Child Minders Research Articles

The Prevention of Non-traumatic Home Accidents Among Children Aged 0-6 Year

Introduction:Home accidents are a general problem of societies and most of them are preventable. The aim of this study is to investigate the factors affecting the non-traumatic household and the prevention of accidents in the 0-6 age group. Materials and Methods: We evaluated 335 non-traumatic home accident cases between January 2018-December 2019. The data were collected through a questionnaire developed in the light of the literature. In this form, questions were asked about the characteristics of the children and their families and how the home accident happened. Results: Home accident occurred more frequently in boys. The most common type of home accident was taking medication (45.8%), followed by corrosive substance ingestion (28%), foreign body ingestion and aspiration (26.2%). Most of the cause of home accident was due to family reasons (neglect/inattention). There was a positive correlation between the level of education of parents and home accidents. Neglect/inattention-related home accident increased significantly with the increase in maternal age, the rate of non-working parents and the low level of education of the parents (p<0.001). Conclusions: As a result of our study, we found that the majority of home accidents were not due to the neglect and inattention of the parents. We think that almost all home accidents can be prevented by education. In order to prevent home accidents in children 0-6 years of age, families and child minders should be educated about the developmental characteristics of children, home accidents risk factors, home accidents safety measures and home environments.

Teaching as a new mission: Swedish preschool teachers’ collegial discussions

ABSTRACT This article explores how preschool teachers, over time, collectively manage teaching as a new part of their mission. The study’s empirical data consist of two related but temporally separated sets of data containing collegial discussions among preschool teachers; talks during a development process and group interviews with the same preschool teachers six months later. Through a theory-driven analysis, using the theoretical concept of teacher agency, different ways of achieving teacher agency are brought into light. When tensions appear, the preschool teachers achieve teacher agency by using professional core values in order to make adjustments, additions or changes to school policy. These professional core values consist of for example, sensitivity to the interests and needs of children, the ambition to perform a pedagogical practice for the greater good of children and the professional tradition of preschool teachers and child minders working together in teams.

Points from the SENCo‐Forum

Points from the SENCo‐Forum

Spring in London with Covid-19: a personal view.

This is a personal view from London as the Covid-19 pandemic continues to spread here and the situation changes from day to day. As such it can only be a snapshot caught in time; it is not a diary of events. The Coronavirus Act 2020 gives Government enormous powers and was passed by Parliament in one day of debate immediately before it closed early for the Easter break. In March, the government imposed a "lockdown: the closure of all" but "essential" businesses and people other than essential workers must work from home but are allowed out for exercise and food shopping but must maintain 2 m apart, the "social distancing rule". The aim is to suppress the spread of the virus, reduce the death toll and "protect the National Health Service (NHS)" which needed time to empty wards and expand its intensive care unit (ICU) capability to deal with an expected influx of thousands of very sick patients. I discuss whether this strategy is working, how and why it has rapidly been altered to respond to criticism. Why was the Government so slow to seek the help of private laboratories to assist with testing? Why was the personal protective equipment (PPE) guidance altered only after criticism? I look at the impact of the lockdown on the UK economy, the changes to practice of medicine and speeding of scientific research. Cooperating with the lockdown has its price; is it harming the health and mental health of children, people living in households with potentially abusive partners or parents and those who are disabled or financially desperate? Is the cure worse than the disease? The Economy is being devastated by the lockdown and each day of lockdown it is worse. Is litigation being seeded even now by the pandemic? Notwithstanding unprecedented Government financial help many businesses are on the edge of collapse, people will lose their jobs and pensioners income. The winners include pharmacies, supermarkets, online food retailers, Amazon, online apps, providers of video games, services, streaming and scientific research laboratories, manufacturers of testing kits, ventilators, hand sanitisers, coffins, undertakers, etc. The British public is cooperating with lockdown but are we less productive at home? Parents with babies and children often child minders, school, grandparents or paid help which is not now available. Will current reliance on video-conferencing and video calls permanently change the way we work and will we need smaller city offices? Will we travel less? Will medical and legal practice and civil and criminal trials be generally carried out remotely? Will social distancing with self-isolation and job losses and business failures fuel depression? Is Covid-19 comparable to past epidemics like the Plague and Spanish flu?

