How do great daycares emotionally support kids?
A key component of quality child care programs is the emotional and developmentally age appropriate support they provide to children. Emotional support can be challenging for parents to assess. It’s the sort of thing you know when you see but it’s hard to put your figure on what is in the ‘secret sauce.’
At its most basic level, emotional support includes a warm and open rapport, absence of harsh criticism and yelling, and calm redirection when acting out occurs. For babies, emotional support will include being held and talked to in a calming way. For preschoolers, modeling behavior, promoting decision-making, and providing support during times of trouble..
A high-quality child care program will avoid some red flags that show an absence of emotional support. These include yelling, criticism, ignoring, belittling, and sarcasm. Evidence of any of the behaviors on the part of teachers should be an indication to you that the program does not meet basic standards for caring for children in a supportive and open manner.
How do great daycares academically support kids?
Another key component of quality for child care programs is the extent to which they foster an environment of learning. Academic support is of particular importance as kids age and near the time when they’ll enter school. But academic support can and should be demonstrated by child care programs in their youngest classrooms as well.
Parents can tell if programs are strong in academic support by understanding the curriculum used, knowing the education of the teachers, and seeing how 3- and 4-year-olds kids are prepared for elementary school.
A good curriculum should be one that is approved by the state’s Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS) if the state has one. Approved curricula will likely include a variety of different approaches to supporting children’s academic development but all should be developmentally appropriate.
Child care programs with strong academic support will likely have more highly educated teachers. These teachers have specialized training in early childhood development. Sometimes they will have training in the specific approach used at the child care. For example, Montessori preschools have teachers have to complete certification in that approach.
Finally, child care programs that are strong in academically supporting kids will have an established approach for making sure that their preschool-aged kids are ready for kindergarten. They should be able to tell you what they do to get older kids ready for school. Some child care programs will assess kids to ensure that they are on track to start school. These programs will likely work with parents to address and areas of concern to ensure their kids are ready to learn once they start kindergarten.