Child Care Provider Education

Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases and Immunizations
The increase in life expectancy during the 20th century is due to improvements in child survival. However, infectious diseases remain a major cause of illness, disability and sometimes death. Immunizations and the control of infectious diseases is everyone’s responsibility. Child care providers need to be kept updated on the most serious diseases while the children are in their care. Immunization records are to be provided to the care giver before that can attend the day care center. Current information was provided to 40 care givers by the home economist. The participants learned why immunizations and infectious diseases are important to their clientele. Vaccines are among the most cost-effective clinical preventive services of any preventive service package. Keeping up to date with childhood immunizations is the best way to prevent many diseases and keep everyone healthy. Providing culturally appropriate preventive health care is an immediate responsibility for the protection of our future. Participants were provided with website information and current handouts from the CDC. Other topics included: food and agricultural practices, food safety, outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases.

Connections Child Day Care Providers
“Taking the Edge Out of Stress” workshop was also provided for the Connections Agency clientele who also need assistance acquiring continuing education credits. The first training was provided by the home economist at the Gallup Community Pantry. In attendance were 6 male and 32 female CCP (Child Care Providers) from McKinley County. The program was well received, and all of the participants indicated that they needed more training in this area. They also mentioned that children have stress also and the combination takes its toll at the end of the day. These participants like Project Success were surprised that by taking care of their basic needs they can avoid distress. The second Stress Management Class was offered and 38 people completed the 4 hour course and received credit for licensure.

Project Success (Gallup McKinley County Schools) Child Day Care Provider Stress Training
Child care providers need assistance in acquiring continuing education credits to keep their home day care service in compliance with the state and federal policies. The home economist provides quality training in several areas for their licensure. “Taking the Edge Out of Stress” training was held at the EDC. Taking care of several children day after day can be very stressful therefore, learning to keep distress from draining one physically, emotionally and socially helps to keep away various symptoms like headaches, backaches, ulcers, diarrhea, depression lashing out, or withdrawing from others. During the workshop participants learn the difference between Good Stress/Bad Stress, distress, unmet needs and participated in several activities that help alleviate stress. In short, both children and adults experience stress, but there are ways to deal with it. Most adults give first priority to children, last priority to themselves. 26 women attended and learned to deal with stress by taking several approaches they learned and forgot about to maintain healthy composure throughout their daily routine. Evaluation showed that most of the participants had never had any training in this area. Many of the participants were surprised that the simplest things such as exercise can relieve stress.

Prevention and Detection of Child Maltreatment
Child abuse is doing something or failing to do something that puts a child at risk of harm. Child abuse is more than bruises and broken bones it can be physical, sexual, emotional, or neglect. Physical abuse is shocking due to the scars it leaves, not all child abuse is obvious, such as emotional abuse. However, by learning the types of abuse and what you can do, you can make a huge difference in a child’s life. This two hour training was provided on October 21, 2010 at the Tohatchi I.H.S. Bldg. The workshop was attended by 40 men and women who are registered with the Fort Defiance Regional Child Care Providers Agency by and was presented by the home economist. Participants learned about the Myths: It’s only abuse if it’s violent, Only bad people abuse their children, Child abuse doesn’t happen in “good” families, Most child abusers are strangers, and finally the last myth Abused children always grow up to be abusers. The providers also learned the effects of child abuse and neglect. Knowledge was gained and providers seem sure that with the training they received they too can detect child abuse and neglect. Evaluation was provided by the Navajo Nation Child Care Providers Agency.

In 2011, provided an educational workshop to 57 child care providers at the Regional Early Care and Education Conference. The educational workshop assists providers in obtaining certificates to meet child care licensing and registration requirements. The workshop focused on how adults can encourage healthy eating and promote physical activity among children. Ideas were provided to child care providers for ways to make food fun and for supporting the physical growth and development in children. Evaluation statistics for the workshop indicate that 75% of participants increased their knowledge of how to choose moderate food portion sizes; 70% of participants increased their knowledge of how to make smart choices from every food group; 65% of participants increased their knowledge of how to eat a variety of foods from the food groups each day for good health; 55% of participants increased their knowledge of how to promote physical activity among children; and 54% of participants increased their knowledge of why physical activity is important for maintaining a healthy body. In addition, 100% of participants reported that they will prepare the recipes they obtained from the workshop for children; 100% of participants reported that the information covered in the workshop was useful to their jobs; and 97% of participants will use the physical activity ideas for children learned from the workshop. Some of the participant comments included: “ I was able to get a lot of ideas and information out of this workshop”, “the class was very entertaining and the instructor was knowledgeable”, “it was a good presentation, I have learned a lot”, “it gave us a lot of good ideas to get our kids eating healthy and exercising right”, and “Educational and useful class that I can use in my day care and my family. I liked how Ms Knight went into detail about how nutrition and physical activity is important to our health! Handouts were very helpful!”