Effects of transitions to new child care classes on infant/toddler distress and behavior

Changes in distress and problem behaviors of 38 infants/toddlers were examined after children transitioned from familiar to new classrooms to look at effects of non-continuity of caregiver. Child's age, classroom quality, teacher sensitivity, and transitioning with a peer were examined as possible mediators. Results suggest that transitions were associated with increased distress, especially for younger children. In addition, although overall classroom quality was low, children in higher quality pre-transition classrooms showed more distress after transitioning than children in lower quality classrooms. Transitions were associated with decreased problem behaviors. Both distress and problem behaviors returned to pre-transition levels within 3 weeks. Teacher sensitivity and transitioning with a peer did not relate to distress or problem behaviors. These findings contribute evidence about immediate effects of infant/toddler transitions in child care. Future research should explore child, classroom, and teacher–child relationship variables that influence effects of continuity versus non-continuity of caregiver.     

Observed Engagement as an Indicator of Child Care Program Quality

Research Findings. This study investigated the quality of child care programs based on what children do while they are in these programs. Observing engagement is one method of measuring the effects of child care environments. Engagement refers to the amount of time children spend interacting with the environment in a developmentally and contextually appropriate manner. Group engagement was measured by repeatedly counting the percentage of children engaged in child care classrooms from two different licensing levels. Results showed that engagement levels were related to independent measures of program quality. Furthermore, engagement levels differed as a function of licensing level. Policy Implications. Observation of group engagement is an effective and unique measure of program quality. The group engagement measure not only discriminates between levels of quality; it focuses directly on child behavior and child experience offering a much- needed supplement to global and teacher-related measures. Observation of group engagement is both uncomplicated and expeditious, making it an ideal measure for use by licensing personnel as well as child care staff.     

Observed Engagement as an Indicator of Child Care Program Quality

Research Findings. This study investigated the quality of child care programs based on what children do while they are in these programs. Observing engagement is one method of measuring the effects of child care environments. Engagement refers to the amount of time children spend interacting with the environment in a developmentally and contextually appropriate manner. Group engagement was measured by repeatedly counting the percentage of children engaged in child care classrooms from two different licensing levels. Results showed that engagement levels were related to independent measures of program quality. Furthermore, engagement levels differed as a function of licensing level. Policy Implications. Observation of group engagement is an effective and unique measure of program quality. The group engagement measure not only discriminates between levels of quality; it focuses directly on child behavior and child experience offering a much- needed supplement to global and teacher-related measures. Observation of group engagement is both uncomplicated and expeditious, making it an ideal measure for use by licensing personnel as well as child care staff.     

Toddlers' and Preschoolers' Experience in Family Day Care: Age Differences and Behavioral Correlates

One hundred and twelve children, 56 toddlers and 56 preschoolers, were observed in their family child care settings to determine whether toddlers cared for in settings that also included preschoolers were, relative to the preschoolers, receiving more or less high-quality care and/or whether their functioning at child care appeared to be more or less dependent on aspects of the care providers’ interactions with the children. Quality of care was analyzed along two dimensions: sensitive/supportive care and structured care. Four indices of child functioning at child care were examined: integration in social activities, attention, positive mood, and angry/aggressive behavior. Results indicate that toddlers received less sensitive, supportive care than preschoolers in these mixed-age settings and toddlers were less socially integrated and less engaged in activities in the child care setting. Preschoolers displayed increased levels of angry/aggressive behavior relative to toddlers. In addition, associations of care provider behaviors and child functioning were larger for toddlers than preschoolers, suggesting that toddlers were more dependent on caregiver support for more successful functioning in these family child care settings. For both toddlers and preschoolers, care provider behavior and child functioning was generally poorer in settings with more children.     

Child Care Subsidy and Program Quality Revisited

Research Findings: Previous research has documented conflicting results on the relationship between program quality and the percentage of children receiving subsidized child care (subsidy density) in early childhood centers. This research examined the relationship between subsidy density and the quality of infant and preschool classrooms in child care centers, taking into consideration teacher education and salary as well as other structural variables associated with quality. A multimethod evaluation was conducted with 110 child care centers utilizing an interview of center directors as well as classroom observations using standardized measures of quality and language/literacy in the classroom. Regression analyses indicate that subsidy density does not predict the quality of infant classrooms. However, subsidy density is a significant predictor of the quality of preschool classrooms. Teacher education is predictive of some quality indicators, but teacher salary is not. Practice or Policy: Practice and policy implications are discussed to promote the quality of child care centers that serve low- income children. Statewide initiatives should target centers with higher subsidy density for quality improvements. Local programs and state policy should provide teachers with opportunities to obtain additional education and then offer incentives to remain in their current early childhood settings.     

