Toddler Child Care Research Articles

Access to Formal Childcare for Toddlers and Parental Employment and Earnings

Access to Formal Childcare for Toddlers and Parental Employment and Earnings

Family experiences of engagement in inclusive childcare programs for toddlers

Previous research has explored family engagement experiences and practices in childcare programs. The purpose of this study was to explore family members’ experiences related to their engagement in decision-making processes across various inclusive, toddler childcare programs. Five early educators and eight parents participated in the study. Four parents had a child with a diagnosed disability or developmental delays, were at-risk for developmental delays, and/or received speech, occupational, or physical therapy. Eligible early educators participating in the study taught toddlers (18 to 30 months) in a private, faith-based, or university childcare program. A semi-structured interview style was used to collect family participant responses. The early educators’ inclusive practice indicator rubric scores previously collected from the larger grant funded project were used to triangulate data. Through a phenomenological qualitative design, this study gained a better understanding of families’ decision-making experiences, facilitators and barriers that may impact family engagement, and opportunities early educators have provided or not provided to encourage family engagement in inclusive, toddler childcare programs.

A Study of Factors Influencing the Demand for Infant and Toddler Childcare Services in Wuhan Based on Regression Analysis

Faced with the surge in demand for childcare services brought about by social and economic development, it is urgent to improve the infant and toddler childcare service system. However, there are large differences between domestic and foreign related studies, and domestic studies mostly stay at the macro level or qualitative description of the problem, lacking in-depth analysis of specific demand factors. This study uses literature analysis, questionnaire survey, interview, textual analysis and quantitative analysis to explore the current situation, influencing factors and development countermeasures of the demand for infant and toddler care services in Wuhan from a micro perspective, aiming to enrich the theoretical results of the demand for infant and toddler care services in China.

Confirmatory factor analysis of the infant feeding styles questionnaire in infant and toddler child care teachers

Early childhood is a critical time of development. Caregiver feeding style, including of child care providers, has been implicated in influencing children's food preferences and obesity. A better understanding of the determinants of child care providers' feeding styles is important as children increasingly receive daily care and nutrition in child care centers. Valid instruments to measure provider feeding styles specifically for infants are needed. This study's objective was to validate, for use with child care providers, the Infant Feeding Styles Questionnaire (IFSQ), an instrument originally designed for parents of infants and toddlers. Study data came from the Baby Nutrition and Physical Activity Self-Assessment for Child Care (Baby NAP SACC) study, a cluster randomized trial, designed to evaluate the efficacy of a six-month-long obesity prevention intervention in child care centers. The IFSQ was administered at baseline and follow-up to infant and toddler teacher participants (n = 244). Scores for baseline IFSQ teacher responses (n = 219) were calculated for the 13 sub-constructs across the five feeding styles. We tested reliability with Cronbach's alpha coefficients and performed confirmatory factor analysis to examine factor loadings and goodness of fit characteristics, modifying constructs to achieve best fit. Reliability coefficients ranged from 0.42 to 0.82 for all sub-constructs. Goodness of fit indices for the final model ranged from: root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) 0.000–0.082; comparative fit index (CFI) 0.943–1.000; Tucker–Lewis index (TLI) 0.906–1.000; and standardized root mean squared error (SRMR) 0.006–0.130. In a sample of racially diverse infant and toddler child care teachers, final models of the laissez-faire, pressuring, and responsive constructs and the restrictive-diet quality sub-construct performed well. Overall model fit was poor for the indulgence construct, but good for solely its corresponding belief items.

Technology to Facilitate Progress Monitoring of Infant–Toddler Growth and Development: Measuring Implementation in Community-Based Agencies

Despite evidence that frequent progress monitoring to identify children at-risk of delays and inform early intervention services improves child outcomes, this practice is rare in infant–toddler settings where children could benefit the most from early intervention. Using a descriptive research design within an Implementation Science framework, we evaluated how 10 community-based infant–toddler agencies implemented a standardized progress monitoring assessment using a web application to monitor children’s growth and identify children at-risk for delay. An Implementation Index was developed to quantify implementation progress for each agency, which included their percent of tasks completed, and rate of task implementation over time. Staff turnover and high staff:child ratios were associated with low implementation of progress monitoring. The Implementation Index differentiated between agencies that otherwise demonstrated similar implementation rates. Implications for supporting progress monitoring and other evidence-based practices in community-based infant–toddler childcare settings are discussed.

