The Program for Infant/Toddler Care (PITC) is one of the most widely used professional learning systems for infant and toddler caregivers in the country. Since 1985, PITC has been a leader in promoting responsive, respectful care to support early learning.

Now available, the newly released PITC Curriculum further enriches learning for infants and toddlers with a planning process based on reflection, observation, and documentation of play and learning that respects each child’s developing abilities, individual strengths and needs, family culture(s), and language(s).

This planning process helps teachers deepen understanding, share meaning, support learning, and strengthen meaningful, caring relationships with infants and toddlers.

“I am excited about this moment for the Program for Infant and Toddler Care (PITC) as this national model for promoting the professional learning of early childhood practitioners continues to expand—with more PITC resources now available to address the unique needs of infants and toddlers,” says WestEd Senior Director of Early Childhood Strategic Initiatives Peter Mangione.

“We are thrilled to launch the new PITC Curriculum—emerging from a significant collaboration of experts in early childhood and family researchers, childcare practice experts, and specialists in curriculum development—and growing from two critically important insights: early learning and development are supported by responsive, secure relationships, and infants are active learners with their own learning agenda,” says Mangione.

“The curriculum provides a planning process, strategies, and tools that are in harmony with this understanding of early learning.”

Part one of the curriculum presents an overview of the PITC approach and details the philosophical foundations of the PITC Curriculum, including:

  • The learning agenda of infants, or the infants’ curriculum
  • The six essential policies: primary care, small groups, continuity of care, individualized care, culturally responsive care, and inclusive care
  • The building blocks of the approach to reflective curriculum planning
  • The role of the program leader in implementing the curriculum
  • How program leaders, care teachers, and family members know that the curriculum is working

Part two covers reflective planning based on observation and documentation. In this section, readers explore:

  • The PITC Curriculum reflective planning process
  • How to use the PITC tools to support observation and planning
  • How care teachers can simultaneously support the learning of the individual and the group
  • How learning environment and daily care routines can contribute to infants’ learning and development
  • How a mindset of inquiry, wonder, and reflection can help care teachers manage the many demands of caring for infants and support infants’ play, investigations, discoveries, and learning

The PITC Curriculum also includes:

  • The PITC Learning Progressions Book, which supports the facilitation of early learning in five important developmental domains: Approaches to Learning, Social and Emotional Development, Language and Communication, Cognition, and Perceptual, Motor, and Physical Development
  • Seven PITC Caregiver Guides (published by the California Department of Education) are bundled into the curriculum

“WestEd is thrilled to announce this eagerly anticipated curriculum,” says WestEd CEO Glen Harvey.

“Designed for care teachers, program leaders, and professional development advisors, it draws upon the trusted and widely adopted PITC approach to ensuring healthy development and learning through strong, responsive relationships. The new curriculum and expanding PITC portfolio is foundational to our goal at WestEd to ensure success for every learner.”

The curriculum works best when partnered with PITC curriculum implementation training, but can also be used separately.

Visit the PITC Curriculum resource page to learn more, purchase the curriculum, and request information about the related training.

The PITC Curriculum is inspired by and dedicated to J. Ronald Lally, who generously shared his deep knowledge of infant development and learning. Along with Lally, Peter Mangione, Diane Harkins, Amber Morabito with Arlene Paxton developed this resource.

About PITC

The Program for Infant/Toddler Care (PITC), developed collaboratively by WestEd and the California Department of Education, is a comprehensive training system that promotes responsive, caring relationships for infants and toddlers and employs research-based training materials and strategies for the early education field. PITC is an integral part of the California Infant/Toddler Learning and Development System. It has helped establish California as a national leader to improve the quality of care and education for young children. Visit PITC.org to learn more.