Consistency of toddler engagement across two settings

This study documented the consistency of child engagement across two settings, toddler child care classrooms and mother–child dyadic play. One hundred twelve children, aged 14–36 months (M = 25.17, SD = 6.06), randomly selected from 30 toddler child care classrooms from the district of Porto, Portugal, participated. Levels of engagement were coded, and sophisticated engagement, but not nonengagement, was consistent across settings. Consistency in children's sophisticated engagement was primarily accounted for by chronological age. Children spent more time in sophisticated behaviors and less time nonengaged during mother–child dyadic play than in center-based child care. For sophisticated engagement, effects of child predictors were stronger than effects of environmental features; whereas for nonengagement, effects of environmental features were stronger than effects of child predictors. Findings suggest children's sophisticated engagement may be generalizable across settings, as a function of age, whereas their nonengagement is most likely context dependent.     

The Transition from Early Child Care to Preschool: Emerging Toddler Skills and Readiness for Group-Based Learning

Research Findings: National policy today is on the brink of defining preschool experiences as essential for children’s academic success. Indeed, many children’s classroom experience begins as they transition from infant/toddler care to a preschool classroom. This study examined developmentally relevant skill domains among 36-month-olds (effortful control, social engagement, and language abilities) and tested their organization in a latent factor model of skills hypothesized to promote classroom adaptation. Assessments of low-income children interacting with a parent and examiner from the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project were utilized (n = 1,814). The data included observations of mother–child interactions during semistructured activities at home and child behavior assessments. Results indicated that the interrelated structure of children’s skills was best defined in a 2-factor, latent variable model: effortful control and social communication. These learning skills were related to but separate from general cognitive ability. Practice or Policy: Home-visiting programs for infants and toddlers are expected to promote children’s school readiness, yet little research has focused on the skills that facilitate children’s transition to the large-group learning environment at age 3. Implications of this model for early prevention efforts and early childhood teacher training to promote children’s readiness for group-based learning are discussed.     

Child Engagement in Inclusive Preschools: Contributions of Classroom Quality and Activity Setting

Preschool process quality and activity setting are considered important aspects influencing child engagement. As such, it is important to understand how educational settings can promote engagement, particularly for children with disabilities and/or at risk. This observational study describes process quality and activity setting in inclusive preschools, analyzing its predictive role for child engagement. Participants were 184 children attending 39 preschools. Three groups of children, nested within classrooms, were considered: with disabilities (n = 45), at risk (n = 59), typically developing (n = 80). Child Observation in Preschool assessed engagement and activity setting; Classroom Assessment Scoring System assessed quality of teacher–child interactions. Research Findings: Results from multilevel regressions show that classroom emotional support and organization and more time in free play were positively predicting child engagement, whereas more time in whole group was a negative predictor of engagement. Besides these main effects, an interaction effect between child developmental functioning and activity settings was found. For at-risk children, more time in whole-group activities had greater negative effects on child engagement. For children with disabilities, more time in free-play had greater positive effects on child engagement. Practice or Policy: Results contribute to inform teachers regarding the importance of individualizing interactions and planning activity settings to promote engagement and participation in inclusive preschools.     

Working with toddlers in child care: Practitioners’ beliefs about their role

This exploratory research analyzes child care workers’ beliefs about the nature of their practice in center-based child care programs. Twenty-one female child care workers who worked with toddlers (aged 1 to 3 years) participated in the research. The participants were videoed in their practice and later interviewed about how good practice in child care could be described. In the interview, the video of participants’ practice was also reviewed to discuss salient videoed events to elicit further evidence about the nature and structure of beliefs that informed practice. The focus of the data analysis was to ascertain how affective, cognitive and executive functions of teaching in child care were represented in the practitioners’ beliefs and how well those beliefs were integrated into a relational structure. All child care workers identified the affective (care) function as a feature of their practice in working with toddlers. Fewer participants (71%) identified the cognitive (education) function or the executive function (38%) as features of their role. Only two child care workers were judged to have a highly sophisticated and relational belief structure integrating affective, cognitive, and executive functions in how they discussed their practice with toddlers. Greater emphasis in professional training for work in child care settings should be placed on exploring the expectations and beliefs that child care workers hold about their role in teaching young children and how that role is instrumental in supporting early learning.     

