Enhancing early child care quality and learning for toddlers at risk: The responsive early childhood program.

Abstract

Despite reports of positive effects of high-quality child care, few experimental studies have examined the process of improving low-quality center-based care for toddler-age children. In this article, we report intervention effects on child care teachers' behaviors and children's social, emotional, behavioral, early literacy, language, and math outcomes as well as the teacher-child relationship. The intervention targeted the use of a set of responsive teacher practices, derived from attachment and sociocultural theories, and a comprehensive curriculum. Sixty-five childcare classrooms serving low-income 2- and 3-year-old children were randomized into 3 conditions: business-as-usual control, Responsive Early Childhood Curriculum (RECC), and RECC plus explicit social-emotional classroom activities (RECC+). Classroom observations showed greater gains for RECC and RECC+ teachers' responsive practices including helping children manage their behavior, establishing a predictable schedule, and use of cognitively stimulating activities (e.g., shared book reading) compared with controls; however, teacher behaviors did not differ for focal areas such as sensitivity and positive discipline supports. Child assessments demonstrated that children in the interventions outperformed controls in areas of social and emotional development, although children's performance in control and intervention groups was similar for cognitive skills (language, literacy, and math). Results support the positive impact of responsive teachers and environments providing appropriate support for toddlers' social and emotional development. Possible explanations for the absence of systematic differences in children's cognitive skills are considered, including implications for practice and future research targeting low-income toddlers.

Teachers’ Emotional and Behavioral Support and Preschoolers’ Self-Regulation: Relations With Social and Emotional Skills During Play

“…Specifically, teachers who are sensitive and responsive to children's emotional and social needs and who create a positive classroom climate are hypothesized to contribute to children's sense of security (Downer, Sabol, & Hamre, 2010) and thereby support children in establishing and maintaining positive relationships with teachers and peers and developing behavior regulation (Merritt, Wanless, RimmKaufman, & Peugh, 2012;Rimm-Kaufman, Curby, Grimm, Nathanson, & Brock, 2009). This assumption is confirmed in real-world observational studies (e.g., Burchinal, Kainz, & Cai, 2014;Mashburn et al, 2008;NICHD ECCRN, 2006;Sylva, Melhuish, Sammons, Siraj-Blatchford, & Taggart, 2011) and in experimental studies showing that social-emotional curricula and professional development tools focusing on teachers' responsive interactions can enhance children's social skills, behavior regulation, and emotion understanding (Bierman et al, 2014;Landry et al, 2014). However, the associations in these observational and experimental studies tend to be small, and often there are null findings for some of the assessed outcome measures.…”

Effortful control and school adjustment: The moderating role of classroom chaos

“…It is possible that children who come to school lower in EC than their peers may have home environments that are high in chaos and may especially benefit from classrooms that are lower in chaos (Maxwell, 1996). Prevention efforts targeting temperament, classroom management, and classroom context have been successful at improving the classroom environment as well as child adjustment (Landry et al, 2014; McClowry, 1998; Raver et al, 2011). Consequently, by considering children’s EC and the classroom environment during the transition to school, educators may be better poised to ensure optimal adjustment for all children.…”

Agency trajectories in Young children: a proposal for the analysis of everyday caregiving practices

“…Se ha señalado que la asistencia a contextos educativos institucionales de buena calidad puede favorecer el desarrollo cognitivo, social y emocional (Landry et al, 2013;Sosinsky y Kim, 2013;Thomason y La Paro, 2009;). Otros estudios longitudinales han mostrado que la calidad en las aulas promueve el desarrollo socioemocional y cognitivo de los niños pequeños (Bradley, McKelvey y Whiteside-Mansell, 2011;Landry et al, 2013, Sosinsky y Kim, 2013Sylva y Pugs, 2011;Thomason y La Paro, 2009;Wen y Bulotsky-Shearer, 2012). No obstante, el debate respecto a los efectos negativos de los cuidados institucionales comienza a cobrar vigencia en las discusiones académicas internacionales.…”