This is my second year as a service advocate at Child and Family. I was placed in the infant room this year, unlike last year where I was helping in the pre-school room. There is such a big difference between the two rooms, so it was hard at first working with the babies. As an elementary and special education major, I am used to working with older kids. Pre-school is already much younger than the kids I will be working with, so the babies are a completely different universe. Last year, I would read books to the kids or play with them outside, so having to feed babies and change diapers is a daunting challenge.
As different and challenging as it is, I really enjoy working in the infant room. It is an amazing challenge. I stepped out of my comfort zone this year. Working with kids is like therapy. Getting to hold babies for a few hours each week makes me forget about the other things on my mind. A big challenge I faced the first couple of weeks was not being able to understand what the babies need. I was honestly kind of bored, because I thought all babies do is cry, sleep, and eat (which is pretty much it). As I got more experience in the room, however, I got to know each of the babies and their personalities. Babies communicate so much through their actions.One baby needs to always have eye contact with an adult, or she will cry. Another baby loves to be held and will get annoyed if you put her down. I learned what to do to make each of them laugh or what toys they like the most. Now going into the infant room is the best four hours out of my week. I have learned so much from the teachers over the past few weeks, and I cannot wait to see what else I learn the rest of the year!
