Abstract
High-quality child care has been proven to provide children with higher developmental outcomes such as later academic achievement (Wolfgang, Stannard & Jones, 2001) higher cognitive function (Li, Duncan, Burchinal, & Vandell, 2012; Ludwig & Miller, 2007; Wen, Bulotsky-Shearer, Hahs-Vaughn & Korfmacher, 2012), and higher social emotional skills (Dearing, McCartney, & Taylor, 2009; Doherty, Forer, Lero, Goelman, & LaGrange, 2006). In addition, high-quality child care constructs an academic buffer for children with lower socioeconomic status (Dearing et al., 2009; Goelman, Zdaniuk, Boyce, Armstrong & Essex, 2012; Wen et al., 2012). Quality of family child care has been shown to be significantly lower than other types of child care which can be developmentally harmful to the children who attend (Bassok, Fitzpatrick, Greenberg & Loeb, 2016; Gordon, Colaner, Usdansky & Melgar, 2013). To address this problem, the researcher created a two-hour workshop for family child care providers on quality standards in the block and science area based on the Family Child Care Environment Rating Scale (FCCERS). All presented materials and resources were selected to help family child care providers gain better understanding of how to create a quality environment in the block and science areas of their programs and inform the providers of the optimal developmental benefits from having a block and science area in their programs. This workshop was reviewed by experts in the field and evaluated by 24 adults who provide care for children, with 20 being family child care providers and 4 who work in a child care center. Findings showed that all participants found the workshop informative and helpful. As a limitation, this project did not cover all the environmental aspects of the FCCERS. The next step would be to create workshops to help family child care providers with the other areas that are covered to help create a cohesive quality program based on the standards provided by FCCERS.