Activity Settings and Daily Routines in Preschool Classrooms: Diverse Experiences in Early Learning Settings for Low-Income Children

This paper examines activity settings and daily classroom routines experienced by 3- and 4-year-old low-income children in public center-based preschool programs, private center-based programs, and family child care homes. Two daily routine profiles were identified using a time-sampling coding procedure: a High Free-Choice pattern in which children spent a majority of their day engaged in child-directed free-choice activity settings combined with relatively low amounts of teacher-directed activity, and a Structured-Balanced pattern in which children spent relatively equal proportions of their day engaged in child-directed free-choice activity settings and teacher-directed small- and whole-group activities. Daily routine profiles were associated with program type and curriculum use but not with measures of process quality. Children in Structured-Balanced classrooms had more opportunities to engage in language and literacy and math activities, whereas children in High Free-Choice classrooms had more opportunities for gross motor and fantasy play. Being in a Structured-Balanced classroom was associated with children's language scores but profiles were not associated with measures of children's math reasoning or socio-emotional behavior. Consideration of teachers' structuring of daily routines represents a valuable way to understand nuances in the provision of learning experiences for young children in the context of current views about developmentally appropriate practice and school readiness.     

Measurement of quality in child care centers

Assessment of quality of care in 363 classrooms with infants, toddlers, and preschool children was conducted in 120 child care centers in three states with widely varying regulations. Three major process measures, InfantToddler Environment Rating Scale (ITERS; Harms, Cryer & Clifford, 1987), Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (ECERS; Harms & Clifford, 1980), and the Assessment Profile for Early Childhood Programs (Abbott-Shim & Sibley, 1987) were included. Regulatable aspects of quality of child care included ratio of caregivers to children, group size, teacher training in child development or child care, teacher education, highest wage paid to a teacher in the center, and staff turnover. The goal of the study was to evaluate how well the quality of child care is measured by process and regulatable variables. For research purposes, the process measures proved to be highly redundant, both internally and with each other. Much smaller sets of items, drawn randomly from the instruments' item pools, were found to be perfectly acceptable measures of quality of care. Regulatable measures did not prove to be acceptable measures of quality care, except for teachers' wages, which were highly correlated with process measures of quality.     

The relationship between classroom quality and students’ engagement in secondary school

Student engagement has been identified as an influential mediator between classroom interactional quality and adolescent learning outcomes. This study examined the relationship between classroom quality and student behavioural engagement in secondary school classrooms. Three dimensions of classroom quality (emotional, organisational and instructional support) and the dimension of student engagement were observed in nine classrooms using the Classroom Assessment Scoring System. Self-ratings of behavioural engagement were provided by 181 Finnish secondary school students along with their teachers’ ratings of classroom-level student engagement. The results showed, first, that there was variation in both classroom quality and student behavioural engagement between the classrooms. Second, classroom organisational support was associated with observed and with teacher- and student-rated engagement, and instructional support was associated with student-rated and observed engagement. Third, emotional support did not have a direct effect on student engagement but contributed to student engagement indirectly via organisational and instructional support. There were no gender differences with respect to self-reported engagement. Class size had a positive effect on teacher-rated engagement. The results demonstrated specific associations between the domains of classroom quality and student behavioural engagement in secondary school classrooms.     

Variation in children's classroom engagement throughout a day in preschool: Relations to classroom and child factors

This study examined sources of variability in preschool children's positive and negative engagement with teachers, peers, and tasks, and how that variability was related to both classroom activity settings (e.g., teacher-structured time, outdoor time, transitions) and child factors (age, gender). Participants were 283 socioeconomically and linguistically diverse children drawn from 84 classrooms, 34–63 months old (M = 50.8, SD = 6.5). Each child's engagement was observed and rated multiple times within a single day. Results suggested that children's engagement varied significantly across the preschool day. Activity settings that provided children with a greater degree of choice (free choice and outdoor time) were associated with more positive engagement with peers and tasks, while teacher-structured activities were associated with more positive engagement with teachers. Transitions emerged as a difficult part of the day, associated with less positive engagement with teachers and tasks. Older children were rated higher on peer and task engagement. These findings, together with previous research, suggest that both characteristics of the classroom setting and child factors are associated with children's classroom engagement throughout a day in preschool.     

