My name is Olivia and I am often referred to as the baby whisperer! While this makes it sound like I do all the work, I respect my infant students in their abilities and autonomy and we are acting partners during the day. I live by the Magda Gerber (Educaring, RIE) quote: “We not only respect babies, we demonstrate our respect every time we interact with them. Respecting a child means treating even the youngest infant as a unique human being, not as an object.”I specialize in infant and toddler care focusing on both child and family-centered and strengths-based approaches that support the trajectory of child developmental domains like, physical, cognitive, social/emotional, speech/language and moral. I value inclusive education as I believe every child has the right to develop, grow and learn. Collaboration is a key component in building rapport, vulnerability and fostering problem-solving. I apply this value every day in my relationships with children, families and colleagues. Through collaboration, I am able to highlight my skills of efficiency and resourcefulness to complete projects that impact my students, families, and childcare center. I have goals to expand my practice to continue using my skill set to partner with early childhood educators in their professional development through coaching and educational opportunities. I believe that to effectively and positively support children’s development, mental health and wellbeing, the educator has to look within to evaluate their biases, beliefs, values and practice. Furthermore, I have interests in learning designs, program development, and policy. If you’ve read this far, message me today on how we can get started working together to impact systems like early learning, early intervention, infant toddler mental health, perinatal and postpartum, and familial support!