Resource Library supporting child care quality in Wellington County   located at . in Wellington County   Fergus:  160 St. David Street South 519-843-7000, 1-800-840-3249   Harriston:  60 Elora Street South 519-338-5973; 1-866-638-6846   Guelph:  176 Wyndham St. N. 519-766-1550

 · MEETING THE CHALLENGE: EFFECTIVE STRATEGIES FOR CHALLENGING BEHAVIOURS IN EARLY CHILDHOOD ENVIRONMENTS& HELPING OTHERS MEET THE CHALLENGE: A FACILITATOR’S GUIDE
By Barbara Kaiser & Judy Sklar Rasminsky
Canadian Child Care Federation
There may be weeks between the moment when you first realize that you need help with a child with challenging behaviour and the moment when that help actually arrives. That is the hardest time, the time when you are most liable to burn out – and a time when the strategies here will be useful.

· THE INCLUSIVE EARLY CHILDHOOD CLASSROOM: EASY WAYS TO ADAPT LEARNING CENTRES FOR ALL CHILDREN
By Patti Gould & Joyce Sullivan
… This is not an activity book or a curriculum planning guide. Nor is it a collection of therapeutic interventions. Rather, this book is a resource manual on how to adapt “regular” curriculum activities for children with special needs. The authors offer concrete suggestions that are easy to implement and give Early Childhood Educators the tools to make their classrooms into effective learning environments for all children.

·EARLY CHILDHOOD ENVIRONMENTAL RATING SCALE – REVISED EDITION
By Thelma Harms, Richard M. Clifford, & Debby Cryer
The ECERS-R is a thorough revision of the widely used program quality assessment instrument, the ECERS. Designed for use in preschool, kindergarten, and child care classrooms serving children 21/2 through 5 years of age, the ECERS-R can be used by program directors for supervision and program improvement, by teaching staff for self-assessment, by agency staff for monitoring, and in teacher training programs. The established reliability and validity of the scale make it particularly useful for research and program evaluation.

· INFANT/TODDLER ENVIRONMENTAL RATING SCALE – REVISED EDITION
By Thelma Harms, Debby Cryer, & Richard M. Clifford
This scale is designed to assess programs for children from birth to 30 months of age, the age group that is most vulnerable physically, mentally, and emotionally. Therefore the ITERS-R Contains items to assess provision in the environment for the protection of children’s health and safety, appropriate stimulation though language and activities, and, warm, supportive interaction.

· FAMILY DAY CARE RATING SCALE
By: Thelma Harms and Richard M. Clifford
The FDCRS is designed to be comprehensive – and easy to use; while being realistic for family day care settings by not requiring that things be done as they are in child care centres. Keep in mind that there is not yet a “revised edition” of this scale, meaning that the indicators may not appropriately encompass supports for children with special needs.

· SCHOOL-AGE CARE ENVIRONMENTAL RATING SCALE
By Thelma Harms, Ellen Vineberg Jacobs, & Donna Romano White
The SACERS is similar in format to the ECERS, but the content is specific to the school-age care group. In order to develop a comprehensive rating scale for school-age child care programs, the authors drew from a number of sources. Rather than proposing a particular program philosophy, the SACERS is based on criteria for developmental appropriateness for school-age children. Keep in mind that there is not a “revised edition” of this scale, meaning that the indicators may not appropriately encompass supports for children with special needs.

· OCCUPATIONAL STANDARDS FOR CHILD CARE PRACTITIONERS
By Gillian Doherty
Canadian Child Care Federation
Occupational standards describe what a person in a particular occupation must know and be able to do to be considered “competent” at that occupation. The first four sections of this document present nine standards related to the skills and abilities and the core knowledge required for competent practice when responsible for a group of children.

· RESEARCH CONNECTIONS CANADA: SUPPORTING CHILDREN AND FAMILIES
Canadian Child Care Federation
A collection of research and development papers focusing on quality child care, including “Mentoring as a strategy for promoting quality in child care” (Gillian Doherty) & “Early childhood care and education learning outcomes” (Malcolm Read)

· EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION AND CARE IN CANADA 2001
By Martha Friendly, Jane Beach & Michelle Turiano
Childcare Resource and Research Unit
… While public policy has not yet begun to shift, Canadian understanding of an integrated concept of child care and education had begun to mature. Provincial and territorial early childhood education and care programs are covered in detail in individual sections within this document.

