Day Care Pro

DayCarePro.com was created to provide childcare providers with professional support similar to that of teachers and other child-related professions. There are dozens of benefits to using DayCarePro.com. It can be used every day by childcare providers throughout their professional careers. Each section, tool, and resource of DayCarePro.com has specific ways and times childcare providers can use them.

The DayCarePro.com Biting Management System © should be used by childcare providers immediately after a child bites at childcare. Biting is a common occurrence among children between the ages of 14 months and 3 years. It happens in all settings, such as childcare, preschool, and even at home. It is important to point out that when a child bites someone at childcare it is not the childcare provider or teacher’s fault. Children have bitten others since the beginning of time and will continue to do so until the end of time. It is a normal part of growing up and happens for many reasons.

When children bite someone while at childcare, it is a serious problem. Parents often become upset or angry. They at times blame childcare providers for the biting, stating they should watch the children more closely so the children cannot bite others. The truth is, children can bite someone even under close adult supervision. Another problem that arises from childhood biting is the spread of biting. Once a child has been bitten, they too learn to bite. Because of this, a child who has been bitten may in turn bite another child. In this way, biting is “contagious”. Once there is more than one child biting at a childcare, it becomes quite difficult for a childcare provider to get the children to stop biting. Things become even worse when a child is bruised, has broken skin, or is in some way injured as a result of being bitten. When this happens, parents become angry and can make things difficult for the childcare provider. It is not uncommon for parents to remove their children from the childcare as a result of biting incidents.

Because child biting is a common but serious problem across childcare settings, DayCarePro.com developed a comprehensive system to help childcare providers take control of biting situations. The DayCarePro.com Biting Management System © provides a comprehensive approach to managing child biting incidents in childcare settings while at the same time satisfying parents’ wishes surrounding the biting incident and their child’s safety. The DayCarePro.com Biting Management System © gives childcare providers a process to take care of biting incidents, starting with the first time a child bites through eliminating the biting.

Biting Documentation Forms © should be completed immediately after a biting incident occurs. It is important for childcare providers to document biting incidents for their legal and professional protection, as well as to report information to parents. The forms provide a fast and comprehensive way for childcare providers to document biting incidents. The documentation forms use objective language and checkboxes to allow childcare providers to do unbiased documenting. The forms make it easy to share information about biting incidents with parents, physicians, psychologists, childcare licensing staff, and other professionals. Childcare providers should keep a copy of completed DayCarePro.com Biting Documentation Forms © for their permanent records.

This handout should be given to parents of children involved in biting incidents immediately after the biting occurs. The parent handout provides easy to understand information about child biting behavior. The informative handout puts parents at ease and makes childcare providers look professional and in control of the situation.

This workbook examines over 22 factors related to a child’s biting. When completed, the workbook is used as a plan / intervention to stop a child from biting. Childcare providers and parents should complete the workbook together, as a team. It is not the childcare provider’s sole responsibility to stop a child from biting. There are several reasons for this.

· Even though parents are not with their child at childcare, they can do a lot to help their child stop biting at childcare by working with their child at home. Because of this, is important for parents to work with the childcare provider to end their child’s biting.

· A child who bites others at childcare often times bites people at home or in other settings. Because of this, it is important for parents to know what to do in order to stop their child from biting while the child is not at childcare. If parents do not stop their child from biting when the child is not at childcare, it makes if very difficult for the childcare provider to stop the child from biting when he or she is at childcare.

When completing the Biting Analysis and Intervention Workbook ©, childcare providers and parents can use the DayCarePro.com Biting Intervention and Idea Bank © to get plans, interventions, and ideas they can use to complete the workbook.

The Biting Intervention and Idea Bank © is used to help childcare providers and parents complete the Biting Analysis and Intervention Workbook ©. It has dozens of ideas and interventions that childcare providers and parents can use to help a child stop biting. For ease of use, the interventions and ideas are organized by category to match the Biting Analysis and Intervention Workbook ©. Childcare providers and parents simply select the ideas and interventions they want to use to stop a child from biting, print them, and then, write them down in the Biting Analysis and Intervention Workbook ©. When the workbook is completed, it is the plan that is used to stop the child from biting.

