Principle 7 Model the behavior you want to teach. Don't preach.

Tyler is sitting up on the rug looking at his caregiver, who is close to him. She smiles. He smiles back. He gets up on all fours and takes off, stopping for a moment when he notices that he has left the soft thick rug. He crawls back and sits back down. He looks at his caregiver, who is idly poking her fingers into the rug. He also pokes his fingers into the rug. "Soft," she says, and he cocks his head to listen to her. Then Tyler gets up on all fours again, headed for a shelf of toys. Along the way he encounters an infant smaller than himself lying on her back on a blanket. He stops to investigate, and as he leans over to get a closer look, he notices a caregiver has come to sit beside him. He reaches for the baby's face, touching the smooth skin and patting the hair. He puts his lips on baby's head and looks up at the caregiver and smiles. She smiles back. He gets more vigorous in his investigations, and a hand comes down over his, touching him lightly. "Gently, gently," the caregiver says. He goes back to the original soft stroking.

1			Are these educational interactions?
2			What is the caregiver doing to encourage the child to touch and explore?
3			What relation does all that touching have to developing perception?
4			Can you tell how old this child is? What clues are you using?
5			Can you tell if this is a typically developing child? What clues are you using?
6			If the child hadn't responded to the caregiver's modeling of gentleness and had reached over to grab the baby's hair, what could the caregiver have done next?