Yeah Baby! is a specialist conference concerned with the education and care of our infants from birth to three years of age. This one-day conference runs from 9am-3pm on a Saturday and includes trade fair, and great seminar and workshops style presentations. The format for the day ensures delegates will return to their early childhood settings affirmed and inspired with up-to-date research as well as practical advice, guidance and solutions all relevant to work and play with children under 3. New information is shared each year and each programme varies according to region.

Programme:

9-10.30am: Toni Christie – Brain Body Balance

The evidence is overwhelming! Quality relationships and learning environments have a massive impact on brain development in the early years. For so many of our youngest citizens growing up in ECE, these relationships and environments will have long-term implications on self-regulation, wellbeing and overall mental health. In this session Toni will share insights and strategies for brain-body balance that will help us to regulate ourselves as Kaiako as we co-regulate with the infants and toddlers we love and learn alongside.

10.30-11am: morning tea

11am-12.30pm: Asrya Hyland – Ancient and contemporary pedagogy in Aotearoa

You are invited on a journey to unpack the world of infants and toddlers and what general beliefs are around infant and toddler pedagogy. We will also investigate the historic and contemporary upbringing of infants and toddlers through a Te Ao Māori lens. We look at how learning, care and value systems are shared with tamaiti in pre-colonial settings and consider the different practises that have been adopted by various leading infant pedagogies around the motu and how they may align with Te Ao Māori values, beliefs, tikanga, and the merging of old and new knowledge.

Using up to date research and application of the Pikler Approach from Pikler Daycare in Hungary and Piker-Inspired Approaches in Aotearoa, we will examine how an authentic application of respectful, knowledgeable and culturally responsive care and learning may look in Aotearoa today, and why Te Ao Māori adds to and complements the approach, with direct feedback from Pikler Pedagogues on these approaches.

12.30-1.15pm: Lunch and a chance to check out the trade fair

1.15-2.45pm: Robin Christie - Power and Place: Recent Thoughts on Infant and Toddler Learning Spaces

Our infant and toddler environments reflect who we are as a learning community – curious, functional, and beautiful! This lively presentation will share recent work from the Childspace Workshop in Wellington and explore the rationale behind these designs. From designing outdoor sleep spaces to the importance of indoor/ outdoor transition zones, from the role of physical symbols in emerging literacy to outdoor nappy change units -   join teacher and ECE environment designer Robin Christie to find out what’s been keeping him up at night!

General admission price: $240

Space mag subscriber's price: $220

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