Learning
Through Scaffolding
Linda Groves Gillespie and Jan D. Greenberg

Ms. Tonya plays peek-a-boo with Anthony,
4 months old. She holds a blanket in front
of her face, peeks out over the top of it, and
says, “Peek-a-boo!” Anthony laughs. After
she does this a few times, she notices that
Anthony’s attention has waned. The next
Ms. Evelyn says, “Yes, that’s a yellow block.
Can you find something else yellow?”
Aydin looks back at the table and picks up
a yellow toy car. He brings it to Ms. Evelyn,
saying, “Lellow!”

E
time she puts the blanket up, she moves it
to the side of her face and peeks out from a
different place. Anthony looks surprised and
laughs, reengaged.
Shayla, 11 months old, lets go of the cart she
is pushing and stands alone. Her teacher,
Mr. Peter, sitting nearby, says, “Hi, Shayla!”
He reaches his hand toward her, and she
takes one step, then another, then falls
down. Shayla’s eyes open wide, and Mr.
Peter says, “Boom, you fell down, but you’re
okay. Do you want to try again?” Shayla
reaches up her arms and Mr. Peter helps
her stand up. He holds her hands while she
steadies herself, then gives her two small
toys to hold so that she balances on her
own. He says, “Okay, Shayla, can you walk
to me?” Holding tightly to the two toys, she
takes three steps and reaches Mr. Peter
right before she falls down. “You did it!”
Mr. Peter exclaims.
Twenty-two-month-old Aydin has just
arrived at Ms. Evelyn’s family child care
home. Ms. Evelyn has three other toddlers
close to Aydin’s age. Recently, she has
noticed that Aydin knows the color yellow.
She places several yellow objects on a
small table, along with a few red objects.
Aydin immediately goes to the table and
picks up a yellow block, saying, “Lellow!”
ach of these scenarios shows skilled teachers
setting up environments and facilitating
infants’ and toddlers’ development and
learning. Their process is called scaffolding.
Scaffolding is how adults support children’s
development and learning by offering just the
right help at just the right time in just the right
way. Scaffolding is typically demonstrated with
older children, yet adults’ natural interactions
with infants and toddlers are scaffolding learning
all the time. Understanding the process can
help educators be more intentional in their
interactions. In addition, by examining their
beliefs, teachers can become more sensitive to
the many opportunities to scaffold presented in
everyday interactions.
Scaffolding allows children to solve a problem
or carry out a task that is beyond their current
abilities. It is a bridge teachers create to connect
existing knowledge to new knowledge and
understanding. Successful scaffolding happens
in what Lev Vygotsky (1978), a pioneering
psychologist, coined the zone of proximal
development (ZPD). The ZPD is the difference
between what a person can do and learn on his
own, and what he can do and learn with the help
of someone who is more experienced. As a result,
scaffolding is collaborative in nature. Teachers
need to join infants and toddlers in play and
build from there. Scaffolding requires several

