Finding Quality Child Care
By Catherine Lethbridge
BRAIN DEVELOPMENT: ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR EARLY EDUCATION AND CARE
What is research into brain development teaching us about how we should be caring for babies and toddlers? Rethinking the Brain, a book available from the online bookstore of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (http://www.naeyc.org/) summarizes research into brain development and explores its relevance to the importance of early interactions between children and their caregivers. Here’s a chart I found thought provoking:
Old Thinking… New Thinking…
How a brain develops depends on the genes you are born with. How a brain develops hinges on a complex interplay between the genes you are born with and the experiences you have.
The experiences you have before the age of three have a limited impact on later development. Early experiences have a decisive impact on the architecture of the brain, and on the nature and extent of adult capacities.
A secure relationship with a primary caregiver creates a favorable context for early development and learning. Early interactions don’t just create a context; they directly affect the way the brain is “wired.”
Brain development is linear: the brain’s capacity to learn and change grows steadily as an infant progresses toward adulthood. Brain development is non-linear: there are prime times for acquiring different kinds of knowledge and skills.
A toddler’s brain is much less active than the brain of a college student. By the time children reach the age of three, their brains are twice as active as those of adults.
Activity levels drop during adolescence. In 1997 the McCormick Tribune issued a videotape and booklet, sadly no longer available, called 10 Things Every Child Needs which summarized what adults can do to boost their child’s brain power. They are simple but effective and have nothing to do with flashcards or Baby Einstein videos. Your baby needs someone who will:
1. Interaction: Spend time watching me and respond to my cues. It tells me I’m important and special to you.
2. Loving Touch: Cradle me, hold me, and give me lots of hugs. It keeps me calm and comforts me, and gives me courage to move on.
3. Stable Relationship: I need someone special to be there when I call. When I look around and see you, I know I can go far.
4. Safe, Healthy Environment: Plug the outlets, block the stairs, keep the lead away for sure! Make safe, special places so I am free to explore.
5. Self-Esteem: I can do it, yes I can, if you tell me so, pay attention, give me praise and watch me go, go, go!
6. Quality Child Care: When you’re gone, I need to be with people you can trust to help me grow and teach me new, exciting stuff.
7. Communication: I many not talk, but don’t be fooled, I understand a lot. Our little conversations mean so very much!
8. Play: Play is fun, play is work, and it’s how I learn the ropes.
9. Music: 1, 2, 3 — sing to me and make up silly tunes. Music is special time that’s fun to share with you.
10. Reading: Read to me, show me books with lots of pretty pictures. Write my stories out in words I’ll love to read forever.
© 1997, McCormick Tribune Foundation
Dr. Stanley Greenspan has a clinical practice which includes many children with developmental problems. His book The Growth of the Mind and the Endangered Origins of Intelligence lays out a theory of intelligence, which unifies cognitive and emotional development in a surprising and compelling way. Let me quote from his introductory chapter, “The Emotional Architecture of the Mind.”
“A baby begins the lifelong task of learning about the world through the materials at hand, which at this stage of life are the simplest of sensations, such as sound and touch. How babies learn to attend to, to discriminate among and comprehend these sensations has been well known for many years…In the normal course of events, each sensation as it is registered by the child, also gives rise to an affect or emotion. That is to say, the infant responds to it in terms of its emotional as well as physical effect on him. Thus a blanket might feel smooth and pleasant or itchy and irritating; a toy might be brilliantly red and intriguing or boring; a voice loud and inviting or jarring. The child might feel secure when Mom gives a hug or frightened if she jerks away. As a baby’s experience grows, sensory impressions become increasingly tied to feelings. It is this dual coding of experience that is the key to understanding how emotions organize intellectual capacities and indeed create the sense of self.”
“Abstract, apparently self-contained concepts, even those forming the basis of the most theoretical scientific speculations, also reflect at the bottom a child’s felt experience. Mathematicians and physicists may manipulate abstruse symbols representing space, time, and quantity, but they first understood these entities as tiny children toddling toward a toy in a far corner of the playroom, or waiting for Mother to fill up their juice cup, or figuring how many cookies they could eat before their tummies hurt.”
The importance NAEYC places upon the quality of adult-child interaction in their decision to accredit a childcare center seems from this perspective to be entirely justified. Children are learning all the time. A program that ignores the importance of early learning or confuses a focus on cognitive skills with appropriate and valuable goals of early education can be a waste of a child’s time or worse truly damage a child’s ability to grow and learn. Understanding that young children’s brains are making connections and creating neural circuits that will serve them for a lifetime places a tremendous responsibility on us to provide a stimulating choice of activities planned around the individual interests and sensitivities of the children in our care. Brain research has opened the door to better understanding of the importance of first years of life and of the need for high-quality care for young children.
SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR FINDING A HOME CARE PROVIDER
There are no failsafe methods for finding a home care provider who will provide good quality care for your child but there are some things you can do to increase the odds in your favor.
The term “licensed family child care home” includes only homes that care for six to 12 children. Virginia has a voluntary registration system for family childcare homes that care for fewer than six children. Registered providers are not required to pay a licensing fee. Using a provider who has voluntarily registered or who runs a licensed facility is preferable to using an unregistered provider who has no contact with state or local licensing authorities.
Licensing standards are minimal. They include requirements for criminal background checks for the provider (but not other residents in the home) and checks for fire safety.
Research indicates that childcare providers who consider themselves to be providing a professional service rather than informal babysitting tend to provide higher quality care.