Understanding the Perceptions, Practices, and Barriers of Physical Activity Opportunities in Toddler Classroom: A Qualitative Study in Toddler Childcare Providers

Understanding the Perceptions, Practices, and Barriers of Physical Activity Opportunities in Toddler Classroom: A Qualitative Study in Toddler Childcare Providers

Moving to The Beats: The Effect of Dance Education on Early Self-Regulation

Self-regulation in children is an important thing that needs to be prepared from an early age. Besides affecting children's school readiness, this also makes it easier for children to have good academic achievements. This study aims to determine the influence of moving to the beat of early childhood self-regulation. This research was conducted on kindergarten group B students in East Jakarta. The research method used is a quasi-experiment method with a sample of 20 students. The data collection technique uses observations by analysing paired t-test statistical data. The results of the study explained that there was a significant effect of moving to the beat of early childhood self-regulation. The significance level is 0.000 < 0.05, which means that H0 is rejected and H1 is accepted, this indicates a significant difference between the pre-test and post-test. For further research, it is recommended to look at the influence of other factors on early childhood self-regulation.
 Keywords: Beats, Early childhood, Moving, Self-Regulation

Child Care and Early Education for Infants and Toddlers

Child Care and Early Education for Infants and Toddlers

STUDI HUKUM ISLAM TENTANG PENGANGKATAN ANAK (ADOPSI) DI UNIT PELAKSANA TEKNIS PERLINDUNGAN DAN PELAYANAN SOSIAL ASUHAN BALITA KOTA SIDOARJO

Implementation of Adoption in the Technical Implementation Unit for the Protection and Social Service of Sidoarjo City Toddler Child Care goes through 9 stages: prospective adoptive parents make an application letter for adoption of a child and written who the prospective adopted child is, filing the adoption administration filing stage, the adoption eligibility test stage with the holding of home visit I, submission of prospective adopted children to Prospective Adoptive Parents, the second step of the feasibility test of adoptive parents, the Recommendation Phase of the Social Service, the consideration phase by KEMENSOS in the PIPA Team session, certificate of granting permission for adoption of the child, finally the court's decision to determine the Court. The rights of children in the Technical Implementation Unit for the Protection and Social Services of Sidoarjo City Toddler Child Care have fulfilled the provisions contained in articles 4 through article 18 of Law Number 23 Year 2002 concerning Child Protection. In Islamic law, adoption of a child may not break the text between the child and his biological parents because it will have legal consequences for the child in terms of inheritance and marriage. In inheritance, adopted children are not included in the category of factors that cause someone to inherit each other, so that the adopted child has no right to inherit from his adopted father. If the adoptive parent wishes to give property to the adopted child it can be distributed by means of a grant while he is still alive or by will.

Quality of the Language-Learning Environment and Vocabulary Development in Early Childhood

ABSTRACT This study aims to enhance our knowledge of the associations between the quality of the language-learning environment in toddler childcare groups and children’s vocabulary development from age 3 to age 5. Participants were 1,131 children (48% girls; age at T1 assessment: M = 35.5 months, SD = 2.7; age at T2 assessment: M = 60.3 months, SD = 1.4) from 206 toddler groups from 93 centres. Multilevel analysis showed that the quality of the language-learning environment experienced in toddler groups was associated with verbal ability at age 5 when controlling for verbal ability at age 3 and the quality experienced in kindergarten groups at age 5. These results indicate that toddler language-learning environments characterised by responsive staff, extended talk, and facilitating conversations promote vocabulary development. The effect, albeit small in magnitude, points to the importance of a rich and varied language-learning environment during the early years. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.

Child care deserts in New York State: Prekindergarten implementation and community factors related to the capacity to care for infants and toddlers

Access to high quality child care provides a valuable support to families and communities as it both enables parental employment and provides a safe and developmentally appropriate place for children. Yet, access to child care for children under age three is uneven, with some communities experiencing child care “deserts” (Jessen-Howard et al., 2018). This paper assesses the infant and toddler child care capacity – the proportion of age-eligible children for which there are available child care slots – of communities across New York State. Using data from the NY State Education Department (670 school districts in the most recent year of available data), the NYS Office of Children and Family Services (about 18,000 registered child care providers), and the National Center for Education Statistics definitions of locale, we examine how child care capacity relates to school district and community factors over 9 years (2007–2016). Using negative binomial regression, we see overall stability in capacity for infant and toddler child care in New York State, but important variation by demographic factors and geography. Non-urban communities and communities with greater levels of student poverty have less capacity for infants and toddlers. Urban communities, communities with publicly funded prekindergarten and greater levels of minority children are associated with greater capacity. Importantly, in non-urban communities only (and especially in rural communities), we find an interaction effect that documents significantly reduced capacity for infant and toddler child care in communities also implementing public prekindergarten.

