The succeeding paragraph will illustrate the role of a professional who engages in home-based child care. What encompasses the role of child care, and how does it differ to actual parental care? Home based child care can either be in a form of day care institution, or the employment of a professional who could stay home with their child for provision of care while the parents are away at work.
Whichever form of home based child care the parent chooses, only one thing is certain: the necessary skills and knowledge to performed standard or ideal functions along with the expected outcomes – in the aspect of overall health, both physically and psychologically. This is the subject that this paper intends to highlight, the role of the employed professionals in child rearing, as well as the efficiency of such role. The succeeding paragraph will then answer how professionals become an important aspect in child care.
With the current trend of American society at present, most families can not do away with either hiring a professional to take of their child or enrolling their child in a day care center. Since most American families are dual earners, the preference of home-based child care is often resorted to, in order to address the need of providing care to their child while they are away at work. Although most parents and reluctant and apprehensive about the idea of hiring a stranger to attend to their child’s need while they are away, they are often left with no choice – unless they are willing to leave their jobs to become a full-time mother.
As professionals, it is part of our duty to ease this apprehension by showing them the efficiency of our service thus acquiring their confidence and trust. The role we play in child care creates a great impact, not only in the overall health of the child, but also in the relationship of the family, in that, we somehow give them ease and comfort knowing that their child is well taken cared of. Knowing the scope of our responsibilities as well as the functions we play, are two of the most important aspect in maintaining professionalism. This is the code that guides a professional in the conduct of proper decorum.
In addition, by making use of support group such as that of other professional services, the role of the professional is further enriched and enhanced due to the supplemental knowledge gained out of consulting or tapping with their expertise. Identify 2 sources of professional support that you can rely on: While professional support is varied and wide, their availability may only be dependent on the relationships established by the care-giver to this professional support group. Which is why acquiring as much professional support as you can is highly advantageous and beneficial in the practice of comprehensive care to the child.
A child’s growth and development is very complex and it involves the assistance of various disciplines in medicine. We all know that part of the aspect of the child’s growth and development involves social, educational, mental, emotional and physical health, and our knowledge may not be that extensive to suffice the kind of care to provide. Therefore we need the help of other professional expertise to tell us what to monitor and observe; what to do and what not to do. For me, the 2 most important professional support that I can rely on, is the child’s GP/pediatrician and the child’s teacher, if the child is already schooling.
Although seeking professional support may be a case to case basis, depending on the nature, age and characteristics of the child, keeping this support at close range even though they are not actively required may come in handy eventually. If I am taking care of an infant, a close contact with the GP or Pediatrician may be necessary to insure the child’s health. If on the other hand, the child is already in the school age, the caregiver must be in close contact with the teacher to check for performances in class, social or behavioral problems.
In cases where there is a negative feedback from the teacher, my expertise in child psychology interventions might be useful in correcting any mal-adaptations that the child might be experiencing. Otherwise, I might need to bring this matter up for consult with another professional, to either supplement the knowledge that I already have and to enrich the quality of my intervention, or to acquire relative information as to updates and further suggestion from other professionals. Explain why it is important to seek support:
It is important to seek support, because no matter how extensive our trainings were in various disciplines of child care, there will always be cases beyond our means to resolve. There are problems which we can not solve on our own, such that we need the help and expertise of these professionals in keeping our function relevant and necessary, and provide quality care. By establishing connection with other professionals, we are opening ourselves to improvement and increasing the likelihood for acquiring additional knowledge, thereby also increasing our proficiency.
The ideas and knowledge gained from the past experiences may not be suited and applicable to all case and sometimes consulting textbook references may not at all be practical and useful. It is always important to seek the advice and information of those people who have had their expertise based on actual experiences and hands on trial, as this may be relevant, effective and often full proofed, when compared to past experiences or text books.
It is also necessary to establish this relationship, because this will show the parents how serious you are to your goals of providing a holistic care to the child. The information gained from consulting with other professional will help the care-giver understand clearly what the child is going through and guides the care-giver in formulating approaches and techniques effective in assisting the child go through each developmental stage successfully.
Keeping these resources on an on-call basis will also prove useful in providing consistency of child care, wherein, by introducing them to the parents, as well as keeping the parents up-to-date of what is going on with their child and the childcare, will sustain the kind of interventions and measures the caregiver initiated, thus avoiding any unnecessary confusion to the child. The purpose of these supports is to aid the care giver in understanding what the child is going through and to make sure that the child goes through this particular stage without detriment.
Consulting a professional does not necessarily mean the inadequacy of the professional in child care, but rather, seeking verifications as to which intervention is best for this particular stage (Philips et al. 2001. p43). The services of the support are essential in making sure the child grows well in the environment he or she lives in, it also provides imperative information for the parents, so that they too can understand their child better despite their inability to provide care for their child full time.
What is essential in taking care of the child, as a professional, is making sure that growth and development is achieved in the most, healthy manner. In the absence of the parent, it is your role to monitor this and observe for signs of derailment and thereby assist the child in getting back to its track. Evaluate the factors that make professional relationship effective: The factors that make professional relationship successful include: a good, open and honest communication as well as the respect for their expertise and abilities. This factors are necessary is maintaining a good relationship with them, as well as establishing rapport.
