Child care standards in both the United States and Canada are in large measure based upon those set out in the document of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) entitled Developmentally Appropriate Practice in early childhood education programs (DAP; Bredekamp & Copple, 1997). This document is intended for "administrators, teachers, parents, policy makers, and others who make decisions about the care and education of young children" (p. 3). The principles of DAP and their alleged knowledge base shape the ways child care is delivered in North America in broad areas from legislation to teacher training to teacher-child interaction. The revised edition of this document (1997) is motivated, in part, by a recognition of the increasing cultural, racial, and linguistic diversity in the child and family population. The previous edition (Bredekamp, 1987) had discussed cultural context as part of individual differences but did not focus on the effects of context.

Out-of-home Care for Infants and Toddlers: A Call for Cultural and Linguistic Continuity

This book is about creating an environment, experiences, interactions, and relationships that allow children (birth to age 5) in center-based and family child care programs to have authentic experiences that will promote their development and learning. To address planning and practice the authors zero in on knowing and respecting the individual child, the group, and working in partnership with families. Rather than focusing on educational activities per se, the emphasis is on paying attention to the child's whole experience in the program. The authors examine what you need to know about children and their families, how to translate that information into plans and experiences, and how to include parents in the process. The authors wrote this book to be a "collaborative encounter with readers".

If you know the baby well, you may be able to quickly determine what she needs, and then either meet the need yourself or set up an environment that will allow her to meet it. If she doesn’t give you any clues, you can ask the person who brought her what she might need. The better the caregiver knows the infant and her family, the easier it is to read her signals and decide how to respond. Hunger is a major need for babies this age, and so is sleep. A soiled diaper can also cause fussing. She can’t solve the hunger problem herself or change her own diaper, but she can probably put herself to sleep—or learn to do this—given the right conditions. This article isn’t about the obvious needs, such as hunger, sleep, or a diaper change, or even about subtle needs. It is about one need that isn’t subtle, but also isn’t obvious to many families and caregivers. This need presents a problem the baby can’t solve by herself. You may be surprised to learn what it is.

Contents: Preface. Introduction to the Training Module. Facilitator's Script. Expanding the Learning. Appendix A: Workshop Overheads. Appendix B: Workshop Handouts. Appendix C: Hofstede's Ratings of 50 Countries and Three Regions. Appendix D: Best Use of the Training Module. Appendix E: Pilot-Testing Results for the BC-ECE Training Module 2-Hour Workshop. Appendix F: Annotated Bibliography.

Janet Gonzalez-Mena, MA, is an early childhood consultant in Fairfield, California, specializing in infants and toddlers and diversity issues. Janet is a faculty member for WestEdis Program for Infant/Toddler Caregivers Training Institutes. She studied with Magda Gerber. Photos courtesy of Anne Tardos at the Pikler Institute. T his is what I saw in November 2003 when I visited the Pikler Institute, a residential nursery in Budapest. The closeness of the baby and nurse (which is what the Pikler Institute calls caregivers) during the diapering sessions surprised me a little, but I already knew about that approach. I studied with Magda Gerber, Los Angeles infant expert and founder of Resources for Infant Educarers (RIE), who is originally from Hungary. Magda was a friend and student of Dr. Emmi Pikler, founder of the Pikler Institute; since 1976 I have been teaching what I learned from Magda. Now that I’ve been to Budapest, I see that I still have more to learn. A worldwide challenge to rearing infants and toddlers in institutions is to come up with methods that create whole, healthy, functioning children who can operate inside and outside institutional settings. The Pikler Institute has met that challenge by working out a carefully planned and tested approach over the last 58 years.

Intact identities of children, not of the dominant culture, is both a goal and an issue of equity and social justice. Identity development of some children can be compromised in cross cultural care if they are immersed in the dominant culture. Culturally sensitive care is a preventative strategy for early childhood professionals to use in order to keep these children rooted in their culture and attached to their families.