Conversations on day care programming

This article presents segments of a number of conversations between Georgia McMurray (above, right), former Commissioner of the Agency for Child Development of the Human Resources Administration of the City of New York, currently serving as Chairperson of the Alliance for Children, and Deborah Diamond (above, left), formerly of Teachers College, Columbia University, and the Teaching Resource Center of the City University of New York's Graduate Center, currently Director of CHROMA/SPECTRUM Instructional Products, Ltd. The highlights presented here are from their initial discussions concerning the need for a position paper on day care...the state of the art, and actual directions in the field at the grass roots level.     

A parent-teacher conference: Interpreting Margaret Mahler

Dr. Margaret A. Mahler is a leading child psychiatrist whose theory of the psychologica birth of the human being has been influential for many years. According to Mahler, the physical birth of the infant does not coincide with the psychological birth.William Ayers is the Educational Director of BJ's Kids Day Care Community in New York City.     

Family day care: State of the art

While public emphasis in the past was on the development of center-based child care, many working parents today remain reluctant to put their infants and preschoolers into formal day care settings. Since the majority of these parents cannot afford to have full-time sitters come into their homes, neighborhood homes have sprung up in which someoneprefers to stay at home to care for the children of others, who can then go out to work. Thus, the growth of family day care.Mary Clurman is Program Coordinator for Apple Pie Family Day Care, Essex County, NJ, and Employee Child Care Consultant to Muhlenberg Hospital, Plainfield, NJ.     

Personnel interviewing for quality child care

Child care directors' interest in hiring well-qualified staff has increased as issues related to insurance and liability, media-hyped occurrences of child abuse in day care, and quality of child care in general have become of greater concern. Thus, many directors are seeking and developing thorough and innovative methods for interviewing prospective employees (Leak, 1982; Neugebauer, 1982; Sciarra and Dorsey, 1990).Jan Allen is Associate Professor, and Carol Catron Director, Campus Child Care Programs, Department of Child and Family Studies, College of Human Ecology, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN.     

Menus for toddlers in day care: Part IV

This is the last part of a four-part series of articles that provide a total of four weeks' worth of menus for toddlers. In the first installment (Fall 1978) will be found the basic recipes for preparing Milk Plus, TVP, and Fruit Juice, as well as a general introduction to the format of these menus. Todd R. Risley is Professor of Human Development and Director of the Living Environments Group at the University of Kansas. Emily Herbert-Jackson managed the nutrition research project described here in her capacity as Research Associate in the Bureau of Child Research at the University of Kansas. She is now associated with Children's Behavioral Services, Reno, Nevada. Marion O'Brien is a writer for the Living Environments Group and has served as consultant to the toddler center in which the research was conducted. The authors wish especially to thank Kathy Erwin for her contribution to the development of these menus, as well as all the staff and children at the toddler center. The research described here was supported in large part by grant MC-R-200347 from the Office of Maternal and Child Health to the Bureau of Child Research and the Department of Human Development at the University of Kansas. The toddler day care program is fully described in the bookThe Toddler Center: A Practical Guide to Day Care for One- and Two-Year-Olds, by Marion O'Brien, Jan Porterfield, Emily Herbert-Jackson, and Todd R. Risley (Baltimore: University Park Press, 1978).     

Nontraditional sites for learning about children

Students of early childhood need extensive experience to comprehend children's interpersonal interaction styles, expressions of curiosity, and dawning understandings, as well as to understand family and teacher support of, or interference with, the growth of cognitive competence, self-esteem, cooperation, and other prosocial interactions. Alice Sterling Honig teaches at Syracuse University in the Department of Child and Family Studies, College for Human Development, in Syracuse, NY. She is an editorial board member of Day Care & Early Education.     

Single mothers in a parent group

At theX Day Care Center, in a New York City suburb, there was a group of single mothers, some separated from their husbands, others never married, who were confused and who were unsure about what they had to offer their children without a husband and father. In some cases this resulted in the mothers' general low self-regard and defensive attitudes, misperceptions, and unavailability to the communications about the children that customarily took place between the day care staff members and the mothers.Kenneth Schwarz is a Psychologist in Pound Ridge, NY     

A Guide for Parent Workshops: Parents as Teachers

Conclusion Parents want to help their young-ster learn and grow and, if offered the means to acquire the necessary knowledge and skills, will assume this responsibility. It is hoped that through the suggestions, source lists, and examples provided here, educators will be stimulated to explore the development of parent workshop programs. This article is based on a series of workshops the author designed and initiated for parents at the Whitney Young Jr. Day Care Center on Staten Island, New York, in the spring of 1977. Edith Barnes is Assistant Professor of Behavioral Sciences at the College of Staten Island, City University of New York, 715 Ocean Terrace, Staten Island, New York 10301. She is a member of the New York City Higher Education Task Force for the International Year of the Child and Chairperson of the Staten Island IYC Committee. She is also a member of the HEW Advisory Committee of Staten Island Children's Community Mental Health Center, member of the Center Policy Committee of Staten Island Head Start, and Founder and Past President of the Staten Island Nursery Directors' Organization (SIND).     

