6.1 Caring For Children

Standard One

Protect and promote the psychological and physical safety, health and well-being of each child being cared for.

1. The practitioner is able to maintain a sanitary environment that minimizes the risk of infection or food contamination through:

• • maintaining the required level of cleanliness and sanitation; and
  • encouraging an awareness among the children of good health and hygiene practices.

2. The practitioner is able to maintain a hazard-free environment that minimizes the risk of injury through:

• • ensuring that indoor and outdoor areas, furnishing, toys, and equipment are in good repair and safe for use by the children;
  • ensuring the safe storage of all potentially dangerous materials;
  • providing supervision that is appropriate for the children’s developmental levels;
  • developing and implementing effective procedures for emergency situations; and
  • assisting children to develop safety awareness.

3. The practitioner is able to promote children’s health through:

• • providing snacks and meals that are nutritious and balanced and take into account cultural preferences within the parameters of the Canada Food Guide or the Native Food Guide, or, in situations where families are responsible for snacks, encouraging and assisting parents to follow the Canada Food Guide or the Native Food Guide;
  • monitoring children’s health on a daily basis and reporting concerns about possible neglect or abuse as required by and outlined in current provincial or territorial legislation
  • recognizing symptoms of illness and common childhood diseases and taking appropriate action as required; and
  • developing and implementing a specific procedure for administering medications; and
  • identifying and monitoring children who have allergies or chronic medical conditions that require special precautions or care and ensuring that such precautions are taken and/or the requisite care is provided.

4. The practitioner is able to protect and promote children’s psychological health and well-being by:

• • providing an environment that conveys a sense of order, routine, consistency and continuity;
  • setting realistic expectations and clear limits and using positive and developmentally appropriate approaches to guiding children’s behaviour, adapting approaches on the basis of knowledge of the individual child’s personality, culture, level of development and the current situation;
  • providing experiences that are appropriate for the child’s developmental level and responding to each child’s efforts to grow and acquire skills in a positive manner;
  • noting, accepting and respecting children’s expression of their feelings, whether positive or negative, and the underlying message that is conveyed through body movement and/ or facial expression;
  • supporting children in openly expressing their positive and negative feelings through a range of verbal, nonverbal and culturally-based communication strategies; and
  • providing activities that respect each child’s individual ethnic: and cultural heritage and encourage each child to feel proud of his/her heritage.

Standard Two

Develop and maintain a warm, caring, and responsive relationship with every child and with the group of children.

1. The practitioner is able to convey a warm and caring attitude through:

• • using supportive and positive language, facial expressions and body language with children;
  • responding promptly, appropriately and sensitively to children’s verbal and nonverbal expressions of heed, their interests and their attempts to communicate; and·
  • supporting and encouraging children who are experiencing difficulties and comforting children who are distressed.

2. The practitioner is able to maintain a warm, caring and responsive relationship with children by:

• • acknowledging and responding to each child’s behaviours, interests and ideas in art attentive, respectful and consistent fashion;
  • being emotionally as well as physically available to each child; and
  • demonstrating respect for children’s individual needs, culture and family context.

Standard Three

 Plan and· provide daily experiences that support and promote each child’s physical, emotional, social, communication,·cognitive and creative skills.

1. The practitioner is able to develop and maintain an overall environment that supports and encourages the development of all the children by:

• • planning and providing a developmentally appropriate mix of child-initiated and adult-initiated activities, active and quiet activities, solitary and group activities, and indoor and outdoor activities;
  • selecting materials and equipment that are appropriate for the children’s developmental levels, areas of interest and cultural background and that promote skill development;
  • ensuring that materials and equipment are accessible to the children;
  • promoting active participation of all children by providing assistance in a variety of ways;
  • seeking and incorporating children’s input;
  • recognizing and using everyday routines and activities as learning opportunities;
  • arranging movement from one activity to another in the daily routines so that they occur smoothly;
  • using community resources to broaden children’s experience;
  • organizing routines so that each child can receive some individual attention each day;
  • recognizing delays in physical, cognitive, emotional or social development and taking appropriate action; and
  • providing and/or accessing any supports that are required for the successful inclusion of children with handicapping conditions.