Sometimes the childcare provider is able to help the child improve her behavior, sometimes the child’s behavior improves on its own, and sometimes the child’s behavior takes a long, long time to improve or never improves.

Childcare providers may go to the child’s parents for help getting the child’s behavior under control. Sometimes the parents are able to do things to improve their child’s behavior. But, this is often not the case. Many times parents say they do not have the same problem at home with their child, suggesting that the child’s problematic behavior at childcare is the childcare provider’s fault or responsibility to “fix”. Other times parents say they will work on their child’s behavior at home. But, the parents either do not know what to do to improve their child’s behavior, or they do things to improve their child’s behavior that may help at home but makes the child’s behavior worse at childcare. DayCarePro.com can help.

DayCarePro.com has Child Behavior Improvement Programs © designed to increase positive, healthy behaviors in children and at the same time cause undesirable behaviors to go away. DayCarePro.com Child Behavior Improvement Programs © are designed by psychologist Thomas Wolfe, PhD. The programs use research-based behavioral technology that is proven to increase desirable behaviors while reducing problematic behavior in children, if used correctly. There are many Child Behavior Improvement Programs © to choose from. Each program focuses on a single desirable (good) behavior that children learn to perform in place of an undesirable or problematic behavior. By helping children increase desirable behaviors that replace unwanted behaviors, children stop engaging in undesirable or problematic behaviors.

Note: If a childcare provider hired a psychologist to develop similar behavior improvement programs to use in her childcare, it would cost thousands of dollars. However, through DayCarePro.com, childcare providers are able to access child behavior improvement programs for pennies!

DayCarePro.com Child Behavior Improvement Programs © use positive, reinforcing strategies to improve children’s behavior. The behavior programs never use negative or harmful methods to reduce undesirable behaviors in children. By focusing on increasing positive behaviors, children feel good about themselves as they improve their behavior. This way, children never get yelled at, scolded, or punished from adults as a way of trying to improve the child’s behavior.

Children’s brains are still developing. Because of this, the part of their brains (the frontal lobe) that automatically remind them to do new behaviors does not work as well as it will in a few years. As a result, children under the age of five need constant reminders to do things that adults want them to do. By giving children coloring sheets and reward charts to complete, children receive constant reminders to do the desired behavior without needing to be reminded or nagged by adults.

Children love to color DayCarePro.com behavior improvement coloring sheets. When they have finished, children are proud of their work and want to show everyone around them what they have done. Coloring sheets can be hung up at the childcare and at the child’s home. Not only does the child feel proud and receive recognition, having the picture hung up serves as a constant reminder to the child that he should perform the desired behavior.

When childcare providers need to talk to parents about difficulty their child is having at childcare, it can be very stressful. However, a childcare provider can turn the situation into a positive experience for everyone involved, and at the same time gain respect and trust from the parents. This is a time for leadership and professionalism on behalf of the childcare provider. The childcare provider should tell the parents about her concerns without blaming the child or parents for the child’s behavioral difficulties. The childcare provider can then tell the parents not to worry because she knows how to improve the situation. The childcare provider can tell the parents she subscribes to DayCarePro.com and uses their Child Behavior Improvement Programs ©, which is a positive way of teaching children healthy behaviors to replace the behavior that is causing the child trouble.

Since childcare providers can give parents access to the DayCarePro.com Parent Section, parents are able to use the Child Behavior Improvement Program © at home. DayCarePro.com recommends parents to do this for several reasons:

3) By using the DayCarePro.com Child Behavior Improvement Program ©, the parents and childcare provider will be using the same approach to help the child and will not unintentionally do things to hurt each others efforts and the child’s progress.

4) Getting the parents involved in helping their child will help them become better parents (no matter how good they already are) and will strengthen their bond with their child as well as the childcare provider.

Sometimes parents may be concerned that their child will “stand out” or “appear bad” to others if they are using one of the DayCarePro.com Behavior Improvement Programs ©. There are several ways to handle this type of situation.

1) One way to handle the situation is for the childcare provider to tell the parents that having their child use a behavior improvement program is nothing to worry about. It is not a big deal. Many children use such programs.