90 Young Children   May 2017

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considerations: understanding children’s overall
development; understanding the ways individual
children approach learning; establishing realistic
learning objectives; and matching strategies
to each child’s current interests, knowledge,
and skills.
For example, in the peek-a-boo scenario, Ms.
Tonya sensitively models how to play, but she
also adjusts her play to match Anthony’s interest
and attention. By slightly changing the game,
she reengages Anthony and holds his attention a
little longer. This type of play not only increases
learning, but also encourages active participation
in a game.
One in-depth study of three teachers
demonstrated the many potential benefits of
teachers scaffolding development by joining
infants’ play in sensitive and responsive ways
(Jung & Recchia 2013). These teachers were able
to empower and enhance the self-motivation of
the infants in their care. In the earlier scenarios,
each teacher joined a child’s play and extended
learning through careful observation, supportive
environments, and active engagement. These
strategies facilitated the children’s abilities to
learn a little more than what they might have
learned on their own.
Careful and intentional
observing enabled the teachers
to sensitively individualize
their scaffolding to meet each
infant’s needs.
How teachers view infants may influence how
they approach scaffolding. The three teachers
who participated in the in-depth study (Jung &
Recchia 2013) saw infants as innately motivated
and competent. They carefully observed the
babies’ individual temperaments—how they liked
to play; when they gave up; in what ways they
liked to receive teacher support; how responsive
and sensitive they were to teacher actions; how
enthusiastic they were in their play; and to what
May 2017   Young Children
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Supporting Infants, Toddlers, and Their Families
degree they maintained their focus in play.
Rocking and Rolling
This careful and intentional observing enabled
the teachers to sensitively individualize their
scaffolding to meet each infant’s needs.
We see similar observations and responsiveness
in the opening scenarios. Anthony maintained
his attention and joint play because Ms. Tonya
slightly changed where she peeked out from
behind the blanket. Shayla took a few more steps
because Mr. Peter responded sensitively to her
attempts to walk by providing props (toys) that
helped her balance. And Ms. Evelyn prepared her
environment based on her previous experiences
with Aydin’s interest in the color yellow. Each
teacher also allowed the children enough space to
pursue their interests through play and supported
learning by being present and actively engaged.
Reaffirming the large research base on scaffolding
(see, for example, Head Start 2017), the three-
teacher study (Jung & Recchia 2013) highlights
how observing and reflecting help teachers to
better understand each infant’s preferences,
culture, and what support they may need to move
forward. Providing that support in just the right
context—or, to use Vygotsky’s term, within each
infant’s zone of proximal development—leads to
more effective scaffolding. Some of the effective
strategies the researchers identified include:
›› Modeling for children
›› Encouraging children in verbal and
nonverbal ways
›› Following the child’s lead
›› Physical intervention, such as what Mr. Peter did
to help stabilize Shayla in her attempts to walk
›› Offering and accepting choices
›› Joining in a child’s play as a partner while still
allowing the child to lead
Think about it
›› How have you seen young children learn
through play?
›› What do you believe about infants’ and toddlers’
abilities to learn through play?
91
 ›› How might your beliefs influence how you set the
stage for young children’s learning?
Supporting Infants, Toddlers, and Their Families
Rocking and Rolling
›› How have you seen an infant’s temperament
influence her learning?
Try it
›› Pick a child to watch during free play.
●● What do you think the child is trying to learn
through play?
●● What temperament characteristics do you see
the child displaying?
●● What do you see as your role in supporting the
child’s learning?
●● What strategies do you want to use to support
that learning?
›› Take turns observing fellow teachers supporting
children’s learning. Document which scaffolding
strategies they use.
Teachers of infants and toddlers shape the
curriculum by carefully setting up the environment
and by watching and wondering about children’s
current interests and abilities. They act on those
observations by extending each child’s learning
through playful interactions and scaffolding. In
this way, teachers set the stage for children’s future
learning and success!
Note: The term “teacher(s)” is used to describe the
adult working with the child in the setting.
Copyright © 2017 by the National Association for the Education of Young Children. See Permissions and Reprints online at www.naeyc.org/yc/permissions.
92
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References
Head Start: An Office of the Administration for Children and
Families Early Childhood Learning & Knowledge Center
(ECLKC). 2017.
Jung, J., & S. Recchia. 2013. “Scaffolding Infants’ Play
Through Empowering and Individualizing Teaching
Practices.” Early Education and Development 24 (6):
829–50.
Vygotsky, L.S. 1978. Mind in Society: The Development of
Higher Psychological Processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press.
About the authors
Linda Groves Gillespie, MS, is a senior training,
technical assistance, and engagement specialist at ZERO
TO THREE, where she has worked for 13 years in several
different positions. Linda has worked in the field of early
education for the past 40 years, providing professional
development about the importance of the first three
years of life. Additionally, she has written many articles
and was one of the authors of Preventing Child Abuse
and Neglect: Parent/Provider Partnerships in Child Care.
She currently supports the work of the Healthy Steps
Project and the Center for Training Services.
lgillespie@zerotothree.org
Jan D. Greenberg, MA, is a senior subject matter
expert–child development with the National Center on
Early Childhood Development, Teaching, and Learning,
in Washington, DC. She develops resources to support
education services in Early Head Start, Head Start, and
child care programs. jgreenberg@zerotothree.org
Young Children   May 2017
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May 2017   Young Children 93

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