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Substance Abuse Counselors Article
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Child Care Careers
from: Kyle BesserChild care workers nurture and care for young children who have not started school and older children before and after school. Child care workers play an important role in children's development by caring for them while parents work or are away for other reasons.
Child care workers fall into three different groups based on where they work. There are private child care workers who care for children at the children's home, family child care workers who care for children in the provider's own home, and child care workers who work at child care centers.
Private child care workers are usually employed on an hourly basis and often called babysitters. Their hours and duties vary widely from one job to the next. These child care workers attend to children's basic needs while the children are in their care. Private child care workers may bathe, dress and feed the children. Private child care workers supervise their play. Full-time private child care workers may wash the children's clothes and clean their rooms. They may put the children to bed and wake them, read to them, involve them in educational games, take them for doctor visits and discipline them. Private child care workers who are in charge of infants prepare bottles and change diapers.
Family child care providers usually work alone from their own home with a small group of children. Family child care providers attend to the children's needs while they are in their care. Family child care providers supervise the children's play and keep them safe. The children are usually brought to them and picked up later by a parent. Children who attend school will go to a family child care provider before and after school until they are old enough to be on their own.
Child care centers generally have more than one adult for each group of children. States regulate child care facilities, the number of children per child care worker, staff qualifications and the health and safety of the children. State regulations in all of these areas vary. State or local regulations may require a certain ratio of workers to children to ensure that children in child care centers receive proper supervision. The ratio varies with the age of the children. Child development experts generally recommend that a single caregiver be responsible for no more than 3 or 4 infants less than 1 year old and toddlers 1 to 2 years old or 6 or 7 preschool-aged children between 2 and 5 years old.
In before and after school programs, child care workers may be responsible for many school aged children at a time. Concern over school-aged children being home alone before and after school has spurred many parents to seek alternative ways for their children to constructively spend their time. The purpose of before and after school programs is to watch over school-aged children during the gap between school hours and the end of their parents work hours.
Before and after school programs programs also may operate during the summer and on weekends. Child care workers in before and after school programs may help students with their homework or engage them in other activities. Some child care workers are responsible for taking children to school in the morning and picking them up from school in the afternoon. Before and after school programs may be operated by public school systems, local community centers or other private organizations.
Most child care workers perform a combination of basic care and teaching duties. The majority of their time is spent on care giving activities. Child care workers whose primary responsibility is teaching are classified as preschool teachers. Other child care workers may be assistants to preschool teachers.
To ensure a well-balanced program, child care workers prepare daily and long-term schedules of activities. Each day's activities balance individual and group play, as well as quiet and active time. Children are given some freedom to participate in activities in which they are interested. As children age, child care workers may provide more guided learning opportunities, particularly in the areas of math and reading.
Child care workers spend most of their day working with children. However, they do maintain contact with parents or guardians through informal meetings or scheduled conferences to discuss each child's progress and needs. Many child care workers keep records of each child's progress and suggest ways in which parents can stimulate their child's learning and development at home.
Helping to keep children healthy is another important part of the job. Child care workers serve nutritious meals and snacks and teach good eating habits and personal hygiene. Child care workers ensure that children have proper rest periods. They identify children who may not feel well and, in some cases, may help parents locate programs that will provide basic health services.
Child care workers also watch for children who show signs of emotional or developmental problems and discuss these matters with their supervisor and the child's parents. Early identification of children with special needs, such as those with behavioral, emotional, physical or learning disabilities, is important so they can start to get the appropriate help as soon as possible to improve their future learning ability.
Helping children grow, learn and gain new skills can be very rewarding. New activities and challenges mark each day. Child care workers must be able to anticipate and prevent problems, deal with disruptive children and provide fair but firm discipline. Child care workers should be mature, patient, understanding, and and have lots of energy and physical stamina. Child care can be very physically demanding, as workers constantly stand, walk, bend, stoop and lift to attend to each child's interests and needs.
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