We collaborated with Early Head Start (EHS) coaches to qualitatively explore the feasibility delivering a professional development approach designed to enhance the quality of conversations in infant-toddler (I/T) classrooms and family child care homes. First, we reviewed empirical literature about oral language discourse skills in infants and…

This paper explored the challenges to the infant care profession in Hong Kong crèches, with an aim to contribute to the existing early childhood care literature for reference and comparison elsewhere. A questionnaire survey was conducted with 55 childcare workers and 12 supervisors, followed by interviews with some selected participants to examine…

Home-visit parenting programmes have been linked to positive developmental outcomes among participating children, yet few studies have explored the mechanisms behind this impact. We observe 40 home visits across seven countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, using an observational tool to assess visit content, coaching strategy, and the…

A pioneer in the infant/family field in the United States, Magda Gerber was the founding director of Resources for Infant Educarers (RIE), known for its unique two-generation approach to the care and education of young children. This paper offers a summary of Gerber's teachings from the late twentieth century with citations pointing to their…

Content analysis of a large-scale (N = 920) qualitative data set with MAXQDA12 from a nationwide questionnaire of nursery practitioners in Hungary was able to demonstrate various types of rules during free play: social, health and safety, and environment-related rules. Environment-related rules, which govern space utilisation in toddler groups,…

This study aimed to explore family day care (FDC) educators' knowledge of child social and emotional wellbeing and mental health problems, the strategies used to promote children's wellbeing, and barriers and opportunities for promoting children's social and emotional wellbeing. Thirteen FDC educators participated in individual semi-structured…

This study examined effects of professional development for child-care staff on language acquisition of children ages 14-36 months. Child-care staff from 44 child-care centres agreed to participate in the study. Child-care staff from one-half of the child-care centres were randomly assigned to a one-time, four-hour workshop followed by three…

While there has been extensive research exploring quality in childcare programs for children older than three years, less attention has been directed to the nature of infants' experiences in centre-based childcare programs. In this study, six childcare workers and six centre directors located in centre-based childcare programs in metropolitan…

This study carries forward the exploration of joint attention engagement in children from 18 to 24 months of age enrolled in "low-quality" childcare centers. Childcare providers and children were videotaped to capture social interactions in the classroom including duration and bids for joint attention. One-half of 48 childcare providers…

Considers the value of formal education and child-related training for preparing high-quality child caregivers, arguing that a combination of the two provides the best preparation. Maintains that education affects caregivers' interactions with children, further supplemented by child-related training. Offers suggestions for caregiver training…

Surveyed in-home child caregivers and employers about their child care environments. Found that the caregivers were mostly young, well-educated, hard-working, committed; typically, they showed child-related coursework in high school and were poorly compensated. Parents employing the caregivers were relatively affluent and satisfied with in-home…

Examined associations among infant caregivers' training and the quality of care they provide. Found through observation and rating of 50 Caucasian female caregivers that as infant caregiver training levels increased, so did mean scores on some dimensions of quality, such as personal care routines and learning activities. (EV)

Observed 81 caregivers from 24 urban centers interacting with 3- to 5-year olds. Interactions were categorized into negative/positive, language facilitation, concept promotion, and caregiving and cleaning-up domains. When all positive teacher interactions were combined, found that early childhood education/child development coursework accounted…

Argues that continuous training is important for improving the quality of day-care provision. Social learning theory is used to examine David A. Kolb's experiential learning model as an approach to training day-care providers. Concludes that attention must also be given to the creation of conditions under which experiential learning can be…

Used focus group discussions to determine child care providers' opinions about the content of training necessary for providing quality care and providers' beliefs about the level of training and education required for child care workers. Examined findings in terms of providers' perceptions of professional worth and the design of educational and…