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The purpose of this study was to describe the quality of toddler child care classrooms in the district of Porto, in the north of Portugal. One hundred and sixty classrooms for children between 1 and 3 years of age participated in this study. Results suggested the existence of poor average quality and absence of good-quality classrooms. Child–adult ratio was a statistically significant predictor of overall child care quality (with lower ratios associated with higher quality). The results of this study provide information on the applicability of ITERS-R to a new cultural and linguistic context, suggesting the need to enhance the quality of Portuguese programs serving toddlers.  相似文献   

3.
This study examined the joint effects of home environment and center-based child care quality on children's language, communication, and early literacy development, while also considering prior developmental level. Participants were 95 children (46 boys), assessed as toddlers (mean age = 26.33 months; Time 1) and preschoolers (mean age = 68.71 months; Time 2) and their families. At both times, children attended center-based child care classrooms in the metropolitan area of Porto, Portugal. Results from hierarchical linear models indicated that home environment and preschool quality, but not center-based toddler child care quality, were associated with children's language and literacy outcomes at Time 2. Moreover, the quality of preschool classrooms moderated the association between home environment quality and children's language and early literacy skills – but not communication skills – at Time 2, suggesting the positive cumulative effects of home environment and preschool quality. Findings further support the existence of a detrimental effect of low preschool quality on children's language and early literacy outcomes: positive associations among home environment quality and children's developmental outcomes were found to reduce substantially when children attended low-quality preschool classrooms.  相似文献   

4.
Research Findings: This study examined whether children’s outcomes at age 3 were predicted by their experiences in Early Head Start (EHS), focusing on 2 key features of infant and toddler care: (a) stability of care and (b) teacher–child interactions. This study further explored potential interaction effects between stability of care and teacher–child interactions in predicting child outcomes. Three main results were found from secondary analyses of the recently released EHS longitudinal data set the EHS Family and Child Experiences Study (Vogel & Boller, 2009–2012). First, children who had stability of care (no teacher change) were rated as having fewer behavior problems and higher social competence. Second, children were rated as demonstrating better orientation/engagement and emotional regulation when they were in EHS classrooms observed to have higher emotional and behavioral support. Third, teacher–child interactions that are emotionally and behaviorally supportive may mitigate the potential drawbacks of experiencing instability of care on early social-emotional development. Study implications are discussed. Practice or Policy: Both stability and quality teacher–child interactions are important in center-based infant and toddler care, and ensuring quality teacher–child interactions is particularly important for children who experience teacher changes during their infant and toddler years.  相似文献   

5.
Research Findings: The teacher–child relationships that develop in infant/toddler child care provide a critical caregiving context for young children’s socioemotional development. However, gaps remain in researchers’ understanding of the individual-level processes that facilitate socioemotional development, specifically in center-based child care programs. Guided by ecological theory, this article offers a review of the current literature on this topic, including influential factors and developmental outcomes associated with teacher–child interaction quality, the teacher–child relationship as a compensatory mechanism for children facing risk, and differential susceptibility to caregiving experiences. Practice or Policy: Within the context of infant/toddler child care, many opportunities exist for researchers to refine the measurement of individual teacher–child interactions, test young children’s self-regulation as an outcome variable, and develop understanding of compensatory and differential susceptibility mechanisms. Clarifying these processes will inform early childhood education teacher training in terms of how teachers can best facilitate healthy socioemotional outcomes, especially for the most vulnerable children.  相似文献   

6.
This three-phase study, part of a larger study conducted by the Midwest Child Care Research Consortium (MCCRC), investigated the characteristics of child care providers in inclusive and non-inclusive center-based classrooms and family child care homes, the observed quality of care in a subset of these programs, and families’ perceptions of quality and satisfaction with child care services. A telephone survey of 2022 randomly selected Midwestern providers, 36% of whom provided inclusive services, revealed that inclusive providers rated themselves higher on most quality-related indicators. Inclusion status was related to observed quality in family childcare homes (n = 132), with non-inclusive homes higher, while trends in the opposite direction were observed in preschool center-based classrooms (n = 112) but not in infant/toddler center-based classrooms (n = 105). Six percent of the 1325 parents surveyed reported parenting a child with a disability. These parents indicated less income, and more frequent changes in child care settings than other families, and reported the quality of their children's child care as good, particularly if center-based. Improved access to inclusive child care services and enhanced training opportunities related to serving children with disabilities and inclusion, especially for family child care providers, is recommended.  相似文献   

