Childhood Health

Who's Taking Care of the Children?

Parents work. Infants, toddlers and pre-schoolers need nurturing care and developmentally appropriate early education. Research indicates that the quality of child care is the most important determining factor in young children's readiness for school. Caregivers with more education provide better quality care and are more responsive to children's needs. A comprehensive, multifaceted approach was developed to train child care providers and improve the quality of the child care environment, nurturing care and early education. The Early Childhood Institute, a daylong, conference-style training event is held annually in Columbus at the Convention and Trade Center. Twenty-six courses and trainings reached 938 child care providers for 6,747 education contact hours. Training and technical assistance consultants provided services to 40 child care facilities, reached more than 350 providers and about 1,700 children. Pre/post observations of the child's environment using nationally recognized rating scales showed quality improvement in all centers and family day care homes that were assessed. (2007)

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