A parent can screen providers over the telephone by asking questions that try to assess whether the provider sees himself or herself as a professional. Local agencies offer frequent, high-quality training opportunities in the evenings and on weekends at low or no cost to home care providers. You might want to ask what workshops or other training the provider has attended during the past six to twelve months. When you make a visit to the provider, ask to see the certificates that are always provided as proof of training.
The person who is providing care to your child should be able to communicate with you so you can be a full partner in the care of your child.
Perfect grammar and English spoken without an accent is much less important than the quality and quantity of the provider’s verbal interactions with your child. Adults who have conversations with children, encouraging them to talk about what interests them, are helping them learn and grow.
Your provider should have given some thought to how they will handle the situations that will inevitably arise in childcare. You want to know what they will do if a child is sick or injured while in their care. Is there another adult they will call to assist them if they themselves are sick or injured?
Does the provider have a written agreement that covers payment, vacations (yours and theirs), meals, late pick-up or extended hours of care in an emergency, or notice of changes in the terms of care such as hours and fees?
Once you have done your preliminary telephone screening, you should be able to drop by the provider’s home to observe the way other children are being cared for.
You should not make an initial unscheduled visit because you want to be able to talk to the provider without taking them away from the care of the children who are there. In fact, observe whether the provider is ready to ignore the children when an adult visitor is present. Is this what you want for your child?
Once you have decided that this provider is the person you want, you should definitely make several unannounced visits and you should continue to do so after your child is placed there. Some providers are looking after too many children and parents may not be aware of the true numbers.
It should be a red flag warning of danger if you are asked to wait at the door and your child is brought to you or if you are kept waiting outside while other children could be hurried out of sight before you are allowed to enter. Some providers have cultural inhibitions about allowing male parent into their home if they do not have a male relative or spouse present. This should be discussed with the provider.
Listen to what your child says about their experiences once they are in a provider’s care. Please don’t lead the witness…if your child learns that you are only going to pay attention to them if they are bearing tales of woe, that is what you are going to hear. But don’t minimize the significance of changes in your child’s behavior that signal stress or something worse.
You, the parent, will often be the most significant link the provider has to the outside world. You will be the person who tells them about the story hour at the local library or the safe nature trail a few blocks away, an article in a parenting magazine or events in the local parent newspaper.
I mentioned in the resources handout a book called The What, Why, and How of High Quality Early Childhood Education: A Guide for On-Site Supervision. I want you to buy this book. It was written for supervisors of childcare in the Department of the Army. It includes chapters on family child care. It lists the kinds of toys and other equipment a provider should have on hand for children of different ages. It gives examples of what you should see and why that is important. It gives examples of what you should not see and what you can do to help the provider improve the situation. Even providers who are licensed or registered and who attend training will not have frequent home visits by knowledgeable inspectors. Resources are just not there to pay for it. You are going to be the most frequent visitor to their home and you certainly have an incentive to help your provider improve the quality of care your child is receiving.
Good quality care is expensive. Most families will not encounter similar expense until their children are in college. If you cannot afford good quality care then the responsible course of action is to think about what other arrangements you can make to support your family. Can parents work part-time or staggered shifts and take turns to care for their children at home? Can life-style changes be made that permit one parent to stay home or could you think about caring for other children in addition to your own?
And finally, trust your instincts. If your gut feeling is that this provider is not the person you want to care for your child, then you need to keep looking. The more you know, the more confident you will feel that you are making the right decision for you and for your child.
SOME RESOURCES YOU MAY FIND HELPFUL:
For information about licensed child care centers and registered home care providers in Arlington County, call The Child Care Office at 703-228-1685 and ask for their help or go to: http://www.co.arlington.va.us/dhs/family/index.htm
To learn more about accredited centers and about what the National Association for the Education of Young Children considers to be characteristics of good quality preschools and child care centers, go to: http://www.naeyc.org/
For information about licensed and/or registered child care providers in neighboring Alexandria, go to: http://alexandriava.gov/ChildCare
For information about licensed and/or registered child care providers in Fairfax County: http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/ofc/
There is one network of family day care providers in Northern Virginia that offers more stringent regulation and supervision than is required by the state. There are more providers in this network in Fairfax than in Arlington. http://www.infanttoddler.com/
For information about the High Scope Curriculum used at Little Beginnings: http://www.highscope.org/.
For information about understanding best practices in early childhood education and care and about how a parent can support their child’s provider to achieve better quality, I recommend The What, Why, and How of High Quality Early Childhood Education: A Guide for On-Site Supervision. It is available from the online catalog at the National Association for the Education of Young Children, http://www.naeyc.org/
You may also purchase Rethinking the Brain: New Insights into Early Development from the NAEYC online bookstore or directly from Families and Work Institute which has many other wonderful resources available at http://www.familiesandwork.org
Zero to Three, http://www.zerotothree.org/, is a wonderful resource for parents of children in their early years. Little Beginnings was chosen to participate in the Cornerstones Project http://www.zerotothree.org/ztt_cornerstones.html from April 2000 to October 2003.
For general information about child care, resources and organizations, explore the site of the National Child Care Information Center, a project of the Child Care Bureau in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services http://nccic.org/ and the Children’s Foundation, a private non-profit educational foundation http://www.childrensfoundation.net/index.htm. If you have concerns that your child is not developing in the same way as other children their age and you want to have them evaluated or for information about services for children with special needs in Arlington County, try: http://www.apsva.us/154010811535540/site/default.asp.