Family child care in four Midwestern states: Multiple measures of quality and relations to outcomes by licensed status and subsidy program participation

Quality of family child care in four Midwestern states was examined using four measures designed to assess structural and/or process quality to determine if dimensions converge or vary across types of family child care (licensed and license-exempt/registered) and subsidy receipt (programs serving children whose care is paid by subsidies and programs not serving subsidized children). Two instruments designed specifically for use with family child care that measure both structural and process quality were used (Family Day Care Rating Scale and Quality Instrument for Informal Child Care), as well as one instrument measuring process quality (Caregiver Interaction Scale) and one instrument measuring structural quality (Midwest Child Care Assets Index). The two instruments designed to measure both structural and process quality in family child care were highly correlated with each other, while both of these were moderately correlated with the measure of process quality. The measure of structural quality was not significantly correlated with the measure of process quality. Licensed family child care homes scored higher than license-exempt/registered family child care homes on three of the four measures (all but the Caregiver Interaction Scale), and family child care homes receiving child care subsidies scored lower than those not receiving subsidies on three of the four measures (all but the Assets Index).     

The good preschool teacher

Randa Roen Nachbar taught young children in New York City for many years. She is the editor of Day Care and Early Educationand is an advocate for children and early education professionals.     

Helping parents work and raise children

Working parents and day care are here to stay. By 1990, the United States will have an estimated 24.3 million children under six years of age, a 36% increase from 1979. At least 10.5 million of these children will be members of two wage-earner or single working-parent families, a 63% increase since 1979 (Edelman, 1981). Furthermore, by the year 2000 the typical family will have two wage earners (Menninger, 1981).Elizabeth M. Goetz is director of the Edna A. Hill Child Development Laboratory. Ann Turnbull is acting Associate Director of the Bureau of Child Research. They are both professors at the University of Kansas in Lawrence. Marion O'Brien is acting Director of the Infant Development Study Center at the University of Kansas in Lawrence.     

Green beans: Gardening with two's

The nearby neighborhood garden project provided an almost daily trip for our group of two-year-olds. There we discovered limitless opportunities for learning. Gardening provided a sense of continuity that is hard to achieve with young ones.Karen Hack is the Early Childhood Special Education Teacher of the two's group at the Infant Care Center. Virginia Flynn was the Administrative Supervisor of the Infant Care Center and is currently Assistant Education Director of the Infant Health and Development Program, The New York League for Early Learning, Inc.     

The Impact of a Holistic Conditional Cash Transfer Program in New York City on Parental Financial Investment,Student Time Use,and Educational Processes and Outcomes

ABSTRACT

This article examines the impacts of Opportunity New York City–Family Rewards, the first holistic conditional cash transfer (CCT) program evaluated in the United States, on parental financial investments in children, and high school students' academic time use, motivations and self-beliefs, and achievement outcomes. Family Rewards, launched by the Center for Economic Opportunity in the Mayor's Office of the City of New York in 2007 and codesigned and evaluated by MDRC, offered cash assistance to low-income families conditioned on family investments in three areas: children's education, family preventive health care, and parents' employment. Results that rely on a random assignment design find that Family Rewards resulted in statistically significant increases in parental spending and saving on education for all students, and increased savings for those students most academically prepared at baseline and for girls, as well as statistically significant increases in academic time use and achievement outcomes for these same academically prepared students. There were no impacts on student motivations and self-beliefs. Implications are discussed for conditional cash transfer programs as well as for interventions targeting high-risk children and families.     

Day care and the public schools: Profiles of five communities Part IV—South Carolina

This article is the last in a series of four adapted from James A. Levine'sDay Care and the Public Schools: Profiles of Five Communities. The first three articles examined the debate over public school prime sponsorship and presented the history and development of programs in Austin, Texas; Atlanta, Georgia; Brookline, Massachusetts; and Oakland, California. In this issue, Mr. Levine focuses on two systems of public school-affiliated family day care in South Carolina, and presents his conclusions and personal view of prospects for the future. The complete report is available as a book from the Education Development Center (EDC) Distribution Center, 39 Chapel Street, Newton, Massachusetts 02160 ($5 prepaid).     

