What Is High-Quality Child Care? (continued)

Staff Qualifications and Practices

For Infants

Although the qualifications and practices of child care staff are important for all age groups, they are particularly important for the care of infants. Your infant needs lots of love and attention in order to develop optimally. Consistency and emotional support are essential, along with good physical care and a safe, healthy environment. Before you even visit the infant room for the first time to observe the caregivers in action, spend some time with the director learning about the staff’s educational backgrounds and how long they have been working there. The director can also tell you whether they have been attending workshops or other continuing education opportunities to keep their skills and knowledge up to date. Ideally, a caregiver should have a combination of a solid educational background in early childhood and some practical experience in working with young children. Providers who work with infants also need specialized knowledge of infant development, health, and nutrition.

The first thing to look for in an infant care provider is the way she interacts with the babies. Does she respect each infant as a unique person, seeming to understand that each baby is different from the others? One infant may need to be held quietly, while another really likes to be bounced around, and a third might not want to be touched much at all. Does she take time to observe the infants and take her cues from what she sees, or does she follow her own adult routines without regard for how the baby is feeling? Is the care provider in tune with the babies’ rhythms? For instance, does she listen to a baby vocalizing, respond with a sound or a word, and then wait for the baby to coo or chuckle again? Does she interact with the quiet babies as well as the more noisy, attentionseeking ones?

You should never hear a caregiver call a baby “bad” because of its behavior. Very young children cannot understand the difference between right and wrong or how their behavior affects the adults around them. Therefore, they do not act bad on purpose. There may be times when we wish they would stop doing something, like crying or tossing food on the floor. But babies are not doing these things with us in mind, and they do not understand that they are wrong.

Caregivers of infants must spend a lot of time on routine things like feeding, diapering, and putting babies to sleep. They should also read to the infants, play games like peek-a-boo and “This Little Piggy,” exercise each child’s arms and legs, sing, hand toys and receive toys back, and simply hold children in their laps and converse with them (not just talk to them). The caregivers should encourage older babies to move around by organizing the space so that they can safely pull themselves to their feet and walk around holding on to furniture and larger pieces of equipment. Different toys need to be added as the babies grow older—toys that link cause and effect (like jack-in-the-box) and small baskets with a few blocks or other items that the children can dump out and then refill (over and over again). Mobile infants like push-and-pull toys, balls, and large wooden trucks and cars. A child care center that provides this range of toys is well prepared to promote the optimal development of your child. When you observe staff in the infant room, you should also look for some basic care routines. Caregivers should hold the babies and talk softly to them as they give them their bottles. Infants should not be sitting in high chairs drinking from bottles that caregivers prop on pillows. Babies should also be talked to while their diapers are being changed, as they are rocked to sleep (a lullaby or soft humming would be appropriate), and when they are lying on the floor on a blanket, exploring a rattle.

Caregivers should be dressed in comfortable, easy-to wash clothes so they find it easy to spend time on the floor with the babies and won’t worry about drooling or overflow as they burp them over their shoulders or carry them in their arms. Check to see that the caregiver washes her hands and cleans the changing table after each diaper change. High chairs, toys, and other equipment also need to be cleaned and disinfected regularly. Remember, risk of infection is a significant concern with center-based infant care. One way to reduce that risk is through scrupulous hand washing and frequent cleaning of everything in the room.

At first, it may be difficult to tell the difference between one caregiving style and another. As you spend time watching adults with young children, you will begin to see who is comfortable with and knowledgeable about them and who isn’t. Careful observation does take time, however. Plan to set aside at least two hours the first time you visit a center just to observe the work of the caregivers who would be responsible for your child.

For Toddlers

A caregiver of toddlers has to be an exceptional person because the toddler time is such a special period in a child’s life. Toddlers want to be “big” and independent, but they easily crumble and fall apart, needing your love and comfort. This is the time of biting and temper tantrums, the age when “mine” and “no” are the two most prominent words in the child’s vocabulary. Toddlers have very little control over their emotions and actions. They try very hard to follow your wishes and instructions but are often frustrated when they fall short of even their own expectations.