Omaha World-Herald, October 2 2009
Making faces and cooing while holding a baby may seem fun, even a bit silly.
But that simple act isn't silly at all. It helps the baby build a relationship and feel secure, learn the most basic foundation for language, and start to interact with the world around him.
It's the sort of thing you see at Omaha's two Educare centers, which provide free care for low-income children while their parents work or attend school.
Everything that happens with the youngest learners is designed to give them strong foundations in language, cognition, social-emotional and motor skills. Walk past the infant room, and you'll likely see a teacher cooing, rocking and talking to a baby.
On Thursday, the second center, at 31st and W Streets, celebrated its grand opening. The other center is at 2123 Paul St. Both are connected to elementary schools in the Omaha School District.
The centers are funded by a mixture of federal funding for Head Start and Early Head Start, private funding from the Buffett Early Childhood Fund, Nebraska's early childhood endowment fund and other grants. There is a waiting list of more than 300 children.
Fifty of the 120 infant slots are reserved for the children of teen moms. The babies can come to the center as early as 14 days old so mom can get back to school. Most Nebraska day care centers won't serve babies younger than 6 weeks old.
Others join at 2, 3 or 4 years old and stay in the year-round, all-day program until it's time for kindergarten.
The infants sleep when they're tired and are fed when they're hungry, allowing them to be on their own schedule, said Omaha's Educare director, Gladys Haynes. That often means more one-on-one time with a teacher when they're awake.
Most of the time, when an infant is awake, one of three teachers for each eight children is making sure the babies are stimulated. The state's minimum infant-to-adult ratio for licensed day cares is four-to-one.
Teachers talk, babble and tell stories to build language. They make faces, encouraging the baby to mimic.
A teacher is on the floor with a baby as he plays on his tummy, strengthening his neck and shoulders. That teacher might walk around the room to see if the baby tracks her movements. Or make a noise away from the baby to see if the child responds.
Each child has an individual lesson plan because they develop at different rates, especially when they're that young, Haynes said. Staff don't sweat it if a child is 3 before fully potty trained, or not walking until 16 months.
“No study has linked IQ and potty training,” Haynes said. What's most important early on, she said, is language.
Last year's Educare program evaluation showed that more than 76 percent of children 11 months or younger were on target in terms of language development, based on a measurement called the Early Communication Indicator. That percentage climbed to more than 80 for children between 3 and about 4 years old.
And a study completed last spring showed children who learned in the nation's seven Educare centers for three years or more headed to kindergarten with school readiness scores higher than the national average for all children.
At the end of the school day, staff suggest activities to do at home.
Parents are encouraged, above all, to talk to the babies and toddlers — about what they see at the grocery store or ATM, what's around the house or even telling them about their day. That exposes them to language and vocabulary even more than reading books.
That work with parents gives parents hope and change what they believe is possible for their babies, said program evaluator Lisa St. Clair, who works with the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
“Parents expect their children to get a mater's degree, a doctorate,” she said, which is atypical for low-income parents, often without high school diplomas.
St. Clair said one of the most important things Educare gives its students is a sense of themselves as learners.
“When they leave here, if they already perceive themselves as smart, they know they're a good learner, that's going to be all the way through.”
Contact the writer:
444-1037, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Facebook