7.
Research Findings: This study examined the transactional nature of harsh parenting and emotion regulation across toddlerhood, including the moderating role of teacher sensitivity in child care. Secondary data analyses were conducted with a subsample of families from the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project who participated in center-based child care. Autoregressive cross-lagged path models were used to examine stability and transactional associations between observations of mothers’ harsh parenting behaviors and observers’ ratings of toddler emotion regulation at 14, 24, and 36 months. Teacher sensitivity was observed in children’s child care classrooms and was hypothesized to attenuate the negative impact of harsh parenting on subsequent emotion regulation. Results suggested that poorer emotion regulation and increased harsh parenting at 14 months were particularly salient in setting the stage for worse parent and toddler outcomes at 36 months. Teacher sensitivity was not a significant protective factor. Practice or Policy: Results are discussed in terms of the importance of early parent–toddler interactions that match the developing regulatory needs of young toddlers as well as considering how teacher sensitivity is conceptualized and measured so programs such as Early Head Start can best meet the needs of socioeconomically disadvantaged parents and toddlers.  相似文献   

8.
Child care arrangements change as children age; in general, hours in home-based child care decrease as hours in center-based settings increase. This sequence of child care type may correspond with children's developmental needs; the small peer groups and low child–adult ratios typical of home-based care may allow for more individual child–adult time for infants and toddlers, whereas the social stimulation found in center-based care during the preschool years may prepare children for kindergarten. This study examined associations between school readiness and the timing of child care type among children in NICHD's Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (N = 1349). Findings suggest that children who experience home-based care during the infant–toddler period and center care during the preschool period display the improved cognitive outcomes, but not the increased behavioral problems, generally associated with sustained center care attendance. Continuous home-based care was associated with higher social status at school entry partially through smaller peer groups during the preschool period. These patterns did not differ by child or family characteristics. Implications for policy and research are discussed.  相似文献   

9.
In recent years, there has been a significant growth of interest in ensuring that child care provision for children is of a high quality. This interest has been stimulated by research evidence according to which good quality child care has a positive influence on children’s overall development. The global quality in Greek preschool and infant/toddler classrooms was assessed with ACEI Global Guidelines Assessment (GGA), Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale-Revised (ECERS-R) and Infant Toddler Environment Rating Scale (ITERS). Our research data, confirm previous research results from Greece, and suggest that Greek child care centers provide low quality care and education. Comparisons between the tools employed revealed great similarity between the ACEI GGA and ECERS-R ratings on issues relating to environment and physical space, program evaluation, communication with families, opportunities for family and community participation, recognition of diversity, curriculum and activities, etc. On the other hand the ACEI GGA and ITERS seem to measure different aspects of process quality, as far as infant care and education are concerned. Research results indicate the need for immediate improvement and revision of the policies employed by Greek state, as far as young children’s education and care are concerned.  相似文献   

10.
An experience expectable environment in child care classrooms is one in which teachers consistently provide positive and nurturing interactions within daily routines and activities to enhance children’s learning. Growing numbers of children are being enrolled in child care at earlier ages and staying for longer periods of time each day which is heightening the need to attend to the context of child care for very young children. Several large scale studies in social policy, biology, and human development have confirmed the links between children’s early experiences and later outcomes, and recent brain research and research in child care classrooms has highlighted the importance of these consistent, responsive, and respectful patterns of interaction, especially for very young children’s development. Yet, examination of the quality of child care has indicated interactions in these classrooms that may not support optimal development and/or that could be considered harmful. Given toddlers’ need for consistent and nurturing care, coupled with the current substandard quality of care for very young children, discussing the context of child care in terms of an experience expectable environment provides a perspective to understand the context of toddler child care. This perspective underscores the connections of routines and interactions to children’s development of neural pathways, thus setting the foundation for optimizing learning and development.  相似文献   

