Advice by Daniel Bortz
Looking for a daycare centre for your little one? You’re far from alone.
Finding the right daycare programme for your child can be a challenge, especially if you’re a first-time parent who’s unfamiliar with the process.
Asking the right questions when surveying your options can help you narrow your search, said Olivia DeLong, senior health editor at BabyCenter, an online resource for parents.
“Most welcome packets don’t include every little detail you’d want to know,” said DeLong, who recently went through the process of finding a day-care facility for her 3-year-old daughter.
We asked child care and child development experts what questions parents should ask when scoping out daycare centres for their children. Here’s what they said.
What is your ratio of teachers to children?
“Knowing how many children there are for every teacher at the daycare centre can help you gauge how attentive they will be to your child’s needs and learning,” said DeLong.
How do you address behavioural problems?
Newsflash: Children throw temper tantrums. But daycare centres may take different approaches when youngsters throw a fit, said Samina Hadi-Tabassum, a clinical professor and the director of the child development program at the Erikson Institute, a graduate school in Chicago that focuses on early childhood development. Punishment is a bad approach, Hadi-Tabassum said.
“Caregivers shouldn’t put children in ‘time out’ when they behave poorly,” said Linda Haar, board president at C3 Creating Change for Children, a non-profit in San Diego that advocates for improving the quality of early-childhood education.
According to Haar, punishment doesn’t help children learn better behaviours. “Daycare providers should be teaching children what they can do differently the next time that they get frustrated or upset,” she said.
What do you do to keep the property secure?
“Asking a potential daycare centre about their security protocols can give you a good idea of how seriously they take child safety,” said DeLong.
What is the centre’s sign-in and sign-out procedure for drop-offs and pick-ups? Are there security cameras indoors and outdoors?
Does the building lock doors and windows during the day? Has the centre ever had a security breach and, if so, how did the staff address it?
How many caregivers are certified to administer CPR and first aid?
CPR and first aid certification requirements for childcare providers are very important, especially when your child is in need of critical intervention.
What is your sick-child policy?
“Operators can vary in terms of how conservative they are when it comes to allowing sick children to attend daycare,” Haar said.
Furthermore, Tina Ulanowski, a certified child life specialist, recommends that parents ask how the staff handles children who become sick during the day. “If a child becomes ill, they should be isolating them from the other children until the parents pick them up,” Ulanowski said.
How – and how often – does your staff communicate with parents?
“Daily conversations are a must, even if it’s just staff greeting parents when they drop their child off,” said Haar.
Have a baby? “You want a daily report card of how many diaper changes your baby had, how much milk they drank, and how long they napped,” Ulanowski suggested.
Communication is a two-way street. This is where parent conferences come into play, Haar said: “There should be one at the beginning of the year so that the staff can learn what goals the parent has for the child, and then a mid-year or end-of-year conference where parents receive a full report of their child’s development.”
What additional fees, if any, are there?
To find a daycare centre that fits their budget, Haar said parents must ask whether there are fees in addition to the tuition.
“A lot of facilities will have a registration fee,” she says. Some will also tack on a materials fee for supplies such as paint, crayons and sand art.
Also, find out whether the centre has a fee for late pick-up. “That’s not a bad fee necessarily,” Haar said.
“Staff need to go home at the end of the day. But parents should be aware of how much they’re going to be charged if they pick up their kid late.”
How much screen time do children get?
The American Academy of Pediatrics says children should develop healthy screen time habits early on. That means limiting their use of tablets, TV and other devices.
Recommendations depend on a child’s age: children in the 2–5 age group should not watch more than one hour of non-educational programming per weekday, according to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
What types of hands-on activities do you offer?
Hadi-Tabassum likes daycare centres that offer children what she calls “discovery-based learning”, where they experience a variety of hands-on activities. “How often do children get to play with water? How often do they get to play with musical instruments? How often do they get to paint? Those are all examples of discovery-based learning,” Hadi-Tabassum said.
How long have most of your staff been with the centre?
A good daycare centre is not a revolving door for employees. “A staff with high turnover that’s constantly changing can be difficult on your little one,” DeLong said.
“If staff have been at the centre for a long time, it’s probably a good sign that the working and learning environment is positive.”