Child care, parental labor supply and tax revenue

We study the impact of child care for toddlers on the labor supply of mothers and fathers in Norway. For identification, we exploit the staggered expansion across municipalities following a large child care reform from 2002. Our IV-estimates indicate that child care causes an increase in the labor supply of cohabiting mothers who move towards full time employment. Despite this, average taxes paid on the extra income is low, lending little support to the argument that parts of the cost of child care is offset by increased taxes. Meanwhile, we find no impact for fathers.

Engaging toddlers in interactions during meals: group-related joint attention

Knowledge on how caregivers engage and interact with groups of toddlers in childcare settings is limited. Practice in toddler care is often based on individual approaches even though childcare is a group setting. This study focused on how caregivers created joint attention with toddlers in 12 groups during mealtimes. The results showed that some caregivers took the lead and engaged their groups in sustained joint attention episodes. The children in these groups seemed to be engaged in interactions that involved multiple children and had a rich variety of content. Other caregivers seemed unengaged, and their groups had few, brief interactions that mostly did not meet the criteria for joint attention. In these groups, the interactions largely consisted of rules and regulations. Keywords: Caregiver-toddler interactions, group-related joint attention, mealtimes, toddler childcare

Child Care, Parental Labor Supply and Tax Revenue

We study the impact of child care for toddlers on the labor supply of mothers and fathers in Norway. For identification, we exploit the staggered expansion across municipalities following a large reform from 2002. Our IV-estimates indicate that child care use causes an increase in the labor supply of mothers. Results suggest that cohabiting mothers move towards full time employment, while single mothers move to part time. Meanwhile, we find no impact for fathers or grandparents. We also find an increase in the taxes paid from cohabiting mothers, lending some support to the argument that parts of the cost of child care is offset by increased taxes.

Quality in Norwegian childcare for toddlers using ITERS-R

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this study was to explore the quality of toddler childcare in Norway using the Infant Toddler Environment Rating Scale-Revised Edition (ITERS-R; [Harms, Thelma, Debby Cryer, and Richard M. Clifford. 2006. Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scales Revised Edition. New York: Teachers College Press.]), drawing on a sample of 206 toddler groups. Possible associations between quality (as assessed using ITERS-R) and selected structural features in toddler classrooms were investigated. Those features are as follows: ownership, the presence of qualified teachers, the staff-to-child ratio and group organization. According to the results, Norwegian toddler care scored at the minimal level of quality. The presence of qualified teachers, high staff-to-child ratios and small and stable groups all seemed to have positively impacted quality. Detailed analyses revealed that Norwegian toddler classrooms did not fulfil the ITERS-R requirements for hygiene, safety and access to play materials. Because of the good reputation Norwegian childcare enjoys, these results were unexpected and suggest the need to enhance the quality of Norwegian toddler care.

Quality of toddler childcare – Can it be assessed with questionnaires?

ABSTRACTAlthough observational instruments are considered to be the gold standard for measuring toddler childcare quality, large-scale studies often have to rely on interviews or questionnaires. However, it remains unclear whether such reports can serve as reliable indicators for childcare quality. The present study used the ITERS and FCCERS to examine how far staff-reported and observed quality coincide in 65 centre-based and 47 family-based childcare facilities; moreover, data on 414 two-year-olds were taken from the German National Educational Panel Study to determine whether reported childcare quality predicts children’s developmental status at the age of two years. Results indicated that up to 43% of the variance in toddler childcare quality could be explained by staff-reported quality via questionnaires. But with cross-sectional analysis, children’s developmental status could not be explained sufficiently by reported quality. Results and implications for future research are discussed.

