This publication, developed by the California Department of Education and WestEd’s Center for Child & Family Studies, is essential for anyone who provides infant and toddler care and education. It describes research and evidence-based expectations for the way most infants and toddlers make progress in the major domains of social-emotional, language, cognitive, and perceptual and motor development. By creating a common language to facilitate communication among families, infant care professionals, community members, and policymakers, the foundations build an understanding about the importance of the early years in children’s learning and development.

This valuable resource presents 28 foundations in four domains that describe the competencies that infants and toddlers typically attain in the first three years of life. The descriptions of competencies are enriched with examples of typical behaviors at each age level in each of the four domains as well as behaviors leading up to attainment of those competencies. This publication is a counterpart to the preschool learning foundations and is a companion to the Infant/Toddler Learning & Development Program Guidelines.

For more information about infant and toddler learning and foundations, visit the California Infant/Toddler Learning & Development Foundations site.