1. Inquiry 1

Session 1: Communicating Effectively

Session 1: The Importance of Child Care Providers

 

Inquiry 1: Personal Qualities of a Child Care Provider

 

Why Become a Child Care Provider?

 

Your participation in this course suggests that you are interested in finding out more about children’s early learning. You might even be interested in a career working with children.

 

Following are two common reasons why people want to work with children:

 

Child care providers enjoy working with children.


Child care providers want to make a difference to children and families by providing quality care. Quality care helps children learn and contributes to the quality of family life by supporting parents and parent-child relationships.

From GESTWICKI/BERTRAND. Essentials of Early Childhood Education: 2nd Edition. © 2003 Nelson Education Ltd. Reproduced by permission. <www.cengage.com/permissions>;

 

Qualities of Child Care Providers

 

Most early learning and child care practitioners see the following qualities as the most important qualities in child care providers:

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© Katya Monakhova/iStockphoto

  • patience and understanding
  • respect for children
  • ability to communicate
  • knowledge of child development

The following qualities are also important:

  • commitment to learning and self-discovery
  • confidence
  • independent and flexible thinking
  • empathy
  • gentleness, sincerity, sensitivity, and thoughtfulness
  • sense of humour

From ESSA/YOUNG. Introduction To Early Childhood Education. © 2003 Nelson Education Ltd. Reproduced by permission. <www.cengage.com/permissions>;

 

empathy: the ability to identify with children, parents, and other team members


 

Ethical Conduct

 

Every day as a child care provider, you will make choices about your interactions with children and their families. Each of your choices must be guided by ethical conduct. Ethical conduct recognizes that children deserve your best practices on a daily basis. Child care providers aim to provide the best care possible for children.

 

Ethical conduct and best practices for working with children are guided by the following core values:

  • Appreciate that each child is unique and that care in the early years is an important influence on a child’s development.
  • Encourage programs to include children with diverse abilities.
  • Support the relationship between the child and the family.
  • Understand that children are best understood in the context of family, culture, and society.
  • Respect the dignity and self-worth of each child and the child’s family.
  • Encourage programs to include children with diverse backgrounds and understandings.
  • Help children develop to their full potential based on interactions that encourage trust, respect, self-confidence, and esteem.

When working with children and their families, you should further the values of quality child care. You should commit to the following:

  • Ensure that your intentions are based on appropriate knowledge of children’s development.
  • Create positive partnerships with the families involved.
  • Encourage involvement of families and, in doing so, build upon their strengths in the nurturing of the child.
  • Respect the diversity of the family in their core cultural values.
  • Acknowledge the family’s values in childrearing and respect the family’s right to make decisions that affect their children.
  • Communicate the development of the child to the family.
  • Support the parents and/or guardians in their skills of being a parent.
  • Commit to lifelong learning and professional development.

National Association for the Education of Young Children, 2005.

 

Course Completion Checklist

 

Have you remembered to update your Course Completion Checklist? If you haven’t already started to use the checklist, access it in the Toolkit now. Remember to update the checklist every time you work on the course.