The Babies Can’t Wait Blog has moved. Please click on the following link to find it under its new name. You can follow our 3 posts per day from this link:

The Babies Can’t Wait Lady says: 

All other information about Babies Can’t Wait training and consulting remains on this website

Our Facebook Page is Babies Can’t Wait: International Training and Technical Assisstance

PLEASE NOTE: We are NOT in Georgia – we are NOT the Georgia early intervention program they call Babies Can’t Wait.  Talk to your local GA health department for them.

Thank you, Linda, the BCW Lady

The BCW Lady has a new Blog Site.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t link my blog to my other social media pages from here, so I had to create a new blog site and that’s where I will post from now on.

All other information on this website regarding training and consultation will still be here and be updated as usual.  It’s just the blog that has changed.

PLEASE VISIT AND BOOKMARK:    The Babies Can’t Wait Lady says:

When you visit, please sign up to follow me there!  I blog 3 early childhood tips per day with a different subject each week..

Warmly, Linda, the BCW Lady

The BCW Lady says: There will come a time with many parents when you have to help them look for full time child care for their young children. Do you know the signs? It doesn’t matter if you are a center-based teacher or a home visitor, you should be able to identify and describe quality full time care so you can help parents make informed choices. What do you look for? What do you see when you observe a full day child care situation?

The BCW Lady says: Quality Caregivers – Zero to Three recommends looking for a caregiver who is loving and responsive. One who hugs, rocks, cuddles, seeks eye contact and enjoys the child…who responds to the baby’s smiles and emerging skills and interests…who finds ways to expand upon children’s play to help them learn new skills…who is sociable and interested in children. One who talks with the baby about what they do and see… a playful partner who introduces new ideas, objects and games…who supports children in building relationships with other children and adults. Can you help parents identify this?

The BCW Lady says: Another thing home visitors often do with parents is help them observe and record what their children are doing. This is important for to meet school readiness goals – even with infants and toddlers. During group socializations for example, parents can enter observations in their portfolios.EHS supports parents during so the parents can provide the best possible support for their children. So this is not childcare in any way. Socializations focus on parents as they engage their children and that is how the developmental needs of the children are met.

The BCW Lady says: Environments – You must find and arrange settings that support high quality environments for infants and toddlers to explore and interact with their parents. This means access to toileting and hand washing facilities, refrigeration, heat and air conditioning if you live in areas that need them. It also means that home-based children with disabilities will be able to fully participate because your program will make the necessary adaptations to your setting and provide the necessary materials to allow them to be actively engaged and to fully participate.

The BCW Lady says: Home visitors – Remember that you work with parents during the whole time, not just during Parent Development Time. For example, you might be having informal discussions with parents as they interact with their babies.You also will probably have facilitated discussions on special topics – very possibly from the parents’ FPAs. In this case, if you don’t have extra help, parents will participate with their children nearby, with parents still being responsible for the care and well being of their children (diapering, feeding, watching, etc) That’s why you put the parent discussion area in the same room as the children. Your job (like during home visits) is to help parents work with their children, not to be “the teacher” of their children

The BCW Lady says: An EHS parent-child Group Socialization schedule should include a time for parents and children to play together, a time for parents and children to share a snack together, and a time when parents may be in a parent area (in the same room) discussing something of interest to them while their children play nearby. Aside from that, keep your times open and let parents and children have time to experience the environment without time restrictions

The BCW Lady says: Home visitors play a central role in group socializations – they are responsible for planning & implementation of socialization experiences BUT in collaboration with parents. They often request assistance from other EHS/HS program staff for assistance with set-up/break-down and/or preparation for the socializations experiences. Creating effective Socializations requires a clear understanding of the goals for infants & toddlers by all. Home visitors also have a key role in careful observation and documentation of strengths, growth, and needs.Remember parents are responsible for the safety and well-being of their child during socialization activities but home visitors also have a responsibility because the experiences are held in program environments so program liability protocols must be followed.

The BCW Lady says: The length of each EHS parent-child Group Socialization experience is based on the developmental level of the child/pregnant parent, the content of the socialization experience, & other child and family needs. My observations across the United States find they usually last somewhere from 1 ½ to 2 hours. More than this is just too long for babies and their parents. Always remember, this are not preschool parent-child groups and adjust your timing accordingly

The BCW Lady says: Environments for parent-child Group Socializations are identified spaces. This doesn’t mean they are only used for twice-monthly groups. In fact this is one way that programs afford space – they share rooms for other purposes such as parenting classes or various therapies. It is way too hard to expect home visitors to set up every time – and groups that have to do this tend to be less organized and less focused on individual parent-child dyads. Make sure your home visitors have a designated space – shared or otherwise.

The BCW Lady says: Sometimes administrators and supervisors worry if home visitors don’t get every family to every group socialization. But it’s OK – Remember we are dealing with infants and toddlers and they thrive best in smallish groups. Too large of groups overwhelm them and don’t allow for the best learning to take place. So EHS group socializations are smaller to facilitate responsive caregiving, and to allow home visitors to provide individualized attention and support to each parent and his/her child.