Assessing Quality in Toddler Classrooms Using the CLASS-Toddler and the ITERS-R

Many very young children attend early care and education programs, but current information about the quality of center-based care for toddlers is scarce. Using 2 observation instruments, the Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale–Revised (ITERS-R) and the Classroom Assessment Scoring System, Toddler Version (CLASS-Toddler), 93 child care classrooms for toddlers across the state of North Carolina, representing a range of quality, were assessed to determine overall quality, and associations between observed quality and teachers' ratings of child behavior problems and competence outcomes using the Brief Infant Toddler Social Emotional Assessment. Research Findings: Findings indicated that overall, toddler classrooms were rated as being of moderate quality. Associations between observed quality and teacher-reported child behavior problems and competence outcomes indicated that CLASS-Toddler ratings were positively associated with fewer behavior problems; specifically, children in classrooms with higher levels on the CLASS-Toddler domains of Emotional and Behavioral Support as well as Engaged Support for Learning were reported to have fewer behavior problems. Similarly, the ITERS-R subscales of Interaction and Listening and Talking were positively related to fewer reported behavior problems. Regression models showed that the CLASS-Toddler Emotional and Behavioral Support domain predicted differences in child behavior problems. Practice or Policy: Findings suggest the need for additional research related to very young children's experiences in center-based child care to examine associations between quality and child experiences and outcomes. Children's experiences over time need to be examined to understand how these early child care experiences are related to children's later school adjustment and performance. On a related note, professional development for teachers in toddler classrooms needs to be addressed in terms of preparing effective teachers for young children during the toddler developmental period.     

Classroom Context and Years of Teaching Experience as Predictors of Misalignment on Ratings of Preschoolers’ Classroom Engagement

Research Findings: This study investigated the relationship between features of the classroom environment and misalignment between teacher and observer ratings of preschoolers’ classroom engagement and the extent to which years of teaching experience moderated this relationship. In a sample of 116 preschoolers and 21 teachers in 29 classrooms, classroom engagement was assessed using teacher report and independent direct observation. Classroom-level predictors included severity of challenging behaviors, child:adult ratio, and the percentage of students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. Lower misalignment was noted on ratings of negative engagement than positive engagement. Multilevel regression analyses revealed that misalignment was largely independent of variation in classroom factors, except for a consistent interaction between years of teaching experience and child:adult ratio. Specifically, observers’ ratings were less misaligned with novice teachers’ ratings than veterans’ in classrooms with a high child:adult ratio, whereas the opposite trend was found in classrooms with low child:adult ratios. Practice or Policy: Findings are discussed in light of current best practice calling for a multidisciplinary approach when conducting assessments on young children, despite little guidance on how to handle misalignment between raters when determining service eligibility and developing effective interventions.     

“What do you do in child care?” children’s perceptions of high and low quality classrooms

Children’s perceptions of their child care experiences in classrooms that varied in quality were explored in this study. One hundred twenty-two children were observed and interviewed about their likes and dislikes in 4 high and 4 low quality classrooms. Children verbalized an accurate understanding of procedures, events, and activities, but their responses differed by classroom quality. Children in low quality centers listed activities as rigidly sequenced events, whereas children in high quality centers highlighted notable events and numerous choices. Play was the favorite activity of all children in all classrooms. Mean behaviors, circle time, and nap time were primary dislikes that did not vary with classroom quality. Children in both types of environments offered many more positive than negative perspectives, revealing an optimistic outlook that transcended the quality of the setting. Results are discussed with regard to the contributions of children’s understandings to the complex issues of child care quality.     

Within and beyond the classroom door: assessing quality in child care centers

This study reports data from a multisite study of typical center-based child care and children’s development regarding (a) associations among quality of care defined by structural features, process indicators, and compliance with state regulations, (b) variation in quality based on the stringency of state child care regulations and center compliance, and (c) specific quality indicators that show especially strong links to children’s experiences in child care. Findings confirmed prior evidence regarding the importance of ratios, teacher training, and group size for high quality classroom processes, but demonstrated the more significant contribution of teacher wages and parent fees. Both structural and process measures of quality varied with the location of the center in a state with more or less stringent child care regulations. The results indicate the importance of incorporating economic and regulatory considerations into future studies of childcare quality.     

Exploring patterns in time children spend in a variety of child care activities: associations with environmental quality,ethnicity, and gender

In order to build from previous research examining children’s activities and interaction in child care programs, the current study explored whether children’s experiences in child care programs were associated with individual (ethnicity, gender, age) and classroom (environmental quality) characteristics. Using cluster analysis with a randomly selected sample of the participants (n=1,052), groups were developed to represent differences in how children divided their time among a set of activities and interactions. These initial groupings were then validated using the second half of the sample (n=1,142). The resulting clusters identified six patterns in how children spent their time: creative, language arts, didactic, gross motor, high-level adult involvement, and individualized adult interactions. Multinomial logit analysis indicated that individual (ethnicity, gender) and classroom (environmental quality) characteristics were related to how children spent their time but that patterns of associations among the variables for children aged 10–36 months were different from patterns of associations seen among children 37 months and older. The results suggest that researchers need to further explore the ways that ethnicity and gender shape children’s experiences in child care programs.