Public Day Cares

1. Public Day Cares Shelly Rhiner

2. Thesis Children who attend public day cares have more social skills which are gained through group activities, and interactions with other children and adults.

3. Introduction Quote Stated by Lee, “Researchers believe that children’s public pre-kindergarten experiences might help their socialization and communication skills” (485). • This quote is initially what peaked my interest in public day cares, and if they truly affect the growth and outcomes of children..

4. Initial Question/Argument • Do young child care centers have a effect on children’s social and communication skills? • I believe young child care does have an effect on children’s social and communication skills through personal experience. Through my observation and research I want to prove my belief.

5. Observation Randomly I had chosen to attend Goddard School for a day and observe a class. I wanted to see if I noticed any socialization, or any activities that pushed kids to become more commutative.

6. Interview Questions • 1. What is the average age range of the children? • Sandra: “We start as early as six weeks and end around four or five, each class is separated into age groups, and each class averages about 20 children. • 2. Do the teachers interact with the children on a more personal level? • Kevin: “Majority of our teachers here have been part of this school for years, reasoning being they love their job and they love the children. The teachers become a big part of the child’s life, a safety net, care provider, and of course someone who starts the grounds of their learning path. All of our teachers here have a close and unique relationship with each of their students.” • 3. Can you see a difference or a growth in personality from the children that have been here some time? • Sandra: “The first day any child attends this school we notice a change, a change in their personalities, and behavior. A lot of children that come here are shy, and after being here awhile they become the loud, chaotic children we know they are at when they are with family. At a young age they do make friends, and do start to learn the ways of life.”

7. Interview Cont. • 4. How do you keep the parents involved with their children’s activities and progress here at the school? • Sandra: “ The parents here are very involved with how the school runs, more so then we are sometimes. They have a say in what they would like their children to learn, and practice on. We also have an idea board in the main hall where parents can post ideas of activities or how they may think things might run better. They are leaving their pride and joy with us for a strong amount of time during the week, they should have a say in how their child spends the week. • 5. How do the children become social with one another? • Kevin: “Kids are always social, but everything we do here are in group settings, we don’t want any child to feel singled out. We encourage talking and playing with one another, want to start teaching them at a young age on how to communicate with one another.” • 6.Is there anything you see as a weakness that your school could improve on? • Sandra: : “ Of course every school has a weakness, none of us are perfect. But we do our best with keeping everyone happy, including staff, children, and also the parents.

8. Interview CONT. • 7. Why did you both decide to open a Goddard School? • Kevin: “ We both have a love for children, and love watching them grow and becoming their own little person. It’s truly amazing to see how all of these children grow, and see how their minds soak up everything that we do here. It’s a joy to see how excited the a parents get when their child tells them something new they learned here at the school cause that means were doing our job.” • 8. How do you go about with hiring staff? How do you know who is the right fit for a classroom? • Kevin: “ Well we have the basic application, but we look for if the person has completed some sort of college education, and if they seem like a right fit on paper, then we have to do the interview, we first have one of our employees interview them, then Sandra and I come in and interview them. When talking to a potential employee we look for charisma, we want them to be excited to be around children and be an over- all positive person. Cause at such a young age, a child needs positivity and happy people in their lives. • 9. Do you guys have any routine inspections that the school has to go through? • Sandra: “ Yes we have a health inspector come out every three months, too check up on how sanitary the place is, and to see there are any health problems they need to bring up. I mean we are dealing with children here, we want to make sure they are in the cleanest environment.”

9. College humor • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WTkJHHF4B4 • Watch 0:35-1:00 • This clip relates to how the interview went and the kind of responses I received summed up to this. The whole video can relate to my ethnography but this short clip gets straight to the point.

10. Observation My view for the next couple of hours while I begin to compile notes and start my research.

11. What I was looking for • 1. How do the children interact with one another? • 2. Do they communicate well with each other? • 3. How does the teacher interact with the children? • 4. What kind of activities are planned?

12. Notes/ Question Answers • 1. The children seem to be comfortable with one another, and have some sort of friendship or bond between them. The children seem to communicate well with one another • 2. For such a young age, the children have a good communication level, expressing their feelings, thoughts, and tend to interact with one another well • 3. The teacher simply guides the class, and personally interacted with the children • 4. Activities are the most important part, this is where a majority of there learning comes in to play. They had reading games, dances, Simon says, and arts and crafts projects

13. Quote • Daries states, “Children learn as they play. Most importantly, in play children learn how to learn.”(114) • During my brief time observing the class room, I noticed how this quote came into play. Children learn from their experiences and acting with others. • Example: One of the children, (Jonas) was trying to get a friends attention and ended up throwing something at his friends head. His friend to Jonas he didn’t like what he did and to try a different approach. Later Jonas tried to get his friends attention and could see him picking up a object to throw at his friend, but he remembered from earlier to try a different approach. He dropped the object and got his friends attention by asking for it.

14. Quote • Bond states “The Conversation Station will be a place where they can come and talk about their thoughts and ideas. Create an inviting place in the classroom where children feel safe, yet actively engaged in talking and listening to important information”(471). • After observing the class for a couple of hours, the Conversation Station relates directly to the class. The class room is the conversation station. Throughout the whole class time the children were vocal in what they thought and what was going on. The other children would interact as well as the teacher.

15. Daddy Day Care • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUts4C85l3w • The scene is a description of how I saw the conversation station being used in the class room. Eddie Murphy hosts a pet day at the day care and the children get to talk about there pets and express why they like them. It’s a moment where they get to talk and get to be heard. There were moments like these during my observation.

16. Conclusion • From what was observed at Goddard School, it showed that public daycares do have an effect on socialization and communication in children. With the.. • Group activities – getting children to work with one another, building trust, and also improving their communicating skills. • Teacher interaction – guiding her students in what to do, how to act, and further more how to communicate with one another. • Children interaction – communicating with one another • Positive setting – Room setting, teachers attitude, pictures on the walls, nothing negative said, or enforced.

17. Conclusion Quote • As Daries states in Early Childhood Education for Sustainability , “While you don't necessarily need to send your little one off to day care to ensure healthy social development, this type of group program can help kids under school-age improve their skills in areas such as sharing, making friends, taking turns and communicating with others. The day-to-day interactions with peers can help a child to feel more comfortable in group dynamics and better understand socially acceptable do's and don't's”(Daries 33).

18. Conclusion • As the quote concludes, daycares do help children grow in more ways then just socially. After conducting my research at the Goddard school, I believe day cares do have an effect on children with their communication skills, and socialization.

19. Work Cited Bond, Mary Alice, and Barbara A. Wasik. "Conversation Stations: Promoting Language Development in Young Children." Early Childhood Education Journal 36.6 (2009): 467-73. Print. Daries, Julie, Ingrid Engdahl, Lorraine Otieno, Ingrid Pramling-Samuelson, John Siraj-Blatchford, and Priya Vallabh. "Early Childhood Education for Sustainability: Recommendations for Development." International Journal of Early Childhood 41.2 (2009): 113-17. Print. Lee, Joohi, and Jill Fox. "Children's Communication and Socialization Skills by Types of Early Education Experiences." Journal of Research in Childhood Education 23.4 (2009): 475-88. Print. Leung, Cynthia, Jasmine Cheung, Vanessa Lau, and Catherine Lam. "Development of the Preschool Developmental Assessment Scale (PDAS) on Children's Social Development." Research in Developmental Disabilities 32.6 (2011): 2511-518. Print Mumford, Sandra, and Kevin Mumford. "Goddard School." Personal interview. 17 Feb. 2014