The demand is there. Parents are learning more about the early years. They now expect more than baby-sitting from their child care providers. They want their youngest children to have lots of loving attention. They want caregivers to keep their babies interested and active, so the youngest children will learn and grow.
Providing the best care for infants and toddlers can be challenging, but worthwhile.
The challenges are well known. It can be hard to find toys, books and games for children under three. It can be even harder to create the right environment and plan the right activities. And it can be expensive.
The Oklahoma Child Care Resource & Referral Association has good news for providers who want to care for children under three-and make money from it.
Our Infant Toddler Project offers several types of free support to providers. From helping you find materials and ideas for activities, to advising you on room arrangements, to providing six months of intense consulting, there is something to fit everyone's needs.
Contact our specialized staff members at 1-888-962-2772 (405/521-1426 in the Oklahoma City area or 918/834-2273 in the Tulsa area) to discuss your needs today. Or email us at birthtothree@oklahomachildcare.org.
For articles about caring for infants and toddlers, please click here.
To see/download our brochure that tells more about our Infant Toddler services, please click here.
To find out about our intensive Infant Toddler Enhancement Program (ITEP), please click here.
To see Oklahoma's guidelines for early learning, review OKDHS's publication, Oklahoma Early Learning Guidelines for Children Ages Three Through Five.
For other online information to help with infant toddler care, try one of the following web sites:
- http://www.zerotothree.org
Maintains a great deal of literature on child development, and even offers parent education information and a checklist - http://www.nncc.org/Series/good.time.infant.html
Tells you all about infants - http://www.nncc.org/Series/good.time.toddler.html
Tells you all about toddlers - http://www.firstconnections.nde.state.ne.us/resources.htm
Discusses infant and toddler development - http://www.cecpd.org/docs/ers-readicheckchildcare.pdf
Has an infant toddler environment rating scale, along with lots of links to helpful resources on the web - http://www.cecpd.org/docs/ers-readinesschecklist.pdf
This has a rating scale especially for family child care homes - htt://www.howkidsdevelop.com/ This link has information on child development from 0-5.
For free infant toddler resource materials, see the following links:
- http://www.ed.gov/pubs/edpubs.html
This has the Healthy Start, Grow Smart Series on ages birth to 12 months - http://www.nichd.nih.gov
This has materials on SIDS, such as brochures, magnets, door hangars and videos - http://www.chs-ca.org
This contains brochures, videos, training curriculum and a developmental wheel provided by the Children's Home Society of California