Recorded on June 03, 2021
This recorded session is the fourth in a series of online conversations, Providing Culturally Responsive and Individualized Infant and Toddler Care, that highlights both scholarly and practitioner perspectives on the importance of providing culturally responsive and individualized infant and toddler care. Led by Peter Mangione, Senior Director of Early Childhood Strategic Initiatives at WestEd, guest speakers and PITC staff share their perspectives from the lens of both research and program practice.
The conversations focus on a range of topics including:
- Creating inclusive infant and toddler care settings
- Promoting early language development and communication for dual language learners
- Promoting responsive relationships and learning in-home- and center-based settings
- Supporting family child-care providers
This archived session features Mary Jane Maguire-Fong and Marcela Clark.
Mary Jane Maguire-Fong is an author and professor emerita of early childhood education, American River College, in Sacramento, CA. She has been a preschool teacher, infant center director, and administrator for early childhood programs in the migrant farm worker community. She is the author of Teaching and Learning with Infants and Toddlers: Where Meaning Making Begins, recently released in a new edition, and co-author of Infant Development from Conception to Age 3: What Babies Ask of Us. She holds degrees in child development and psychology and has completed a fellowship in infant-parent mental health.
Marcela Clark lives in the Houston, Texas area and has over 35 years’ experience in the field of Early Childhood Education holding an array of diverse positions in administration, consultation, and higher education. Presently she works as a senior manager overseeing the United Way Bright Beginnings program, a citywide quality improvement program attending underserved populations. She has been a Touchpoints National Trainer since 2007. Marcela holds a Master degree in Human Development from Pacific Oaks College in Pasadena, California.
View additional session recordings from this series.
Listen to the Audio Recording
About PITC
At the Program for Infant/Toddler Care (PITC), we consider a relationship-based approach to caring for infants and toddlers essential. PITC believes responsive, respectful care in a relationship is key for supporting early learning, rather than developing lessons for infants to master. Adults who implement the PITC approach find ways to allow for, expand, adapt, and encourage infants’ efforts to pursue their inborn learning agenda.
To support implementation of PITC, we provide professional development and resources to the early childhood education community. PITC promotes relationship-based care through six essential program policies: Primary Care, Small Groups, Continuity of Care, Individualized Care, Culturally Responsive Care, and Inclusive Care. Learn more at pitc.org.