Making sure that these factors are well adhered to, keeps integrity and character at quality. It also provides ease and comfort in acquiring their assistance, knowing that with the good relationship that has been established, they will surely extend their help whenever we need one. These factors also serve as a guideline for proper conduct and professional ethics, while maintaining an open, welcoming two-way relationship. By maintaining a close relationship with other professionals, a caregiver may facilitate the waiving of additional expense for the parents during consults.
If the caregiver makes use of professional advice, they are constantly assured that the kind of care they are providing is correct and efficient. However, the disadvantage of an open communication may result in the inability to clearly understand the professional’s point of view, as it may create jargon and or sometimes misleading information that may result to unnecessary detriments to the caregiver’s interventions. Communication can sometimes be varied and tends to have diverse meanings, which can sometimes result to errors if interpreted incorrectly.
There may also be tendencies where in the support professional would assume that the symptoms given by the consulting caregiver is valid for certain interventions without actual and verified observations and diagnoses; this would often lead to ineffective measures. This might be consequential to the parent’s loss of confident and trust to the caregiver and ineffective coping for the child. Because children are spending the significant socialization-time in non-parental care setting, and at very young ages, it important to examine the socialization effects of this type of care.
The availability, affordability, and adequacy of child care have become increasingly serious concern over the past 25 years. Regardless of the type, quality child care involves certain basics; a caregivers who provide warm, loving care and guidance for the child and works with the family to ensure that the child develops in the best way possible; a setting that keeps the child safe, secure, and healthy; and developmentally appropriate activities that helps the child develop emotionally, socially, mentally, and physically.
If one is to become a professional in the field of home-based child care, it is important to always bear in mind that that one does not stand as a substitute to the parent, but rather they function as a support to the parental role. Understanding one’s role as a professional can help caregiver function effectively in the overall child care. This is an important part so as not to run in conflict with the how the child views of you as a professional rather than a substitute parent. This is also important in maintaining a harmonious relationship with the parent.
Communication is salient when it comes to child care; the less information shared with the parent increases the higher detrimental effects to the child. Communicating with parents, also assist the professional in providing a consistent care for the child. There are parents who have the tendency to overcompensate for their absence by spoiling the child, thus contradicting what has earlier been taught by the professional, giving the child confusion over whose authority to follow (Moore.
1982). In the long run, the consequences would be great when it comes to authority since the child would be having problems believing that of his parents than of the caregiver who’s been with him in most of his waking hours. By maintaining an open communication, you are giving the parents the chance to reinforce the teachings that you have earlier started, making the child see the consistencies from both caregiver and parents.
Another factor which plays an important role in the success of home-based child care; would be the presentation of your role to the child, making the child understand what role you play in his or her life. This will avoid conflicts with parental role, when the child understand that you are just there to see to her needs while his or her parents are working. Establishing you role, as early are possible, and making the child understand this, will avoid any gap between the child and the parents; this will also avoid any possible dependence of the child to the care giver.
Because it is the caregiver who spends much of the waking time with the child, it is inevitable that a bond between you and the child be created, it is then very crucial to set boundaries to this bond, incase the setting changes wherein the child would be unable to let go of the caregiver and finds it difficult to re-establish trust to the parent. Still another factor would be your relationship with other professionals who provide support to your function as a caregiver.
This is important for constantly maintain, and to be introduce to the parent, incase interventions are necessary for the child. Maintaining a keen relationship with you support can aid in the over all care for the child and can assist in achieving a healthy goal for the child thought out the crucial years of growth and development. Caregivers influence socialization by their cultural ideologies. These ideologies affect caregiver’s language and social interaction with children.
Thus caregivers from child-care centers of varying socioeconomic statuses were found to have different expectations of children, which in turn, affected socialization practices and outcomes in the center. To provide a beneficial care-giving environment for the children, it is critical for professionals who care for infants and children to collaborate with families regarding socialization goals; one end of the spectrum being individualism and the other collectivism (Ahnert, et al. 2006. p. 670).
Collaborative care-giving refers to the support provided to parents based on knowledge and experience. American ideology regarding children is that they should be protected. Care givers and educators are mandated reporters by lay for child maltreatment, which includes physical abuse, neglect, sexual abuse and exploitation, emotional abuse and deprivation.
Reference
Page Moore, John (1982). Parents’ Choice of Day Care Services. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. Vol.461, Young Children and Social Policy, pp. 125-134 Phillips, Deborah. & Adams, Gina. (2001). Child Care and Our Youngest Children. Future of Children. Vol. 11. No. 1. Caring for Infants and Toddlers. Pp. 34-51. Retrieved from URL: http://links. jstor. org/sici? sici=1054-8289%28200121%2F22%2911%3A1%3C34%3ACCAOYC%3E2. 0. CO%3B2-9 Ahnert, L. ; Pinquart, M. ; Lamb, Micheal. (2006). Security of children’s relationships with nonparental care providers: a meta-analysis. Child Development. Vol. 77, No. 3, pp. 664-680.