Gender responsive multidisciplinary doctoral training program: the Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA) experience

ABSTRACTDoctoral training has increasingly become the requirement for faculty in institutions of higher learning in Africa. Africa, however, still lacks sufficient capacity to conduct research, with just 1.4% of all published research authored by African researchers. Similarly, women in Sub-Saharan Africa only constitute 30% of the continent’s researchers, and correspondingly publish little research. Challenging these gendered inequities requires a gender responsive doctoral program that caters for women’s gender roles that likely affect their enrollment in, and completion of, doctoral programs. In this article, we describe a public and population health multidisciplinary doctoral training program – CARTA and its approach to supporting women. This has resulted in women’s enrollment in the program equaling men’s and similar throughput rates. CARTA has achieved this by meeting women’s practical needs around childbearing and childrearing and we argue that this has produced some outcomes that challenge gender norms, such as fathers being child minders in support of their wives and creating visible female role models.

Is it still a real treat? Adults' treat provision to children

Consumption of high-energy foods in the absence of hunger has been identified as a key target to address in the area of obesity. For children, such foods are often provided by adults as treats. There is limited understating of adults' treat giving. The present study aimed to understand adults' provision of treats to children on the Island of Ireland. A total of 1039 participants, including parents, grandparents, child minders and education practitioners completed a face-to-face survey in their home. Participants defined their treats for children primarily as ‘something nice’, ‘deserved/earned’ and ‘something special’. The top three motivations for treat foods provision were ‘to reward for good behaviour’ (42.3%), ‘because the child(ren) ask’ (42.2%) and ‘to make the child(ren) feel better’ (29.4%). Almost all participants would provide treat foods at celebrations and 52.5% always did so. In addition, 68% participants had structured weekly and/or daily treat for children. Treats provided to children were dominated by energy-dense foods. The top three were sweets, chocolates and ice-creams, being used by 45.2%, 45.1% and 38.8% participants. Variations were observed across different adult groups, in terms of their treat giving behaviour. The main observation was that adults' treat foods provision has become habitual. The findings can help develop targeted strategies to encourage the reduction or replacement of food treats for children.

The professional actuation of pedagogical documentation in Belgian and Finnish early childhood education settings

ABSTRACTThe advantage of pedagogical documentation has been widely documented in the field of early childhood education and care (ECEC). However, little research points out how and why professionals are using pedagogical documentation from the staff’s perspective itself. Therefore, this research aimed to examine how pedagogical documentation is employed in their professional practice. The data for this descriptive qualitative study were collected by interviewing 56 ECEC professionals (heads of organizations, teachers and child minders) after their informed consent. Three purposes in using pedagogical documentation were detected: 1/ to demonstrate facts and growth, 2/ to provoke further thinking; 3/ to facilitate adult–child interaction and interaction among adults. These uses were directed at children, parents, professionals, the neighbourhood, and the interactions across these groups. The results show that staff uses pedagogical documentation in multiple ways, but not often as a tool for professional development. This yields future perspectives to support reflective professional development.

Risks for upper respiratory infections in infants during their first months in day care included environmental and child-related factors.