· FACT AND FANTASY: EIGHT MYTHS ABOUT EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION AND CARE
By Gordon Cleveland & Michael Krashinsky
Childcare Resource and Research Unit
This paper responds to popular myths about public financial support for high quality child care. The authors are economists at the University of Toronto who isolated 8 main myths about child care including the myth “providing good quality early childhood education for children would cost too much and therefore would harm the Canadian economy.”

· INCLUSION: THE NEXT GENERATION IN CHILD CARE IN CANADA
By Sharon Hope Irwin, Donna S. Lero & Kathleen Brophy
SpeciaLink
This latest publication from U of G’s Brophy and Lero (and Irwin) on Inclusive child care in Canada presents findings from their two most recent studies. The results have important implications for policy, research and practice aimed at ensuring that all child care programs have the capacity to offer high quality inclusive care.

· A MATTER OF URGENCY: INCLUDING CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL NEEDS IN CHILD CARE IN CANADA
By Sharon Hope Irwin, Donna S. Lero & Kathleen Brophy
SpeciaLink
Based on the front-line experiences of child care staff and directors … this book identifies what must be done to fully include children with special needs in all Canadian child care programs.

·IN OUR WAY: CHILD CARE BARRIERS TO FULL WORKFORCE PARTICIPATION EXPERIENCED BY PARENTS OF CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL NEEDS – AND POTENTIAL REMEDIES
By Sharon Hope Irwin & Donna S. Lero
SpeciaLink
In this unique study, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers explores barriers experienced by parents of children with special needs. It shows the extraordinary struggle these parents face in juggling work, family and child care.

· KEEPING THE DOOR OPEN: ENHANCING AND MAINTAINING THE CAPACITY OF CENTRES TO INCLUDE CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL NEEDS & KEEPING THE DOOR OPEN GUIDE
Dixie Lee vanRaalte, New Brunswick Association for Community Living
This project brought together child care consultants, staff and directors from PEI, New Brunswick and Saskatchewan. “In each site, educators who demonstrated both a strong desire to participate and a willingness to have their child care environments monitored and evaluated in order to effect change were chosen to be part of the project. It was hoped that these changes would enhance the overall capacity of centres to create and maintain inclusive programming.”

· CHILDCARE RESOURCE AND RESEARCH UNIT BRIEFING NOTES
A collection of briefing notes and project summaries from a variety of research projects and policy reviews from the Childcare Resource and Research Unit (CRRU) in Toronto. The CRRU is a policy and research oriented facility that focuses on early childhood education and care. www.childcarecanada.org

·CANADIAN CHILD CARE FEDERATION, RESOURCE SHEETS
A collection of resource sheets designed for “improving the quality of child care services for Canadian families.” Seventy resource sheets with topics such as “Stress in Children,” Helping Young Children Tell the Truth,” and “Caring for children with fetal alcohol syndrome”- can be photocopied as an educational resource for your child care staff.

· YOU BET I CARE: CARING AND LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS QUALITY IN REGULATED FAMILY CHILD CARE ACROSS CANADA
By Gillian Doherty, Donna S. Lero, Hillel Goelman, Jocelyne Tougas, Annette LaGrange
“ This report documents the findings of the largest, most systematic and most multi-jurisdictional study ever conducted in Canada to explore the relationships between quality in family child care homes and 1) provider characteristics and attitudes about family child care provision; 2) provider income levels and working conditions; and 3) the provider’s use of support services such as child care resource programs, networking with other providers, and professional development opportunities.”

· YOU BET I CARE: CARING AND LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS QUALITY IN CHILD CARE CENTRES ACROSS CANADA
By Hillel Goelman, Gillian Doherty, Donna S. Lero, Annette LaGrange, Jocelyne Tougas
“ This report documents the findings of the largest, most systematic and most multi-jurisdictional study ever conducted in Canada to explore the relationships between centre quality and 1) centre characteristics; 2) teaching staff wages and working conditions; and 3) teaching staff characteristics and attitudes.”

· THE OPTOMISTIC CHILD: A PROVEN PROGRAM TO SAFEGUARD CHILDREN AGAINST DEPRESSION AND BUILD LIFELONG RESILIENCE
By Martin E.P. Seligman
This book offers readers a description of the causes of pessimism, explaining how to identify danger signs in children, and outlining how to foster true self esteem by teaching them to play, think, argue, and express their feelings more effectively. …The book shows that learning the skills of optimism not only reduces the risk of depression in children but also boosts school performance, improves physical health, and provides them with the self-reliance they need as they approach the teenage years and adulthood.

