RIE (Respectful Infant Educarer)

For this curriculum visit, I went to Bright Horizons on Kennicott in Arlington Heights.  I send my students here for their last practicum.  Rosemary Riddle was the head teacher in the classroom when I first took over the practicum.  She is the RIE guru to me! She has visited the centers in California created by Magda Gerber and shows my students videos on the theory so I was anxious to learn as much as I could from her and to experience what my students do as they do their practicum.

I was not disappointed!  The children were treated in such a respectful manner.  Many people tend to treat infants as objects that can't understand what is happening to them.  This center proves that is NOT true!  Whenever a child was picked up any staff member, the child was told that they were going to be picked up and exactly what was going to happen - going to their crib to take a nap, sit down at the table for snack, change their diaper, fed a bottle - whatever it was they were warned before it happened.  Several times, children were told that their bottle was heating up or that once a teacher was done feeding a child they would be next.  The children understood and although they were hungry or tired, the crying or whimpering stopped.  They knew the teachers cared about them and that they would tend to their needs. 

This is the rocker where children are fed and the mirror for children to observe!

Eight children were in this room, four of them were under 10 months and the other four were all young toddlers.  The two teachers in the classroom had their hands full!  Each time they sat down to feed a child, the child's name was said out loud along with how many ounces they were feeding the child.  I thought this was GREAT!  Although children were demanding and people were talking, this was always done!  Double checking themselves!  They also were constantly writing in the log when a child was changed, fed, slept, etc.  The room was constantly in motion, but very organized and the children were well taken care of. 

Part of the RIE theory is not to rush children and I definitely saw evidence of that!  Unless a child can sit up by themselves, they are not put in a seated position.  The younger children were moving all over the room - one by dragging this back legs while pulling with his arms.  The other little girl was on all fours and beginning to rock herself back and forth.  Toys were put right outside her reach and she would rock and splat herself closer to the item to retrieve it.  I loved the way the children were working on their OWN development not some checklist that everyone was working to achieve. 

This was by far the most popular place in the classroom!  This one piece of equipment challenged ALL of the ages in the room!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I've always admired Infant teachers, but my two days in this room reaffirmed THAT and also how important this age is to early childhood.  These teachers help determine a child's self image by displaying such a respectful attitude toward them.  They also model to parents how capable their children are - they understand so much about what is happening around them and to them!  

When I was changing my 18 month old granddaughter's diaper one day she was struggling to get free so I thought I'd use the RIE theory on her.  I asked her to be still so I could quickly change her diaper so we could get into the stroller and go to the park.  Needless to say, I was amazed when she stopped struggling with me and smiled at me.  I was being respectful of her feelings.  This theory really does work.