The Programs Offered by the Childhood Center - Research Paper Example

?YourLast 1 OBSERVATION REPORT ABOUT THE CHILD DEVELOPMENT CENTRE: This observation report ison a Childhood Development Center in Misawa air base, Japan. The 35th Force Support Squadron Child Development Program provides very good child care to children of active duty and Department of Defense Civilians which has been assigned to Misawa Air base. This childhood development center is run by the military air base in Japan offering child care for children who are between ages about six weeks to 5 years old. The child care is generally available in weekdays. In this center all the programs conducted are accredited by a national accrediting body which are Department of Defense (DoD) and National Association for the Education of Young Children. This child development center has about nineteen classrooms and is located on Main Base in building 10 across Sollars Elementary School and is open from 6:00 am to 6:30 am. For people who want to apply for child care, they have to fill a form called: DD Form 2606, the Department of Defense Child Development Program Request for Care Record The child development centre has certain goals like enhancing the social skills of the child, encouraging the child to think, reason, question and experiment, building physical and developmental skills etc. The child development center offers full hourly and day care for the children. The center based on the availability of program also provides special care to children who face physical or developmental challenges meeting the needs of the child with guidance from a therapist, physician, or other appropriate health professionals. Those who have children facing development, physical or other type of challenges need to bring a copy of their child’s Individual Education Plan (IEP) or Individual Family Services Plan (IFSP). The accommodations provided to the physically or developmentally challenged child would be based on the child’s IEP or IFSP. The Child development center is open for all who arrive to Misawa air base on orders which includes military as well as DoD civilians. Child care’s fee is only totally based on family’s annual income. There are different categories and different price range for different children. There is a wait list also for child care which is dependent on child’s age; the longest waiting period is for the infants and toddlers child care, due to the ratio, and space allocated. In such cases, it is advisable to get onto the inbound wait list before arriving to Misawa in order to reduce the waiting period. The programs offered by the childhood center support the development of the child in all areas of child development as they are interrelated and very important. In this center, each child’s unique experiences and interests as well as abilities and needs are given great respect. There are three types of child care services provided at the child development centre in Misawa: 1 Full day/week care: Those parents who are working and are busy and cannot look after their child for 5 to 10 hours a day apply for this type of care. 2 Hourly or drop-in care: This type of care service is based only if there is space availability and to avail this service the person must call in the morning to reserve a spot. 3 Part day enrichment: Parents of children from 3-5 ages who do not need a full-day service but have the desire to let their child participate in an early childhood program apply for this type of care. SUMMARY: This child development center provides quality care to the children enrolled at the centre. The caregivers at the center mingle well with all the children as they are warm, friendly and gentle. People with whom all children are comfortable due to their appropriate, nurturing manner towards the children. They understand what the child needs and helps them out in all possible ways and at the same time making sure that children don’t become too dependent on others. They even practice in front of children what they preach, for instance, the good habits, like talking softly or washing hands before meals. They do discuss the child’s progress with the parents often as well so that the parents know what their child is upto and almost all parents are satisfied with the care-givers. They deal differently with infants, toddlers and preschoolers and make sure they give their best service and children are happy with them. We can conclude that they can be trusted with the children. The caregivers need to complete their additional 24 hours training and are suppose to fulfill the twelve modules of health, nutrition, special need, safety, menu planning, child development, guidance technique, curriculum planning, professionalism, creative thinking, first aid and CPR in order to work at the centre. Each co-worker in the center makeup names has to have CPS in first aid but the leader of the classroom supervisor has a CDA in childhood education. Where the health and safety issues of all children are concerned, the centre assures full-proof safety with first-aid kits, smoke detectors, fire extinguishers at appropriate locations, covered radiators, protected heaters, and strong bars placed on windows. They even had emergency exits in case of an unfortunate situation. The environment is clean and sanitary as well. The center provides a good healthy environment to the children enrolled, having a clean and comfortable look. A place where the children can be alone as well moving freely because of good indoor space having materials for the children of all ages to use. Children are constantly monitored by the caregivers. Children can even comfortably take naps at the centre and are given USDA meals. The caregivers of the center have different type of activities for different age groups of children present at the centre. During the day they do activities such as circle time singing or learning the abs or sometimes they have free play and art activities. All the activities take place in one room and the children can do whatever they feel like doing. They have a good quantity of toys for the children to play as well. Children learn a lot through these activities and thoroughly enjoy participating in them. The children are taken out to outside parks once a day too. Through these activities, the caregivers are making sure that the child uses its own thinking power and learn new skills which will help the children in future. The children are mostly disciplined at the centre and do not disturb the caregivers as such. In cases, where the child is not being disciplined, the caregiver gives special attention to the child. They are guided well by the caregivers. The center has a policy that if a child acts up, the caregiver redirects the child, if center doesn’t let them redirect themselves, they call the parents to pick up their child; there was an incident where the child was hitting and biting, caregiver tried to redirect the child but the child wouldn’t listen so they called the mother to pick up the child. They also have some children with special needs such as ADHD and they work well with children but if the child doesn’t follow rules, such as keeps hitting other children they remove the child to another group to try him/her with different caregivers. All the caregivers handle and redirect the children professionally. Really good care is been provided at this centre in Misawa, for instance, an incident happened like, Le Andria, a caregiver at the center, had a child named Adam who has autism and he has a really hard time with transition to another activity so what Le Andria did was she made a personal schedule for him which she pins in the morning when he comes, so when it was the time for him to go outside with other children he refused because he wanted to play with his cars; therefore he threw the schedule card on the floor and started screaming, Le Andria gently went over to him, talked to him eye to eye and asked him to check his schedule properly and to see what comes after playtime, so she asked the child that what are we supposed to do then, he replied, put our jackets and hats on and go outside. Another incident was that a child didn’t feel like leaving when his mom came to pick him up because he wanted to play with his cars so Le Andria gently asked him to put his cars in his cubby so that when he comes tomorrow to the center they are safe and he can play with them again. Le Andria is one of the best caregivers at the child development center. The caregivers are trying their best to fulfill each child’s individual needs too which was the best part of the program, however they need to work on increasing their indoor space so more and more children can get enrolled at the centre. The only suggestion that can be given to the centre is that they need to have more outdoor activities for children. The children must be taken to outdoor places like amusement parks, museums etc on a regular basis so that they are trained about the outside world too. Read More