Models of supervision in early childhood programs: Implications for training

Many child care directors inherit their role of supervisor without having had adequate training or experience. Given the wide disparity in the field with respect to staff preparation, child care directors, in their role as supervisors, are called on to develop, train, evaluate, and appraise child care workers on a daily basis. The literature in the field suggests that there are common threads among supervisory models in early childhood and that directors of child care programs can benefit from in-service training that specifically addresses their supervisory functions. “The most difficult part of my job as Director is trying to get my staff to change certain practices.” Director, Church Preschool Program “I don't feel comfortable with my role as evaluator; I guess I don't like telling people they're doing something wrong.” Director, Day Care Center     

Longitudinal effects of quality preschool programs

Conclusion Commitment to excellence in quality preschool education plus reach-out programs that help families enhance the learning careers of their children can ensure true TLC for every child born in America — Tender Loving Care in Total Learning Centers.Alice Sterling Honing teaches at Syracuse University in the Department of Child and Family Studies, College for Human Development, in Syracuse, NY. She is an editorial board member ofDay Care & Early Education.This research review is based on testimony presented May 1988 to Senator Ted Kennedy, Chair, United States Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources on behalf of Senator Chiles's Early Intervention and Dropout Prevention Act of 1988, Bill S2034.     

Can Quality of Family Day Care Provision in England Be Assessed Accurately Using the Family Day Care Rating Scale? A report on reliability

The Family Day Care Rating Scale (FDCRS; Harms & Clifford, 1989) was developed in the USA. The scale attempts to define quality in family day care for pre‐schoolers and to provide a standardised way of assessing it. The FDCRS has been shown to have good reliability and validity in the USA and Canada. However, the rating scale has never been used to assess quality of family day care in the UK. This paper describes data collected from 104 family day care providers (childminders) in England using the FDCRS. It reports on the internal consistency of the FDCRS subscales and the validity of aggregating the subscales to derive one single measure of quality. Analyses suggest that the scale may provide a useful global measure of quality. However, not all subscales yielded good internal consistency. Recommendations are made as to how the FDCRS could be modified for effective use as a research tool in England.     

Menus for toddlers in Day Care: Part I

In this and the next three issues of Day Care and Early Education,we will provide a total of four weeks' worth of menus for toddlers. Some findings of the Living Environments Group at the University of Kansas were described in the last issue (“Facts and Fancies about Children's Foods,” by Marion O'Brien). This installment's introductory section explains how the menus were developed and how the recipes can be used. Additional advice and information will be included with the future sections. Tood R. Risley is Professor of Human Development and Director of the Living Environments Group at the University of Kansas. Emily Herbert-Jackson managed the nutrition research project described here in her capacity as Research Associate in the Bureau of Child Research at the University of Kansas. She is now associated with Children's Behavioral Services, Reno, Nevada. Marion O'Brien is a writer for the Living Environments Group. The authors wish especially to thank Kathy Erwin for her contribution to the development of these menus, as well as all the staff and children at the Toddler Center.     

Safe touch: Reassurances for child care workers

Early childhood educators are aware of the important role touching plays in child development, nurturance, and guidance. But with attention increasingly focused on child sexual abuse in day care, we need to reexamine our behaviors and the role of touching in child care.Jan Allen is Assistant Professor of Child and Family Studies at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. This article has been adapted from a series of workshops presented to the Minneapolis Child Care Workers Alliance in 1983. The author expresses appreciation to Margaret Boyer, Minneapolis Child Care Resource Center-Southside, for suggesting the need for such workshops.     

Menus for toddlers in dau care: Part II

This is the second part of a fourpart series of articles that provide a total of four weeks' worth of menus for toddlers. In the first installment (Fall 1978) will be found the Basic Recipes for preparing Milk Plus, TVP, and Fruit Juice, as well as a general introduction to the format of these menus. Emily Herbert-Jackson managed the nutrition research project described here in her capacity as Research Associate in the Bureau of Child Research at the University of Kansas. She is now associated with Children's Behavioral Services, Reno, Nevada. Marion O'Brien is a writer for the Living Environments Group and has served as consultant to the toddler center in which the research was conducted. The authors wish especially to thank Kathy Erwin for her contribution to the development of these menus, as well as all the staff and children at the toddler center. The research described here was supported in large part by grant MC-R-200347 from the Office of Maternal and Child Health to the Bureau of Child Research and the Department of Human Development at the University of Kansas. The toddler day care program is fully deseribed in the bookThe Toddler Center: A Practical Guide to Day Care for One-and Two-Year-Olds, by Marion O'Brien, Jan Porterfield, Emily Herbert-Jackson, and Todd R. Risley (Baltimore: University Park Press, 1978).