Toddlers and preschool children are just beginning to develop their social skills and expressing their feelings verbally.  Talking with young children helps them to develop their self-esteem, self-worth, and confidence. The following are some tips on communicating effectively with kids.

• Be an active listener. Young children are just beginning to develop their language skills, and may feel unsure when they are verbally expressing themselves. It is important to be an active listener when you’re speaking with a child. When they become frustrated searching for words while trying to tell you something, repeat back to them how you think they are feeling based on what they’ve said. This helps them to feel respected and comfortable, and eases frustration.
• Talk with children. Try not to “talk at” children, talk with them. Talking with children allows them to have a conversation with you, making communication a two-way street.
• Be patient. Many kids are going to struggle with finding words, or babble on about different things. Try not to interrupt them while they are speaking. Be patient and let them finish their thoughts before responding.
• Speak to kids at their level. Squatting down so that you are at eye-level with a child when you are talking with them is a very powerful communication tool. It makes them feel respected, and you may be able to tune in better to what they are thinking and feeling when you’re making direct eye contact at their level.
• Use kind words. Use kind words when you are communicating with kids. Instead of saying, “You made such a mess!” Consider saying, “Please help me pick up the toys.” This type of communication will give the child more confidence, and encourage respectful communication.
• Be polite. Say please and thank you, and you’re welcome when you are talking with children. Even the smallest people deserve common courtesy, and this will encourage children to model this behavior with others.

Communicating effectively with a child helps boost their self-confidence, and create a positive and low-stress environment. Good communication cultivates relationships based on respect and empathy for others, and helps children to feel safe and comfortable when expressing themselves verbally.

If you are an experienced childcare provider, you already know about the importance of establishing a daily routine for the children in your care. Creating a structured environment in daycare is crucial for a number of reasons. From morning drop off to evening pick up, children feel comfort and confident when daily routines are in place. The following are some reasons why establishing a daily routine is helpful.

• Routines help build up trust levels between the child and the care provider.Children feel more secure and confident in their environment if they have a good sense of the daily schedule.
• Consistency in the daily schedule helps ease separation anxiety in young children, and provides and overall feeling of well being amongst children. Routines set a good tone for the day!
• A daily routine helps reduce chaos and behavioral incidents. When children understand what is expected of them and timing of activities, it helps them with their time and behavior management skills.

The following is a sample daily schedule (from Lehigh University’s daycare center) that you may consider adapting to establish your own routine:

7:30 – 9:30 Drop off and free play

8:30 – 9:15 Breakfast time

9:15-9:30 Free Play

9:30 – 10:00 Small group activities

10:00 – 11:00 Outdoor play or gross motor play

11:00 – 11:30 Story time – tolieting

11:30 – 12:00 Lunch for babies, toddlers and young preschoolers – Older preschoolers have free play

12: 00 – 12:30 Lunch for older preschoolers – Tolieting and story time for younger children

12:30 – 1:00 Naptime for younger children – Older preschoolers tolieting and naptime

2:00 – 2:45 Children begin waking up from nap

2:45 – 3:15 Snack time

3:15 – 3:30 Group time

3:30 – 5:30 Outdoor and indoor free play – Story time – Nap Time

Creating an informative and welcoming information board for parents should be a vital element in your parent communications plan. An information board is a great way to set a welcoming tone for your daycare and an excellent tool for posting important messages.

Keep in mind that you want to make sure the information board is posted in a highly visible spot in your daycare. Referring to the information board in communications with parents and updating it often are also great practices so that folks continually review it. Information on your board should convey warmth, and a sense of partnership with parents. We’re hopeful that the tips below are useful in creating an effective information board.

• Clear heading: you may want to consider purchasing colored foam or felt to cut and create letters that spell out ‘Parent Message Board’ across your information board.
• Background: Felt or wrapping paper makes a great background for information boards. You can also paint the background of your bulletin board as an alternative. If you choose to use wrapping paper, you can alternate backgrounds based on different themes or seasons.
• Fun 3-D accents: Legos, buttons, crayons, puzzle pieces, and colorful wooden shapes are fun additions to consider for your message board. A little hot glue and some creativity is all you need to make an eye-catching information board!
• Pushpins: If you plan to hang important messages up with pushpins, make sure you always use the same amount of pins for safety reasons. If one falls out, you don’t want them falling into little ones hands!
• Important messages: Consider framing important messages or printing them on brightly colored paper to ensure that they are highly visible.
• Border: Try outlining your board with some fancy ribbon or a cute paper border.
• Menu: If your daycare program serves breakfast or lunch, you may want to post the weekly menus on your information board. Some creative ideas for menus include creating a menu that looks like a restaurant menu, or making the backdrop of your menu a place setting, complete with place mat, utensils, and napkin.

