How To Choose A Daycare Video

For busy working parents, daycare is the best option to care for babies and children. Learn how to pick a daycare with tips in this parenting video.

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Make sure licensed
Ratio for younger than one: 1 caretaker per 4 babies
Older than one: up to eight children to 1 caretaker
Make sure workers have been there

About this Author

Dr. F. Felicia Ferrara has more than 25 years of experience in psychology with a specialization in childcare and adolescent adjustment. Ferrara maintains a private practice in Tampa, Fla. and consults in Pasco, Hillsborough and Pinellas Counties within the family court system. She has trained many educators and psychology students on child assessment, diagnosis and treatment as a former associate professor in the university setting. Above all, Ferrara loves to circulate expert knowledge along with her vast background and training to help people with all types of childcare issues.

FELICIA FERRARA: Hello. My name Doctor Felicia the parent coach. And I have been working with children and families for over twenty five years. So I would like to talk to you today about how to choose a daycare. And of course today with working mothers, it is a very important question. For most parents, it is a very traumatic event to have to leave your child at the daycare and go off to work. But the truth is, daycare persons are well-trained. What you want to look for in a daycare is first to make sure they are licensed. You want to make sure about the cleanliness in the daycare. And you also want to look at the teacher-pupil ratio. Under one year old, there should be a ratio of like four babies to each caretaker, and in some cases it is two caretakers to four babies. As they get one year old and older, the ratio is up to a little bit where you might have eight children to one teacher. Now, a lot of these is up to you to search it. You can go to your web site, you can go to your local town hall and ask for daycare centers in the area and you can also go to your state's web site for licensed daycare workers. You want to make sure they are licensed. Another question you might ask is how long each personnel has been there, because if there is a lot of turnover in the daycare, their children have inconsistent care. So it is very important that you remember those things. Word of mouth is terrific from other persons. So look for licensing, cleanliness, teacher-child ratio and longevity of the staff workers. Make sure that they are there awhile. You can also ask for spontaneous visits where you can walk in to the daycare and observe for yourself. You can see is the other children seem content and everybody's happy playing their games or in their cribs, etcetera. And so with all those in mind, I wish you good luck as it is a very important choice that you make. Good luck. Thanks again.

How to Choose a Daycare Video

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