Child Care Provider Education (Otero County)

Short term objectives were met. The Home Economist in Otero County reported that 85% of the 39 participants who attended the workshop on play and the young child scored higher on the post test when compared to the pretest. Of the 43 participants who participated in the child development workshop, 95% scored higher on the post test than the pretest.

Forty-five participants at the Otero County Regional Early Care and Education Conference and 100 child care providers at the Lea County Child Caregivers Workshop (100% of participants) acquired 2-5 (depending on the county) continuing education hours to keep their employment as child care providers.

Provided an educational workshop to 45 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. In addition, participants in the workshop have an interest in learning how new skills and knowledge will help children develop. Providers increased their knowledge in the areas of child development, encouraging creativity in young children, and how teachers can help children learn through play.

43 participants completed the child development pretest and posttest. Of the 43 participants who took the pretest, 41 scored higher on the posttest. A comparison of pretest and posttest scores showed that 95% of the child care providers improved their understanding of child development by a 39% gain in understanding.

39 participants completed the play and the young child pretest and posttest. Of the 39 participants who took the pretest, 33 scored higher on the posttest. A comparison of pretest and posttest scores showed that 85% of the child care providers improved their understanding of play and the young child by a 36% gain in understanding.

Additional comments from child care providers participating in the workshop included, very good class, very interesting, awesome, fun, and great workshop. Participants also reported that the information covered in the workshop is useful to their jobs, the information presented is easy to understand and the written materials provided are useful.

A phone survey of county daycare center directors and family day care centers in Lea County was conducted 6 weeks after providers attended the annual Child Caregivers Workshop. 50% of providers were still employed in the day care industry in Lea County.

392 home based and center based child care providers attended workshops in Bernalillo, Lea, and Otero counties and received 2-6 hours (depending on the county) of continuing education credits. Participants attended Regional Early Childcare and Education Conferences or individual workshops conducted by County Extension offices. At the completion of the workshops, 75- 98% of the participants (depending on the county) increased their knowledge level on a variety of subjects such as discipline, praise, or nutrition education.

Provided an educational workshop to forty-five 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. In addition, participants in the workshop have an interest in learning how new skills and knowledge will help children develop. Providers increased their knowledge in the areas of mental and physical development of children, encouraging creativity in young children, planning healthy snacks, and food safety. Ninety-eight percent of the providers indicated that they plan to use the techniques they learned in this workshop with the children they care for including how to be more creative with items that are already on hand in the home, allowing children to use their own ideas more to encourage their creativity, items for creativity can be simple and not expensive, and that a variety of materials can be used with children and adapted for different age groups. Providers also reported on the evaluation that they learned how children develop at different rates and not necessarily by age and they gained knowledge of techniques that can be used with children that develop at different levels. Several providers stated that they will now make sure creative activities are age appropriate for children.