You may be asking yourself what type of information you’d want to include on your information board. The following is a list of things that are typically included on parents information boards.

• Menus (if you serve breakfast or lunch)
• Profiles of center staff
• Lesson plans or activities
• Daily routines
• Policy, allergy, and emergency procedure information
• A copy of your newsletter
• Any special activities

To help avoid inevitable morning meltdowns, it’s a good idea to talk with parents about establishing a clear and consistent drop off routine for their children. It might be helpful to post a guide for drop offs and pick ups on your daycare message board. Young children appreciate the predictability of daily routines, from daycare drop offs and pick ups to nap time and bedtime.

Developing the drop off procedure in collaboration with a child’s parents is the key to success. Although the drop off routine will not prevent the child from crying all the time, it will help tremendously over the long term. The predictability of the daily ritual will help the child to remain calm when the parent leaves for work.

There is no need to create a complicated and drawn out drop off process. In fact, this may make separation even more difficult. The process can be as simple as the parent helping the child hang up their coat and put their things away in their cubby, then finding a favorite toy or book, and waving goodbye.  Parents also may want to provide their child with something familiar from home to ease their separation anxiety. As a provider, it is important that you comfort the child for a few moments if they are having a difficult time.

For more information on separation anxiety, check out our Childcare Challenges Series.

Keeping the lines of communication open with parents is a crucial part of providing quality care for their children. Parents should know what’s going on with their child at daycare, and feel comfortable addressing any issues with caregivers. We’ve outline a few best practices below on how to create a collaborative and communicative relationship with parents. We welcome your own communication suggestions as well!

• Daily update notebooks: One effective communication tool is having a daily update notebook for each child or certain children. Though this may seem labor intensive, keep in mind that the updates don’t have to be lengthy! Concise, clear updates about how the child’s day went are sufficient. Parents can also update the notebook to let you know how the child is feeling or acting before drop off in the morning, so that you know what to expect.
• Verbal communication: A simple way of keeping the lines of communication open is talking with parents when they pick up or drop off their children.
• Being accessible: Create a culture that is warm and open by encouraging parents to contact you and your staff over the phone or email. This will help build trust and cultivate a communicative relationship.
• Weekly or monthly newsletters: What’s going on at your center this week? A newsletter is a great way to convey the weekly or monthly schedule, share news about the center, and update parents on new themes and activities.
• Progress reports: It’s good practice to do progress reports for each child on a periodic basis. Tracking a child’s development in this way is helpful for both caregivers and parents.
• Suggestion box: Another effective tool is creating a suggestion box and encouraging parents to provide constructive feedback. A suggestion box should never replace verbal communication, but it is a good means for parents to leave quick, constructive feedback.
• Parent/teacher conferences: Scheduling parent/teacher conferences is also a wonderful way to keep the lines of communication open. You can designate an evening for parents to come in and talk with staff members about their child and provide feedback.

The more effective your communication plan is, the happier parents will be with your service! We are hopeful that you found some of the suggestions above informative and helpful.

As a new provider, you may feel overwhelmed by how to manage the daily operations of your daycare service. Childcare Training Info has started the Childcare Daily Series to help guide new and veteran providers in the management of daily operations. In this series, we address a number of topics that are relevant for all daycare providers, including but not limited to: establishing routines, communicating with parents, paperwork, dealing with late payments, and building  message boards. We are hopeful that this guide will help provide some suggestions on how to make the day-to-day a little less daunting! We welcome your suggestions on how we can improve the guide, and new topics to address.

• Childcare Daily: Drop off procedures – how can you collaborate with parents to create a smooth and comfortable transition into daycare for their child?
• Childcare Daily: Routines – what are some tips for creating a structured environment for children to enjoy?
• Childcare Daily: Building a message board – how can you create an appealing and informative message board for parents and children?
• Childcare Daily: Communicating with parents – what are some strategies and ideas for keeping the lines of communication open with parents?
• Childcare Daily: Customer service – how can you ensure you are providing top-notch customer service on a daily basis?
• Childcare Daily: 10 rules for interacting with kids – what are some tips for building a solid and caring relationship, and earning the respect of the children in your care?
• Childcare Daily: Dealing with late payments – how do you deal with the sticky situation of late payments with grace and tact?
• Childcare Daily: Paperwork, paperwork, paperwork – what are some tips for dealing with the seemingly endless piles of paperwork?