2. The practitioner is able to support and promote each child’s physical skills by:

• • selecting a variety of toys, materials and equipment for both fine and gross motor activities and ensuring that the toys, materials and equipment are accessible to the children;
  • planning and implementing a variety of fine and gross motor activities that are appropriate to the children’s developmental level and interests;
  • encouraging and supporting children to engage in a balance of fine and gross motor activities on a daily basis; and
  • using opportunities and planning activities that encourage children to use their senses by noting colours, odours; tastes, sounds and textures.

3. The practitioner is able to support and promote each child’s emotional well-being and growth by:

• • helping children to recognize, express and accept a full range of feelings;
  • validating children’s feelings and wishes and providing opportunities for their expression;
  • responding promptly to counter discriminatory words or actions;
  • assisting children to express their feelings and assert their wishes in socially acceptable ways;
  • supporting children’s attempts to nourish their own self-esteem;
  • supporting children’s independence and autonomy in culturally appropriate ways;
  • fostering the development of children’s self-control and self-direction;
  • identifying indications of low self-esteem or negative self-concept and assisting children to deal with situations in which these occur; and
  • fostering cultural diversity in daily practice through incorporating foods, language, books, stories, history, music, pictures, games, dances and clothing that reflect individual children’s cultural and family backgrounds and other cultures into the daily activities.

4. The practitioner is able to support and promote each child’s social skill development by:

• • planning an environment and activities that support and encourage positive social interaction and the development of social skills;
  • fostering children’s ability to understand and cooperate with others;
  • assisting children to understand the ‘rules’ and expectations of their peers; and
  • assisting children to develop effective and socially acceptable ways to handle conflict.

5. The practitioner is able to support and promote each child’s communication skills by:

• • communicating with children in a style, manner and pace that is appropriate for their culture, developmental level and abilities;
  • providing opportunities and activities that encourage children to develop their listening and understanding skills;
  • encouraging children to express their needs, desires, feelings and thoughts non-verbally as well as verbally in a manner that is consistent with the child’s culture, personality and developmental level;
  • attending to, and supporting children’s attempts to communicate, and encouraging children to use their first language;
  • talking with children, asking open-ended questions, expressing interest in what they are saying and seeking their opinions; and
  • providing opportunities and activities for children to present their ideas through non-verbal means such as painting and music.

6. The practitioner is able to support and promote each child’s cognitive skills by:

• • establishing an environment that encourages and supports children’s exploration and problem-solving;
  • providing activities that stimulate children’s curiosity, inventiveness, problem-solving and communication skills;
  • providing activities that set the stage for literacy and numeracy, such as counting, reading to children, and providing access to books;
  • engaging children in questioning, probing, and problem-solving; and
  • encouraging children to explain things and ideas, to predict what might happen and to experiment.

7. The practitioner is able to support and foster children’s creativity by:

• • providing a variety of art, crafts, music, dress-up items and other materials for the children to use and a variety of opportunities for creative activities;
  • encouraging and supporting children’s efforts to try new activities, to generate their own ideas and to use art and craft materials and toys in their own ways;
  • showing appreciation of and encouraging children’s creative expression; and
  • introducing music, dance, art, stories and songs that reflect and affirm the cultures and interests of the children in care and other cultures.

Standard Four

Use a variety of observation techniques to identify children’s skills, abilities, interests and needs and to evaluate the daily experience provided to the children.

1. The practitioner is able to use a variety of observation techniques to identify children’s skills, interests and needs and to evaluate the daily experience provided to the children by:

• • selecting and using the informal and formal observation techniques that are the most appropriate for the situation in which the observation is to occur;
  • using appropriate observation techniques to monitor children’s progress;
  • recording observations accurately and promptly and in a form that is suitable and useful for planning appropriate experiences for the children;
  • using appropriate techniques to analyze the information collected, recognizing and respecting differences in ability and cultural values and approaches when conducting and interpreting observations; and
  • identifying when an assessment may be required from another source and ensuring that an appropriate referral is made.

This section is copied and adapted from Standards of Practice section in Doherty. G. (2000). Partners in Quality: Tools for Practitioners in Child Care Settings. Standards of Practice, Code of Ethics, Guide to Self-Reflection. Ottawa: Canadian Child Care Federation.