11.
Consistency of toddler engagement across two settings   总被引:1,自引:0,他引:1  
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.  相似文献   

12.
Teachers in toddler classrooms are important agents of emotion socialization. The current study examined teachers’ use of emotion minimizing language in toddler classrooms and toddlers’ social emotional competence. Teachers’ emotion minimizing language is described as language that purposefully distances them from a child’s emotions and discourages children’s expression of their emotions. Research Findings: Results indicate a negative relationship between teachers’ emotion minimizing language and toddlers’ social emotional competence when program quality, child age, and child gender are controlled. Practice or Policy: Implications relevant to teacher preparation programs and professional development are discussed, with a primary focus on the methods by which teachers are trained to use language to respond to young children’s emotions.  相似文献   

13.
The psychometric properties of the Infant–Toddler Environment Rating Scale-Revised Edition (ITERS-R) were examined using 153 classrooms from child-care centers where resources were tied to center performance. An exploratory factor analysis revealed that the scale measures one global aspect of quality. To decrease redundancy, subsets of items were selected randomly and by experts who rated items according to ease of administration and importance to quality. The shorter subsets demonstrated good discriminant validity, adequate to good psychometric properties, and high associations to the full ITERS-R score. They also demonstrated similar associations to staff education and staff-to-child ratio, as the full instrument. The best assessment of quality was demonstrated by the shortened subset that included items that assess both structural and process features of quality. Multilevel-analyses indicated that classrooms from the same providers score more similarly on ITERS-R than classrooms from other providers. The implications for using the ITERS-R in high-stakes contexts are discussed.  相似文献   

14.
Research Findings: There is a growing need for accurate and efficient measures of classroom quality in early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings. Observational measures are costly, as their administration generally takes 3–5 hr per classroom. This article outlines the process of development and preliminary concurrent validity testing of the Assessment for Quality Improvement (AQI), a new measure of global quality. The AQI is a classroom-level measure of structural and process quality. It consists of 24 items on a 5-point scale designed for use in ECEC infant and toddler classrooms. At between 60 and 90 min per room, the AQI is a relatively efficient measure. Item response theory modeling was used to ensure logical and coherent ordering of subitems. Exploratory factor analysis supported the use of the AQI total score and the Interactions section as a stand-alone measure. Correlations between the Infant and Toddler versions of the AQI and the Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale–Revised were moderate, providing preliminary support for the concurrent validity of both versions. Practice or Policy: Our results suggest that the AQI is a promising, efficient measure of global quality in infant and toddler ECEC environments. This may be especially relevant for Quality Rating and Improvement Systems, for which the observational component is a major cost driver.  相似文献   

15.
This paper reports on the design, methodology, and results of a study of quality in 326 classrooms in 239 Canadian child care centers. This study, the largest and most extensive ever undertaken in Canada, used the Caregiver Interaction Scale (CIS) to rate the adult–child interactions in the classrooms and the Infant–Toddler Environment Rating Scale (ITERS) and the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale-Revised (ECERS-R) to measure the quality of classroom learning environments. The observed staff members completed questionnaires on wages, working conditions, and satisfaction levels, and the center directors also completed questionnaires on center operations and finances. Path analyses revealed that in the infant/toddler rooms the number of adults in the observed classroom and the education level of the observed staff member were direct predictors of quality. In addition, there were three indirect predictors: parent fees, adult:child ratio, and use of the center as a student teacher practicum site. There were five significant direct predictors in the preschool classrooms: wages, education level, number of staff in the observed room, staff satisfaction, and whether the center received free or subsidized rent or utilities. The three indirect predictors were auspice, adult:child ratio, and parent fees. The interaction of distal and proximal factors is interpreted and applied to the development and implementation of public policy initiatives that can provide much-needed improvement to the overall mediocre levels of child care quality in Canada.  相似文献   