We examined the frequency and potential risk factors for respiratory infections, diarrhoea and absences in infants during their first months in day care. This prospective cohort study comprised 269 Danish infants aged eight months to 14months and was part of a study that examined how probiotics affected absences from day care due to respiratory and gastrointestinal infections. The risk factors examined were the household, child characteristics and type of day care facility. Parents registered upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs), lower respiratory tract infections (LRTIs), diarrhoea and day care absences on web-based questionnaires. Over a mean of 5.6months in day care, 36% and 20% of the infants had at least one URTI or LRTI, and 60% had diarrhoeal episodes. The risk of at least one URTI was increased by previous respiratory infections, with an odds ratio (OR) of 2.65, but was inversely associated with having a pet (OR: 0.43), being cared for by registered child minders compared to day care centres (OR: 0.36), birthweight (OR 0.40) and age at day care enrolment (OR: 0.64). No significant risk factors for LRTIs and diarrhoea were found. Infection risks were associated with environmental factors and factors related to the child.

In the Middle of a Family Story

The article focuses on paid child care work/commodification of child care in informal labor market and aims to understand meaning of this commodification for child minders and work relation; place of emotions in work, features transferred from familial relations and their impacts; and influence of private sphere as a working place. This study is based on in-depth interviews conducted with 19 child minders in the capital city of Turkey, Ankara. Results displayed that in Turkey, due to lack of any formal regulations targeting the paid child care work, ambiguity that surrounds frame of the work increases the tension. Both child minders and mothers refrain from considering their connection with each other as employee and employer. Hence, they are inclined to think and behave via family terms. Unavailability of any kind of formal mechanism to bring standardization of definition of tasks, of wages, and of working relation causes a formless area. However, there are informally defined and adopted principles functioning in the field. Furthermore, because of fictive kinship relation and emotional component in the work, risk of exploitation is high. And despite inequality between mothers and child minders, both of the actors have their own negotiation power.

Emploi des mères et recours à un mode de garde payant : le rôle de la proximité des services de garde d’enfants et de leur coût - un exemple à partir de données luxembourgeoises

Labour Market Participation and Use of Paid Child Care : Evidence from Luxembourg on the Role of Proximity and Cost of Child Care Services. We analyse the role of the proximity and cost of child care services in mothers’employment and child care use. We take into account the full range of child care services (nurseries and child minders), their proximity to the family home and their potential cost. Ourmain results showthat the local availability of services does not influencemothers’participation in the labour market or their use of paid child care. But when child care services located beyond a given distance (estimated in the paper) are disregarded, availability has a positive effect on the use of paid child care, while remaining without effect on labour market participation.

Le travail émotionnel des professionnelles de la petite enfance.

Whether simple domestic tasks are a highlight or the opposite, a drudge, the day-to-day work of early years practitioners rouses little interest. This exploratory study was carried out in two day nurseries with seven child minders and focuses on these everyday activities to show their complexity and issues they raise too. Caught between the demands of a service relationship and the invisibility of care work, these practitioners find suppressing their emotions a real challenge. They perform an intensely emotional job, all the more trying since they cannot talk about it or discuss it. This heavy emotional burden can manifest itself in health problems. Making everyday professional actions visible therefore throws into question the recognition of these professions and the creation of less discriminatory social relationships.

Początki mowy u małych dzieci w koncepcjach rzymskich intelektualistów, Augustyna i Jana Chryzostoma

The paper is a preliminary outline of the history of views on the teaching of speech to children in ancient thinkers, especially Aristotle, Romans from the times of Republic and Empire, as well as the Church Fathers, especially Western, inclu­ding Augustine in order to determine what John Chrysostom wrote and said on that subject. All the above-mentioned were not really interested in teaching speech to infants and children but in the physiology of this phenomenon (especially Aristotle) and creating the most favorable environment for the shaping of speech through the selection of nannies and child minders. There were no attempts, as Augustine aptly wrote, to teach speech consciously; it was the child himself that had to associate the sound with its material, meaningful background through ob­servations and repeating experiences. What is more, both moral philosophers and Church Fathers described in a friendly manner (also Chrysostom) talking to chil­dren using a special, childlike language since it pleased and still pleases adults, although spoils the way children speak. The Classic Antiquity, which took care about the proper speech and promoted (like Church Fathers) rhetoric in everyday life and science, forgot about the basics, the process of creating speech, which re­sulted from depreciation of the first stage of children’s life, condemned to contacts with slaves – nannies. It was only the school age that stirred up stronger emo­tions but, as some moral philosophers wrote, children already had speech defects, among others, because of parental consent for the language deprivation.

