Teacher-Caregivers' Perceptions of Toddlers' Adaptation to a Childcare Center

Abstract

I examined teacher-caregivers' perceptions of toddlers' adaptation to a childcare center in Korea. I also examined their experiences of their current practices related to toddlers' adaptation. Through in-depth interviews with 6 teacher-caregivers, the results showed that although the basic format of the implemented adaptation programs was the same, the teachercaregivers' actual practices differed depending on their perceptions. Some teacher-caregivers believed that their adaptation program allows toddlers to adapt easily to the center, and, thus, emphasized the teacher-caregivers' role as providers of the program. In contrast, other teacher-caregivers focused on toddlers' emotions and ease of transition, and, thus, emphasized the teacher-caregivers' role as sensitive respondents to the toddlers' individual needs for adaptation. Based on my findings, implications are discussed to facilitate toddlers' comfort as they transition to childcare centers.

Adaptação de Bebês à Creche: Aspectos que Facilitam ou não esse Período1

“…The gradual adjustment of babies to daycare with the presence of their mothers or another affective figure is stressed in the literature as an aspect that facilitates adjustment and should be standard procedure in all daycare centers, which unfortunately does not happen yet (Ahnert et al, 2004;Bang, 2014;Peixoto et al, 2014). The reason is that a daycare center and its caregivers gradually become a reference for babies, which contributes to their wellbeing when attending the facility.…”

“…Vasconcellos, Seabra, Eisenberg and Moreira (2012), for instance, talk about "daycare entry process" instead of adjustment period, while other authors use the term "transition to daycare" (Ahnert, Gunnar, Lamb, & Barthel, 2004;Datler et al, 2012;Peixoto et al, 2014;Zhang, 2015). In this study, the term "daycare adjustment period" or simply "daycare adjustment" is used, because these are the terms most frequently used in daycare centers and even in the literature (Bang, 2014;Bossi, Soares, Lopes, & Piccinini, 2014). Note, however, that when we use the term "period", we do not consider that adjustment takes place in a predetermined period of time.…”

“…For this reason, we have to discuss adjustment to daycare in this age group because this is the age when a larger number of children are enrolled in daycare centers after maternity leave was extended from 120 to 180 days for some fields in which both public and private companies adhered to the "citizen company" program established in 2010. Note that this study focuses on the perceptions of mothers regarding the adjustment of their six-month old babies to daycare, which is not a very common approach, considering that studies tend to address older babies and children (Ahnert et al, 2004;Datler et al, 2012;Zhang, 2015), usually adopt observational approaches (Ahnert et al, 2004;Almeida & Rossetti-Ferreira, 2014;Datler et al, 2012), or consider the reports of daycare or pre-school caregivers (Bang, 2014;Peixoto et al, 2014).…”