· THE RESILIENCE FACTOR: 7 ESSENTIAL SKILLS FOR OVERCOMING LIFE’S INEVITABLE OBSTACLES
By Karen Reivich & Andrew Shatté
The seven skills outlined in this book teach you to evaluate the impact of your thinking on your emotions and behaviour. The authors claim that resilience - the ability to persevere and adapt when things go awry – determines happiness and longevity of relationships, work success and quality of health.

· REACHING IN … REACHING OUT: GUIDEBOOK AND TOOLKIT, RESILIENCE TRAINING: INTRODUCING THINKING SKILLS THAT HELP CHILDREN BOUNCE BACK
By: Darlene Hall, Jennifer Pearson and Karen Dykstra
RIRO – a research and demonstration project that includes some of our local child care programs – is designed to promote resilience in young children with material adapted from the Penn Resilience Program (see The Resilience Factor above). The GUIDEBOOK and TOOLKIT were created to increase awareness in child serving professionals of the importance of promoting resilience in children through adult modelling of resilient thinking and behaviour during our daily interactions.

· EMERGENT CURRICULUM
By Elizabeth Jones and John Nimmo
This book is highly recommended as part of the QC Library by Cheryl Stratton of Workside Day Care. Another reviewer claims that it “offers an enjoyable read and is an important step in moving towards the Project Approach. For those who are used to teaching with a theme-a-week, pre-written lesson plans (or something similar), this book takes you on a journey of transformation in a very relaxed way. As an early childhood teacher for over 15 years, this is the book that is first on my recommendations for teachers or programs wishing to provide high quality education. It is an easily readable book, mixing good practice with real characters for a book which at times reads like a good novel.”

· THE POWER OF GUIDANCE: TEACHING SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL SKILLS IN EARLY CHILDHOOD CLASSROOMS
By Dan Gartrell
NAEYC Publication
“ This compilation of well-received writings on approaches to young child guidance will be greatly appreciated by all those who work with young children. It is a valuable aid in understanding and managing childhood behaviours. Among the various features of this book, ‘patience’ and ‘understanding’ are differentiated as well as a discussion on ‘discipline’ versus ‘guidance.’

· DEVELOPMENTALLY APPROPRIATE PRACTICE IN EARLY CHILDHOOD PROGRAMS, REVISED EDITION
By: Sue Bredekamp and Carol Copple, Editors
NAEYC Publication
Expanding from the core ideas of the original, this volume spells our more fully the principles undergirding developmentally appropriate practice and guidelines for making decisions in the classroom and other settings for young children.

· DEVELOPMENTALLY APPROPRIATE PRACTICE: CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT IN EARLY EDUCATION, Second Edition
By: Carol Gestwicki
A critical component of developmentally appropriate practice is the idea of individual appropriateness; that is, that no absolute standard can be set that precisely meets the needs of every individual. This book is designed to help early childhood educators as they try to implement the philosophy of developmentally appropriate practice in their daily work. We, on the research side of QC Wellington, often referred to this book in formulating our feedback to our “quality consultations.”

· PATHWAYS TO COMPETENCE: ENCOURAGING HEALTHY SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN YOUNG CHILDREN
By: Sarah Landy
Highly recommended by staff at Infant and Preschool Support Services and Preschool Assessment Consultation Service as a great resource for workers in child care settings providing support to all children and families, particularly those who are considered to be “at risk.”

· LET BABIES BE BABIES: CARING FOR INFANTS AND TODDLERS WITH LOVE AND RESPECT
The complete set of 6 videos and guides
By The Manitoba Child Care Association
The six videos and accompanying guides in this series take viewers on a journey through the latest thinking on a variety of early care issues. Drawing on the personal experience of caregivers from both family and centre-based child care settings, as well as the work of leading experts, LET BABIES BE BABIES provides the practical advice that today’s caregiver needs. The written guides complement the videos and can be used by educators, facilitators, or individual viewers. The guides include further discussion of the central messages from the videos, discussion questions, learning activities as well as supporting articles and information.

Coming soon .

·         Emergent Curriculum (Jones & Nimmo)

·         Family Day Care Environmental Rating Scale