The Child Outcomes in Child Care Centers Study (CQ&O) measured the details of quality of early childhood programs around the country. In "Quality Details: A Close-Up Look at Child Care Program Strengths and Weaknesses," (Young Children, July 1997), Debby Cryer and Leslie Phillipsen summarized the study's results to help practitioners take an objective look at how well they are meeting the needs of the children in their care. Here are their findings related to infant and toddler programs.

Overall results

Discipline -- Adults respond consistently with positive methods of discipline and realistic expectations for children. Physical or severe punishment is not generally used.

Inclusion -- Most programs make basic adjustments for children with special needs. Few classrooms, however, make serious adaptations. Many times, it appears that children with special needs are given less attention than other children.

Peer interaction -- Children are allowed to socialize with others, and adults demonstrate sufficient supervision to stop problems such as hitting or biting. Caregivers have some work to do, however, in helping children learn to get along well with one another. The study shows that caregivers of infants or toddlers seldom take the initiative to actively point out when positive social interactions occur among children.

Health policy -- In the average center, the necessary rules and policies for protecting children's health are in place. Everyday health practices, however, regarding diapering, toileting, personal grooming, and meals and snacks, did not meet the requirements for minimal scores in many cases.

Informal use of language -- Although most caregivers used some social talking with children, not many responded in a personal way to children's attempts to communicate, nor did they work on intentionally expanding children's use of language.

Child-caregiver interaction -- Adults show warmth during routine activities such as diapering and feeding, and respond sympathetically when children are upset. Rarely, however, are individual children assigned to primary caregivers to encourage stronger bonds with adults.

Infant and toddler programs rank high in communication among adults. For example, at the average center there is frequent exchange of information between parents and staff, and cooperation among staff.

Many Infant and toddler rooms were missing the necessities for pretend play, such as dolls, blocks, hard-page books and sand and water for older toddlers. They also show little evidence of ethnic or racial variety in pictures, toys or books.

Suggestions for improvement

Cryer and Phillipsen suggest some follow-up activities including rating your program with a quality assessment instrument; getting an observer, such as another teacher, a student, or a parent to rate the quality of your environment for children; and comparing your ratings to another observer's to highlight where intentions have not made it into practice.

To see how preschool classrooms measure up, see Early Years are Learning Years #97/18.

Additional resources

Cryer, D. and L. Phillipsen. 1997. Quality Details: A Close-Up Look at Child Care Program Strengths and Weaknesses. Young Children 52 (5): 51-61.

Helburn, S. (Ed.) 1995. Cost, quality, and child outcomes in child care centers, technical report. Denver: Department of Economics, Center for Research in Economics and Social Policy, University of Colorado-Denver.