Exploring the Relationship Between Global Quality and Group Engagement in Toddler Child Care Classrooms

ABSTRACTToddlers’ engagement with their social and physical environment is an important aspect of their experience in early care and education programs. The purpose of this research study was to examine how global quality relates to children’s engagement in toddler child care classrooms. Additionally, this study explored how toddlers’ group engagement levels vary across classroom contexts, including free play, group activities, meals, transitions, and personal care routines. Thirty toddler child care classrooms participating in a statewide Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS) were observed using two observational measures. Results indicate that a strong positive relationship exists between engagement and global quality. Group engagement varied significantly by classroom context, with the highest levels of engagement documented during mealtime and free play and the lowest levels of engagement documented during transitions. The findings point to the importance of using multiple measures to understand toddler experiences in group care settings. Further, the variation of children’s engagement across classroom contexts suggests that more attention is needed in understanding and supporting teachers in increasing child engagement, especially during classroom transitions.

Providing High-Quality Support Services to Home-Based Child Care: A Conceptual Model and Literature Review

ABSTRACTResearch Findings: Home-based child care accounts for a significant proportion of nonparental child care arrangements for young children in the United States. Yet the early care and education field lacks clear models or pathways for how to improve quality in these settings. The conceptual model presented here articulates the components of high-quality support to child care providers; related factors; and hypothesized provider, family, and child outcomes. The model is based on a literature review of research on home-based child care, home visiting, early childhood mental health consultation, coaching, and family services. We hypothesize that high-quality support to home-based child care that offers relationship-based services focused on quality caregiving (individual home visiting and group supports such as training and networking) and sustainability (materials, equipment, referrals) is most likely to positively impact quality caregiving for children and families. Practice or Policy: Current federal efforts and policy initiatives to increase the supply and quality of infant–toddler child care focus on the development of systems that support home-based providers. The conceptual model of high-quality support described here will inform future program development and research on how to improve quality in home-based child care for the millions of low-income children in these settings.

Measuring the Multifaceted Nature of Infant and Toddler Care Quality

ABSTRACTResearch Findings: The quality of group care infants and toddlers experience relates to their concurrent and later development. Recent quality improvement initiatives point to the need for ecologically valid measures that assess the multifaceted nature of child care quality. In this article, we present the psychometric properties of an infant and toddler quality assessment tool, the Program for Infant and Toddler Care Program Assessment Rating Scale (PITC PARS). Descriptive data on 222 center-based classrooms and family child care programs were used to examine concurrent validity, and a subsample of 101 center-based classrooms serving infants was used to examine the factor structure of this measure. Examination of the bivariate correlations with other commonly used measures of infant and toddler child care quality provided evidence of concurrent validity. Factor analysis suggested that the PITC PARS measures 3 distinct yet related dimensions of global child care quality. Practice or Policy: The results of this study suggest that the PITC PARS can continue to be used by practitioners for self-study. Furthermore, the PITC PARS may be an effective tool in the context of policy initiatives aimed at improving the quality of infant/toddler care programs.

The Impact of Home-Based Child Care Provider Unionization on the Cost, Type, and Availability of Subsidized Child Care in Illinois

In February 2005, Illinois became the first U.S. state to grant home-based child care providers (HBCPs) the right to form a labor union in order to bargain collectively with the state government. This policy inspired similar efforts across the country and represents a potentially important direction for child care policy. To date, the implications of labor unions for the cost, type, and availability of subsidized child care have not been evaluated empirically. In this study, we examine the impact of granting Illinois HBCPs the right to form a labor union on (a) the type of child care (licensed vs. license-exempt/home-based vs. center-based) used by subsidy-receiving Illinois infants and toddlers; (b) the per-child cost of subsidized child care for infants and toddlers; and (c) the percentage of Illinois infants and toddlers who use child care subsidies. To conduct these analyses, we combine data from the Current Population Survey with Child Care and Development Fund administrative records on U.S. infants and toddlers whose families received child care subsidies during the period from 2002 to 2008. We use both a traditional difference-in-differences as well as a comparative case study with a “synthetic” control group approach. The synthetic control group approach improves on traditional comparative case studies by providing a transparent, empirical approach for constructing the counterfactual, documenting comparison units’ contribution to the synthetically created control group and detailing the degree to which the synthetic control group is, or is not, similar to the treated unit on preintervention measures of the outcome as well as on other selected characteristics. We find that subsidy-receiving Illinois infants and toddlers spent an average of between 6.4 and 7 percentage points more hours in licensed care settings, as compared to license-exempt settings, in the three years following child care unionization. We also find that between 0.7 and 1.1 percentage points fewer Illinois infants and toddlers used child care subsidies following unionization.