Question

6.2 Evaluating the Quality of Child Care 120 Read the case study below and answer the questions that follow. Mrs. Sajorda has placed her six-month-old daughter Heather in the child care center where she works. The employees she knows who use the center seem pleased, but Mrs. Sajorda has some concerns. She feels the center does not enforce its health policy strictly enough. The policy states that children should not come to the center unless they have been fever free for 24 hours and are not even moderately ill. She knows from comments made by other parents that this policy is frequently disregarded. In fact, one morning, while dropping off Heather, she overheard a parent telling a caregiver that his son had vomited that morning. Afterward he had seemed all right, so the father had brought him to the center. He wanted the caregiver to call him if the child vomited again. Mrs. Sajorda was surprised that the caregiver agreed to this instead of telling him to take the child home. She is particularly concerned about this laxity with regard to the health policy because once the infants start crawling, she sees that they crawl around the room putting one toy after another into their mouth. Before a caregiver comes to wash a toy, another child picks it up and begins to chew on it. On the other hand, there are aspects of the center that Mrs. Sajorda likes very much. The caregivers are warm and caring and seem genuinely to enjoy taking care of the infants. The caregiver/infant ratio is one to three, and the turnover rate is low. There is a wide variety of age-appropriate toys, and the center itself is always clean. Mrs. Sajorda does not want to switch to another child care center. This one is particularly convenient and is subsidized by the company for which she works. To use a different child care center would cost a great deal more. She speaks to the center's director and tells her that while she is generally pleased with the care Heather receives, she feels that the health policy should be more strictly enforced. She also feels that more of an effort should be made either to prevent the children from sharing toys that they have put in their mouth or to clean the toys immedi- ately after each use. Mrs. Sajorda believes that a strictly enforced health policy will, in the long run, cut down on the amount of time she will miss from work due to Heather's illnesses. The director responds positively to Mrs. Sajorda's concerns. She tells her that she will bring up the two health matters at the next staff meeting. She feels strongly that the center can work to reduce these problems but feels that neither can be completely eliminated. Mrs. Sajorda is pleased by the director's reaction to her complaints. She does. however continue to keep an eye on the routine practices of the center and to bring her concerns to the attention of the caregiver and the director

Answer 1

1. Two practices that were not mentioned are

• Safety provided by care givers
• Practices that support positive interaction
• Opportunities of quiet play and rest
• Facilitation of emotional growth

2. Practice that should not be followed in the child care centr e is , the toys which are handy which makes children to keep in mouth should be avoided as this is a large source of transmitting infections.

3. This sharing of toys cannot be eliminated as children play together and definitely they exchange toys.

4. There is no need to find any other centre because , every centre will have multiple toys where all the children shares and it will be common in all day care centres which could not be avoided.Instead she can buy separate toys for her child alone.