Trajectories in teacher education: Recognising prior learning in practice

This article analyses the trajectories into teacher education of a group of child minders who are studying to become pre-school teachers. The specific focus is what impact their prior experiences and learning from pre-school have on their trajectories, and how these experiences and learning are recognised in the first year of teacher education. A situated learning perspective is applied, with a focus on participation and trajectories in the two communities of practice in which teacher education is situated – the university and the pre-school. The data consist of transcribed interviews with ten student teachers, and additional data are gathered from stakeholders in the program. The results show that prior experiences and learning are given implicit and indirect recognition. In the practice of the pre-school, the trajectory means a shift in identity, from child minder to student teacher and pre-school teacher. In the practice of the university, prior experiences and learning help students in their trajectories from peripheral to fuller participation.

Acceptability of evidence-based neonatal care practices in rural Uganda – implications for programming

BackgroundAlthough evidence-based interventions to reach the Millennium Development Goals for Maternal and Neonatal mortality reduction exist, they have not yet been operationalised and scaled up in Sub-Saharan African cultural and health systems. A key concern is whether these internationally recommended practices are acceptable and will be demanded by the target community. We explored the acceptability of these interventions in two rural districts of Uganda.MethodsWe conducted 10 focus group discussions consisting of mothers, fathers, grand parents and child minders (older children who take care of other children). We also did 10 key informant interviews with health workers and traditional birth attendants.ResultsMost maternal and newborn recommended practices are acceptable to both the community and to health service providers. However, health system and community barriers were prevalent and will need to be overcome for better neonatal outcomes. Pregnant women did not comprehend the importance of attending antenatal care early or more than once unless they felt ill. Women prefer to deliver in health facilities but most do not do so because they cannot afford the cost of drugs and supplies which are demanded in a situation of poverty and limited male support. Postnatal care is non-existent. For the newborn, delayed bathing and putting nothing on the umbilical cord were neither acceptable to parents nor to health providers, requiring negotiation of alternative practices.ConclusionThe recommended maternal-newborn practices are generally acceptable to the community and health service providers, but often are not practiced due to health systems and community barriers. Communities associate the need for antenatal care attendance with feeling ill, and postnatal care is non-existent in this region. Health promotion programs to improve newborn care must prioritize postnatal care, and take into account the local socio-cultural situation and health systems barriers including the financial burden. Male involvement and promotion of waiting shelters at selected health units should be considered in order to increase access to supervised deliveries. Scale-up of the evidence based practices for maternal-neonatal health in Sub-Saharan Africa should follow rapid appraisal and adaptation of intervention packages to address the local health system and socio-cultural situation.

Los negros y los cuidados en las familias de Brasil: una visión histórica e iconográfica

The present article offers a consideration of the social history in the art of caring. Considered in the long run the study allows us to assess certain facts performed by Brazilian women as first 'child minders'. Evidence comes by means of some photographs used as principal data and from which a cultural and a great interest about care constitutes a faithful debate and is clearly observed. Outcomes indicate that Brazilian historiography on nursing and its main characters: 'nurses', have considered as nursing performances those practices of black women regarding their 'child minding' white families' children for generations up to the XX century. Practices considered effective among Brazilian culture and society, which continue up to the time being in small towns with limited health sources.