2) A second way for the childcare provider to handle the situation is to use the Child Behavior Improvement Program © on all of the children at childcare. In this way, the program is used as a theme throughout the childcare and no single child stands out. This is a great way to handle things because many of the children at the childcare may benefit from the Behavior Improvement Program ©!

Childcare providers usually have to write their own childcare contracts. This can be difficult because childcare contracts need to cover many things, such as: legal issues, policies that childcare providers intend to use, childcare rates, payment due dates, late fees, what to do in case of emergencies, issues pertaining to sick children, snow days, sick days, vacation days, and much more.

It is very difficult to write a childcare contract that is: professional, thorough, protects childcare providers from legal problems and from being taken advantage of by parents, but at the same time is easy to read and perceived as being fair by parents.

DayCarePro.com has a contract that childcare providers can reference when writing or modifying their own contracts. Our contract covers 29 important areas of childcare. Even experienced childcare providers can learn something from the DayCarePro.com Childcare Contract ©. Since the DayCarepro.com contract is made available to members as a Microsoft Word document, childcare providers can save the contract as a Microsoft Word document on their computers. They can then modify it as needed and use it as their own childcare contract, or copy and paste parts of it in to their existing contracts.

DayCarePro.com has also made a Childcare Contract Cover Letter © available. The cover letter should be given to parents when the childcare provider and parents meet to go over the contract. The cover letter is important and serves two purposes:

First, it allows the childcare provider to give the parents a bit of personal information about herself, such as family history, professional training, work history, etc. This is a nice way for childcare providers to let parents know they are competent as well as easy to get along with. This also gets the parents in a non-defensive mood. This is then an ideal time to go through the childcare contract.

Second, the Childcare Cover Letter © allows childcare providers to present some personal information about themselves, while keeping the childcare provider’s personal life separate from the childcare contract. Going over the childcare contract is a time for presenting business information and not personal information.

After a child has been attending your home or center childcare for awhile, DayCarePro.com recommends that you have a conference with the parent(s). It is recommended that you have a conference with parents every six months and at least once a year. The purpose of the conference is to see how much the child has grown in all areas of life, as well as to identify areas the child may not be making adequate progress in. DayCarePro.com’s Conference Forms © can be completed in five minutes. The forms make it easy for you to communicate with parents about how their child is doing in all areas of life. The Conference Forms © collect information about children’s language, motor, sensory, social, emotional, mood, and self-care development as well as diet/eating, and sleep information.

Information collected on the Conference Forms © will allow you to know where the child is at developmentally, identify any special needs the child may have, and will allow you to provide appropriate care for the child.

Information on the Conference Forms © has the same format as the Getting to Know You Forms ©. So, during your first conference with parents after their child began receiving your care, you can compare the information on the Getting to Know You Form © with the information on the Conference Form ©. Comparing results on the forms lets you and the parents see how much their child has developed, matured, grown, and learned since you began taking care of their child.

Similar to comparing Getting to Know You Forms © with Conference Forms ©, you can compare previous Conference Forms © with the current Conference Form © to show parents how much their child has matured, as well as identify areas of concern. When the parents see the progress their child has made, it makes you look competent, professional and a real asset to their child and family!

The Conference Forms © collect developmental information that pediatricians and physicians frequently do not have time to collect. However, they love to see this type of information if it is available to them. For this reason, we encourage parents to take copies of the Conference Forms © to their children’s pediatricians and physicians during checkups. This will help the doctors quickly understand where the child is developmentally, and if the child is behind in any areas of development. Being able to provide this information to physicians and the medical community makes childcare providers look very professional and competent.

Childcare providers in most states need to take courses to earn continuing education hours / credits so they can renew their childcare licenses. Some childcare providers take courses simply because they enjoy learning. However, most child development courses that can be used for childcare relicensure are expensive and are offered at night or on weekends. Childcare providers put in long hours each day taking care of children. The last thing they want to do is leave their home to spend their personal time taking courses at night or on the weekends. So, DayCarePro.com decided to make high quality online continuing education courses for childcare professionals. Childcare professionals can earn continuing education credit hours with DayCarePro.com whenever they want without leaving their homes!

