Promoting Social Competence in Family Child Care Setting

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The quality of experiences in child care has significant, lasting impact on children's social development. With the growing number of young children being served in family child care settings, it is imperative that the care provides a quality environment that nurtures children's social development. The purpose of this project is to develop a video-based training program and manual for family child care providers in strategies for facilitating children's social development, proactive approaches for managing children's behavior, and functional support plans for dealing with problem behavior. Resources on these topics that specifically target family child care are lacking. In Phase I, we developed the first training module on Setting up to Support Social Development. Most caregivers found the training useful. Positive trends were found in the organization and enrichment of the child care environment for the intervention group. For Phase II, we propose to develop two more training modules: (a) Proactive Approaches for Managing Children's Behavior, and (b) Understanding and Dealing with Problem Behavior. We will evaluate the effectiveness of all three training workshops on the child care environment, caregiver practices, and children's behavior in a randomized treatment-control design. The result could be a cost-effective method of reducing behavior problems and guiding many children towards healthy development.