Lesson 6 : Six Basic Types of Child Development Centers
Supplemental Care
Supplemental care extends the strengths and talents that parents have for caring for and educating their children. All early childhood education and especially child care should be considered a support service for families. Supplemental-care arrangements support parents with nurturing and educating their children in the hours during the day when they must be at work using their time, energy and talent to provide material resources for the family. Child-care teachers and caregivers must firmly grasp the idea that they simply do for the child the things that a good parents would do if she or he were available and make every effort to serve as a support for each family system. Parents can learn a great deal from their contacts with qualified caregivers and teachers, increasing their levels of parenting competence.
Managers and staff involved in supplemental-care programs must value highly parent-child bonding and attachment and work to strengthen, never to undermine, these crucial emotional relationships.
Participants