16.
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.  相似文献   

17.
Accumulating evidence suggests children enrolled in full-time child care often display afternoon elevations of the hormone cortisol, which is an indicator of stress. Recent advances in immunoassays allow for measurement of activity in the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis and the autonomic sympathetic nervous system from saliva, and measurement of both systems provides a more complete understanding of activity in the stress response system. This study is the first to examine both cortisol and alpha-amylase in children attending child care and focuses on the influences of specific indicators of classroom process quality. A diverse sample of 63 preschool children nested in 14 classrooms of varying quality participated in this study; child salivary cortisol and alpha-amylase were collected at six times over 2 days. Results indicate that children in classrooms with higher Emotional Support displayed a greater decline in cortisol from morning to afternoon. Further, children in classrooms with higher Emotional Support exhibited lower total alpha-amylase output while attending child care. Implications for professional development for early childhood teachers and measurement of classroom quality are discussed.  相似文献   

18.
The purposes of this study were to present a conceptual model for selection into the early childhood profession and to test the model using contemporaneous assessments. A stratified random sample of center-based child care providers in 4 Midwestern states (n = 964) participated in a telephone interview, and 223 were also assessed with the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale—Revised or the Infant–Toddler Environment Rating Scale to rate global observed quality, and the Caregiver Interaction Scale to rate interactional quality. When the model was tested with infant–toddler and preschool teachers combined, having a Child Development Associate (CDA) predicted global observed quality, education years and child development coursework predicted compensation, and compensation predicted observed quality. When the model was tested separately for infant–toddler teachers, years of education and child development coursework predicted compensation, but none of the education variables predicted observed quality and compensation did not predict observed quality. For preschool teachers, years of education predicted compensation and having a CDA predicted observed quality, but compensation did not predict observed quality. For all of the models, only motivations for child care work predicted intention to stay in the profession. No variables in the structural equation models predicted interactional quality.  相似文献   

19.
Research Findings: A statewide study of preschool classroom quality was conducted using 3 distinct classroom observation measures in order to inform a statewide quality rating system. Findings suggested that Tennessee preschool classrooms were approaching “good” quality on the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale–Revised (ECERS-R) and provided a mid-to-high emotional and engaging climate as indicated by the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) domains of Emotional Support and Student Engagement. However, classrooms were only minimal on the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale–Extension and the CLASS Instructional Support domain. Past performance on a state quality rating assessment consistently predicted the current quality of preschool classrooms as assessed by all 3 measures. Lead teachers' education in early childhood and experience were also predictors across quality measures. Practice or Policy: Tennessee preschool classrooms scored higher on the ECERS-R, which is the measure utilized in the statewide Quality Rating and Improvement System. However, classrooms generally performed poorly on measures of instructional support and curriculum. This finding illuminates the importance of the tool selected to measure quality in state quality rating and improvement systems and has implications for policy as states work to build systems that enhance quality in early care and education.  相似文献   

20.
How quality of center-based child care relates to early cognitive and language development was examined longitudinally from 6 to 36 months of age in a sample of 89 African American children. Both structural and process measures of quality of child care were collected through observation of the infant classroom. Results indicated that higher quality child care was related to higher measures of cognitive development (Bayley Scales of Infant Development), language development (Sequenced Inventory of Communication Development), and communication skills (Communication and Symbolic Behavior Scales) across time, even after adjusting for selected child and family characteristics. In addition, classrooms that met professional recommendations regarding child:adult ratios tended to have children with better language skills. Classrooms that met recommendations regarding teacher education tended to have girls with better cognitive and receptive language skills. These findings, in conjunction with the growing child-care literature, provide further evidence that researchers and policymakers should strive to improve the quality of child care to enhance early development of such vulnerable children.  相似文献   

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