Incorporating technology to foster effective communication and documentation in child care programs

Abstract

Advances in technology present multiple modes by which parents and teachers can now communicate. This article examines a new approach that a child care program adopted to document and share daily activities of individual children, including their development, while making this information accessible to the child’s parents, using a Childcare Management Software (CMS) mobile application (app). Using a mixed methods approach, data was collected from both teachers and parents through a Qualtrics (Qualtrics, Provo, UT) survey to examine how parents perceive the role of technology in communicating with early childhood teachers. Survey results revealed that the incorporation of the CMS app has become an effective communication tool to help track children’s developmental needs at the early childhood center and to communicate children’s daily activities with parents. However, the findings also indicate a need for CMS app training for teachers and parents to make efficient use of the mobile application.