Health status of children aged under two years cared for in day-care centres and the home environment in Ibadan, Nigeria

Background: As a result of the increasing numbers of Nigerian women in the labour force and also the gradual disintegration of the extended family system, a demand for alternative means of caring for children is being created. Day-care as an alternative source of childcare has now become a necessity rather than an option. Objectives: To assess and compare the health status of two groups of children under two years old cared for in two different rearing environments, home environment and day-care centres. Methods: A descriptive comparative study design was used. Two groups of children from comparable low socio-economic backgrounds were recruited into the study. Using simple random sampling, 91 under two-year old children attending day-care centres in a middle-high density area of Ibadan and 91 under two-year old children cared for in the home environment in a settlement in the junior staff quarters of the University of Ibadan were enrolled in the study. Anthropometric data, immunisation status and morbidity patterns for various childhood illnesses were obtained for children in both groups in the study. Results: Statistically insignificant higher percentages of children cared for in the day-care centres were underweight and wasted, while significantly more children cared for at home were stunted {Relative risk RR=1.46, (95% Confidence Limit CL = 1.10-1.93), p=0.018}. Except for measles immunisation coverage which was lower in the day-care group, there was comparability in the immunisation status of children in both groups. Day-care attendance was found to be a significant risk factor associated with the occurrence of diarrhoea (RR=1.74, (95% CL =1.34-2.26), p=0.0016) and upper respiratory tract infections (RR=2.31, (95% CL = 1.62-3.30), p=0.0000004) in these children. Measles occurred only in children attending day-care centres and there was an outbreak during the study period. Conclusions: Given the higher risk of infections among children cared for in day-care centres, strategies should be put in place to train the child minders and ensure regular supervision of the Keywords: day-care, home environment, health status immunisation status, morbidity pattern, under two-year old childJournal of Community Medicine and Primary Health Care 2005, 17(1): 33-37

The music in Swedish preschools

This article is a field investigation of the musical memories of preschool teachers and child minders, their experiences and interest in working with music in preschools. It is part of a larger international research project at Mälardalens University, Sweden. The original component of analysis is adults' memories of play. (Sandberg, 2001.) Participants also interpreted their own musical memories and defined music. Under the umbrella entity, WRP (Women's Researchers in Play and Disability) participating project partners were from the USA, Brazil, South Korea, Taiwan and Sweden. Participants reported their memories using an instruction sheet, a drawing sheet and a questionnaire.

THE WAGES OF TRUST

In this paper it is argued that the assumptions of the neoclassical and wage efficiency models do not adequately explain the governance structure of employment relationships. Trust may be a constituent element of at least some employment relationships, e.g. those of child minders. According to the tradition of research in social science, trust is established by gifts. It is argued that in employment relationships in which both employer and employee have a gain and damage potential, gifts will be used to establish a trust relationship. This argument helps to produce new hypotheses about wages and allocation in employment relationships. The model is elaborated for the employment relationships of child minders. It is shown that it is not only job and human capital characteristics that determine wages, but also the financial resources of the parents (or employers). In addition, more personal means of exchange are used to establish trust relationships. It is concluded that the trust argument helps to explain different governance structures in employment relationships.

Child minders or professional child care worker? Perceptions of family day care providers

This paper examines Australian family day care providers’ perceptions of three areas of critical concern to the child care industry: attitudes concerning the personal qualities and skills which are considered important for working with children, attitudes relating to the concept of quality care and attitudes regarding the professional status of their role. The findings of the survey indicated that family day care providers possessed a good understanding of their role in relation to what constitutes quality care and the qualities and skills which contribute to quality care. The majority of providers perceived the role in professional terms although the need for broader understanding of some professional aspects of the role was evidenced.

Use of pre‐school daycare and education 1979–86

SUMMARY. Using General Household Survey data, this paper considers attendance by children under five at public and private services providing non‐parental daycare and education in 1986 and compares it with 1979. Attendance of children under five rose from 32 per cent in 1979 to 42 per cent in 1986. The services included are primary schools, nursery schools and classes, playgroups, day nurseries and child minders. Playgroups are most used for two and three year olds and schools for four year olds with the majority of children attending on apart time basis. Children from higher social class backgrounds are more likely to receive care and/or education with 50 per cent of such children using pre‐school services, as compared to 3 7 per cent of children with fathers in manual occupations