Know

Developing your sense of professionalism does not happen overnight. On the contrary, it is a process that involves a wide range of experiences. Just like when you are learning a new skill, you have to invest time and effort in getting information, practicing new things, and interacting with other individuals. Nurturing your professionalism requires ongoing work, energy, and commitment. In your daily interactions with children, youth, and families, you always bring who you are: your interests, your personality, your temperament, your background experiences, and your special abilities and talents. 

Characteristics of Effective Professional Family Child Care Providers

Professionals who deal directly with children and their families have a special obligation to behave in ways that benefit those they serve. According to the author of Professionalism in Early Childhood Education, Stephanie Feeney, values that are foundational to professions based on human relationships are caring, compassion, empathy, respect for others, and trustworthiness. Effective early child care professionals above all are dedicated to serving the needs of children, youth, and families. As a family child care provider, you should have a clear mission and philosophy that you can express and that you demonstrate each day through your professional behavior.

Essential elements of professional behavior include knowledge and skills about a field, communication and relationship skills, work ethic, and professional ethics. Each of these elements is further discussed below.

Knowledge and Skills

A family child care provider who wants to behave in a professional manner must acquire the skills and knowledge needed to work with children, youth, and families. Understanding children’s development across a variety of ages is absolutely essential in family child care. Individual courses within the Virtual Lab School provide extensive information on the specific topics you need to know in order to expand your knowledge and skills as a family child care provider.

You should refer to these courses for comprehensive information about child and youth development. Along with child and youth development, knowledge about topics such as safe environments, learning environments, healthy environments, positive guidance, child abuse, and family engagement will strengthen your competence and enable you to positively affect the lives of children and families you engage with. Optimum development is achieved when children and youth are healthy, emotionally secure, and socially connected. It is your job to:

• Make sure that children are healthy and safe by keeping a clean environment and promoting healthy habits.
• Make sure children are emotionally secure by responding to their cues and addressing their needs in a nurturing and timely manner.
• Make sure children are socially connected by fostering relationships between them and others during daily and program routines.
• Make sure that children’s families and home cultures are at the forefront of your work.

Communication and Relationships

An important aspect of your work as a family child care provider is the relationships you create and nurture with children, youth, families, and other supporting professionals. Establishing these relationships can make or break your experience. Relationships form over time and require ongoing effort and commitment. Whether you are engaging with children, youth, families, or community members, nurturing those relationships early on is critical to your success. While working with others can present difficulties or challenges, it is your responsibility to maintain professional conduct. When faced with a challenging situation, it may help to process your experience by seeking advice or feedback from a trusted colleague or mentor.

Work Ethic

Being a family child care provider can be rewarding and at the same time challenging. It requires dedication, commitment, problem-solving skills, and a willingness to learn, change, and be flexible to address the multiple and often complex needs of the children in your care.

A Developmental Perspective

When talking about professionalism, Dr. Lilian Katz identifies four developmental stages of those who care and educate children. As you read the information below on each of these stages, think about where you are in your own journey toward professionalism as a family child care provider.

Being an Effective Professional

Effective family child care providers enjoy their work and show it. They create positive, welcoming environments for the children, youth, and families they work with. And they strive for excellence in their interactions with others and in the experiences they plan. Effective professional family child care providers value collaboration and acknowledge it is important to work with families, other family child care providers, supporting professionals (e.g., staff members from schools and agencies), and community members. They also know it is important to have fun and laugh, celebrate successes, and acknowledge their efforts and the efforts of others.

You may plan joyful events that build community among the children you care for and their families. Some examples are celebrating children’s birthdays and family life events with potluck suppers, attending a professional conference with some parents in your program, organizing family events at a local park, or inviting families to share a skill or hobby with the children in your home setting.

See

Do

Take time to review the practices listed below that highlight professionalism when working with children and families in your care:

• Respect each child and family in your care and acknowledge diversity and individual differences in growth, background, values, and beliefs.
• Demonstrate genuine interest about all children and families and make an effort to get to know them.
• Acknowledge that families know their children best and learn to view them as partners and collaborators in your practice. Reach out to them and invite their input.
• Keep information about children and their families confidential.
• Provide a variety of developmentally appropriate choices and experiences for children in your care.
• Have developmentally appropriate expectations about children’s behaviors and be proactive when dealing with challenging behaviors.
• Honor individual differences in children and families and strive to address the unique needs of those you serve.

Acknowledge all the great things children do on a daily basis and share those with their families often. Even though at times you may have to address topics of concern about children and youth with families, remind yourself to also highlight a child’s successes and positive attributes.