Date of Award
2003
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Programs for Higher Education
Advisor
Barbara Christina
Committee Member
Barbara Packer
Keywords
age-specific training, caregiver skills, caregivers, child care, child-care, classroom rating scales, data analysis, directors, employee training, family child care, health and safety, infant development, infant/toddler caregivers, infant/toddler development, infants, knowledge enhancement, newsletters, out-of-home child care, professional development, quality of care, resource agency, staff training, toddler development, toddlers, training, training materials
Abstract
This applied dissertation was written to study the skills and abilities of infant/toddler caregivers in out-of-home child care settings within a local 10-county area. Child-care settings have demonstrated low quality of care for these very young children. The training materials that were used locally with new employees in child-care did not include age-specific information regarding the development of children less than three years of age. The resource agency did not include sufficient information regarding infants and toddlers in their materials.
The writer developed new materials to be included in the new employee training sessions specifically for caregivers of children under three years of age. This information targeted health and safety information as well as information regarding the development of infants and toddlers. Directors were encouraged to send staff very early in their employment to these training sessions to enhance their knowledge and skills. Newsletter articles were also created and distributed throughout the area in order to advocate for appropriate practices in child-care.
An analysis of the data collected through this project indicated that staff who attended these age-specific training sessions increased their knowledge of infant/toddler development. The training sessions were the most successful activities of this project. The writer also conducted rating scales in several classrooms to determine if caregivers made changes in practice. Although the scores did not show significant changes, there was some increase in the scores upon completion of the project.