Naptime is designed to allow children to physically rest and emotionally unwind. It is a time of day where the "care" in child care really comes into play. But the reality is that naptime in a child care center is often a part of the daily schedule that children and staff both dread. This article presents some tips for planning and implementing a…

Research Findings: This in-depth single case study explores the experiences of a single father with finding and maintaining child care for his son. This American middle-income, Caucasian father lives and works in Minnesota. Findings include difficulty locating and maintaining child care, dissatisfaction with child care quality, concerns about…

Little research has been conducted on the effectiveness of training strategies for child care providers. The current study used an experimental intent-to-treat design to measure the impact of an established intervention, the on-site caregiver training component of the Program for Infant/Toddler Care (PITC), on child development and child care…

This article explores the practice narratives of a group of 25 caregivers who work with babies in daycare settings in England and seeks to illustrate awareness of, resistance to and compliance with powerful discourses. It is argued that multiple voices exert an influence over baby room practice, disempowering the caregivers and reducing their…

Using the Early Childhood Program Participation Survey of the 2001 National Household Education Surveys Program, this study analyzes the use, desire, and type of non-parental care among Latinos in the United States. These nationally representative data indicate that when controlled for child and household characteristics, Latinos and non-Latino…

Transition practices that ensure continuity between early childhood settings have been shown to be important in assisting children's short-term and long-term growth and development (Vogler, Cravello & Woodhead, 2008). In Western Australia many young children move from and between long day care (LDC) settings to kindergarten. In that state,…

To better understand and promote healthy nutritional behaviour development in children, research suggests the need to develop a stronger comprehension of influences from their social environment. Yet research has favoured studying parents, with little attention being paid to other important individuals in children's lives, especially from a…

Each week, nearly 11 million children under age 5 are in some type of child care setting for an average of 35 hours. Parents, as consumers of child care, equate a child care license with state approval--a gold seal for those businesses to which a state grants a license. Child Care Aware® of America reviews state licensing policies, which include…

Purpose/Objectives: This study identifies issues associated with creating and maintaining a wellness environment in child care centers (CCCs) participating in the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP). Methods: Structured interviews and focus groups were conducted with CCC professionals and state agency personnel to develop a survey to assess…

The current study extends a recent workforce development programme evaluation and examines the relationship between ongoing success in the three-year programme and participants' educational attainment, professional activities and several employment factors. Three hundred and twenty-seven teaching staff and 92 directors from 99 child care centres…

Recent research (Te One, 2009) investigated perceptions of children's rights in a New Zealand early childhood care and education service (the Creche) for under-two-year-olds. Focus group interviews, interviews with teachers, observational field notes, photographs and a researcher's journal were used to generate data. Findings revealed that…

Using multiple years of data collected from about 100 child care centers in Palm Beach County, Florida, the authors studied whether the Quality Improvement System (QIS) made a significant impact on quality of child care centers. Based on a pre- and postresearch design spanning a period of 13 months, QIS appeared to be effective in improving…

In the intervening years, the question of whether corporations should be in the child care business has been answered. Employers no longer question whether providing child care support for employees is a good idea; the key question now is whether they can afford it. This article reports that research for the employer child care status report finds…

Immediately after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, the author and her partner made a decision to rebuild their child care center as two apartments. However, the city of New Orleans would only approve the location for one dwelling with a child care center. This article describes the author's experiences in rebuilding Gilda's Academy, her child…

Having worked in the early childhood field for over three decades, the author has seen a lot of changes: The supply of child care services has increased ten-fold and the public respect for early childhood services has risen nearly as much. Despite these changes, certain challenges for these field have not been successfully addressed: Compensation…