We offer very high quality courses to childcare professionals. However, DayCarePro.com does not guarantee that any of its courses will meet licensure requirements in any county or state. Childcare providers / students must check with their licensing rules and laws to see if DayCarePro.com courses meet their childcare licensing requirements.

When a child begins attending your home- or center-based childcare, you typically know very little about the child. The quickest way to get to know the child well is to complete a Getting to Know You Form ©. You can complete a Getting to Know You Form © by having the parent help you fill a form out. Or, you can have the parent fill out a form at their home and return it to you when it is complete.

There are seven Getting to Know You Forms ©. Each covers one year of child development. The forms collect information in all areas of development (language, motor, sensory, social, emotional, mood, and self-care) as well as medical, diet/eating, family, and sleep information. The Getting to Know You Forms © make it easy for you to communicate with parents about how their child is doing in all areas of life.

Information collected on the Getting to Know You Forms © will allow you to know where the child is at developmentally, identify any special needs the child may have (medical, diet, mood, etc.), and will allow you to provide appropriate care for the child immediately when she or he starts receiving childcare at your home or facility.

Information on the Getting to Know You Form © has the same format as the Conference Forms ©. So, if you have periodic conferences with a parent (we recommend having a conference every six weeks), you can compare the information on the Getting to Know You Form © with the information on the Conference Form ©. Comparing results on the forms lets you and the parents see how much their child has developed, matured, grown, and learned since you began taking care of their child. When the parents see the progress their child has made, it makes you look very professional and good at your job!

The Getting to Know You Forms © collect developmental information that pediatricians and physicians frequently do not have time to collect. However, they love to see this type of information if it is available to them. For this reason, we encourage parents to take copies of the Getting to Know You Forms © and Conference Forms © to their children’s pediatricians and physicians during checkups. This will help the doctors quickly understand where the child is developmentally, and if the child is behind in any areas of development. Being able to provide this information to physicians and the medical community makes childcare providers look very professional and competent.

Another area of frustration for childcare providers has to do with parents not wanting to miss work because their children “are not very sick”, even though they still have some mild symptoms or are within the illness’s incubation period. Because their children “do not appear very sick”, it is not uncommon for parents to give them Tylenol, Ibuprofen, or another fever reducing medication so their children feel better and do not appear sick. The parents then take their children to childcare so they can go to work. The reality is, children showing any signs of illness or who are within an illness’s incubation period should not attend childcare. When childcare providers remind parents of this, parents often respond by stating they are unaware of such rules, even though the childcare provider previously told the parents about the rules. DayCarePro.com can help.

DayCarePro.com recommends that the Am I Sick? Can I Go to Childcare? © manual is used by childcare providers as a policy to define rules about ill children and childcare attendance. The manual should be given to the parents or guardians of every child being cared for by a childcare provider. Perhaps the best time to give the manual to parents is when childcare providers enroll new children and are explaining the childcare contract to the parents. Parents should be told to keep the manual in a place where they can easily access it. They should read the manual every time they have a question about their children being sick and attending childcare.

Parents who receive the cover letter and Am I Sick? Can I Go to Childcare? © manual find it very difficult to claim they are unaware of the rules about when their child cannot attend childcare because of illness. This manual is very handy and effective at keeping sick children away from childcare and at home where they belong until they are completely illness-free.

To make things easier for childcare providers, they can give the Am I Sick? Can I Go to Childcare? Cover Letter © to parents and then tell them they must go to the DayCarePro.com Parent Section and print a copy of the manual for their records. This saves childcare providers time and money because childcare providers do not have to print the manual and consequently do not need to use their own printer paper and ink.

Since many illnesses are very contagious, a child who is sick at childcare can cause all the other children at childcare, as well as the childcare provider and her family, to catch the illness. It is thus very important to let each parent know when a child at childcare has become sick as well as what the illness is and symptoms are. This way, all parents can look for signs and symptoms of the illness in their children and respond as needed. By alerting all parents about illnesses at childcare, parents can respond promptly to signs their children are becoming sick and can keep their children at home until they get better. This minimizes the spread of communicable diseases and helps childcare providers offer the healthiest environment for the children they take care of.