SOCIAL COMPETENCE IN FAMILY CHILD CARE SETTINGS

DESCRIPTION (provided by investigator): The quality or experiences in child care has significant, lasting impact on children's social development and early efforts are essential for preventing the progression of conduct problems in youth. The purpose of this proposed project is to develop a video-based training program and manual for family child care providers in strategies for facilitating children's social development and proactive approaches for managing children's behavior. With the growing number of young children being served in child care settings, particularly family child care, it is imperative that the care provide a quality environment which nurtures children's social development. Currently there is a lack of resources on this topic that specifically target family child care providers. In phase one, we propose to develop the training module on Environmental Arrangements for Facilitating Social Development. We will develop an instructional videotape that illustrates concepts with vignettes demonstrating examples and non-examples of children and caregivers in family child care settings. The manual will provide the caregiver with a summary of concepts demonstrated on the videotape, plus handouts to provide to parents as well as worksheets and activities for the children. In phase one we will evaluate the effectiveness of the training module delivered in a workshop format on the child care environment and on caregiver practices in a small randomized treatment-control design. In phase two we plan to develop modules on behavior management and evaluate their effectiveness on a larger sample. The result could be a cost-effective method of reducing behavior problems and guiding a great number of children towards healthy development.