When we talk about health and safety in child care, the discussion is often focused on reducing or eliminating physical threats to children’s well-being (e.g., unsafe playground equipment or the spread of an infectious disease). CCAoA believes that child care is a place where the whole environment helps build healthy children, including their healthy social and emotional development. This is the second of four blog posts from CCAoA about promoting social and emotional health – in this case, through a practice known as responsive caregiving. 

Guest Blogger – Ruth A. Harvey, Executive Director – Chemung County Child Care Council, Inc.- Elmira, New York

Vroom provides interactive tools and resources that highlight the science behind early brain development, showing parents how they can turn everyday activities like bath time and meal time into opportunities that build their children’s brains. The Vroom Partnership at Child Care Aware® of America is made up of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies who educate and provide Vroom resources to families, providers, and organizations in their communities so they too understand the importance of brain development during the first five years of life. Learn more about Vroom here.

When we talk about health and safety in child care, the discussion is often focused on reducing or eliminating physical threats to children’s well-being (e.g., unsafe playground equipment or the spread of an infectious disease). But there’s something else just as important as safeguarding children’s physical health: promoting their mental health. In young children, mental health is the same thing as healthy social and emotional (S-E) development. 

Most young children develop language rapidly, moving from crying and cooing in infancy to using hundreds of words and understanding their meanings by the time they are ready to enter kindergarten. Language development is a major accomplishment and is one of the most rewarding experiences for parents to share with their children.

La mayoría de los niños pequeños desarrollan rápidamente el lenguaje, pasando del llanto y el arrullo en la infancia al uso y comprensión de cientos de palabras para cuando ya están listos para ingresar al kindergarten. El desarrollo del lenguaje es un logro importante, y es además una de las experiencias más gratificadoras que los padres pueden compartir con sus hijos.

Child Care Aware® of America Releases Findings of 2019 Annual State Survey on Child Care

State fact sheets provide high-level analysis and national roll-ups of the child care landscape at the state level and show an alarming decline in family child care providers and
inconsistent quality