Rights, agency, and autonomy of infants and toddlers  

Te Whāriki emphasises children’s rights as central to early childhood provision. It acknowledges every child’s right to:  

• protection and the promotion of their well-being 
• equitable learning opportunities 
• the recognition of their languages, cultures, and identities.  

These rights are aligned with the Māori concept of mana, which refers to a child’s innate sense of spiritual power, prestige, and authority. Upholding and protecting these rights helps to foster trust, well-being, and a sense of being valued.   

Te Whāriki supports the idea of all children having agency in their own lives. Agency is about making choices and having an active role in deciding one’s own experiences. It also refers to the capacity to act with intention and purpose. Infants and toddlers use their agency when they choose what and how to explore and play or who to explore or play with.  

Adults who sensitively respond to each infant’s cues, strengths, interests, and needs foster their sense of agency, helping to build trust and a sense of being valued by others. Adults can also enable toddlers to express their agency by, for example, providing a free-flowing play space or offering clear, consistent, and reasonable boundaries within which toddlers can exercise their choice and control. 

Te Whāriki emphasises that autonomy in learning can be fostered from birth, recognising that even the youngest children have the capability to communicate and anticipate their experiences.  

Autonomy is about one’s capacity to act independently and with a sense of responsibility for one’s own learning. For example, infants can do things on their own, use their bodies to navigate their play, or explore new ways of relating to their peers, without having someone else tell them how to do these things. For toddlers, autonomy is demonstrated in the ways they problem-solve different play situations, navigate expectations, and exert increasing control over their environment.  

Practising autonomy and being independent at a young age commonly involves the support and guidance of others, including peers and adults. The support from others can encourage infants and toddlers to (begin to) see themselves as autonomous learners. 

The diverse population of Aotearoa New Zealand means that children will have different experiences and expectations regarding their ability to make decisions and act independently.  

In some Māori and Pacific communities, expressions of agency might reflect culturally appropriate responses to different situations. For example, a toddler choosing to be more observant than physically involved can reflect an expression of agency, demonstrating their choice to participate in a way that is consistent within their cultural context. In some cultural communities, very young children may also be given more freedom to explore and learn independently or interdependently with older peers, without constant adult supervision.  

These cultural variations shape not just the child’s emerging sense of agency and autonomy, but also how kaiako and families might view and support these concepts in infants’ and toddlers’ lives. 

Kaiako responsibilities in fostering infants’ and toddlers’ rights, agency, and autonomy include:

• Observing and responding sensitively to infants’ and toddlers’ cues, gestures, strengths, interests, preferences and needs.  
• Provding access to a range of learning opportunities with others, indoors and outdoors.   
• Respecting infants’ and toddlers’ cultural and linguistic diversity, and weaving understandings of this into their learning opportunities.   
• Recognising that there may be cultural variations in how agency and autonomy are understood and practised within families, and adapting practices to be culturally responsive, while appreciating this diversity.  
• Providing clear and consistent boundaries so that infants and toddlers can exercise their agency and autonomy subtly and explicitly.  
• Upholding and protecting infants’ and toddlers’ rights, interests, and preferences in interactions. 

• In what ways do your words and actions uphold the rights of infants and toddlers? How do you ensure these rights remain central to the ways you support their play and learning?  
• How do you recognise and respond to the unique ways infants and toddlers communicate their preferences and needs?
• How do you adjust your interactions to honour their emerging sense of agency and autonomy?
• How do you ensure these rights remain central to the ways you support their play and learning?