A CHILD AT the Addison County Parent/Child Center

Therapeutic childcare is a deep dive into social emotional development with a lens on building resiliency, strengthening and developing executive functioning skills, and on healthy attachments. Every aspect of the routine is met with dependability, warmth and curiosity here at the Addison County Parent Child Center childcare and Playlab preschool. The culture at the APCC is one that is unique. Many children have walked in announcing “I’m Home!”

Dependability that a child and their parents know who to expect when they arrive at the door daily is crucial to developing healthy attachments and trust. Staff come to work on a daily basis is one part; the other is when children know what to expect, the routine and rituals of the day are the same day after day. Facial expressions, tone of voice and words all match the adult’s faces throughout the day in order to foster security. Caregivers hold boundaries knowing that children thrive with the comfort of the physical and emotional fences provided. Children are seen as individuals that are treated with the idea that “fair isn’t always equal and equal isn’t always fair”; not everyone needs the same things throughout the day, teaching flexibility and empathy. Feelings are talked about and modeled all of the time; embarrassment and disappointment are given lots of attention to gain self-control skills. Supporting children in fixing their mistakes increases self-awareness, initiative and empathy.

Warmth grows relationships between the child and caregiver and slowly leaks between peers too. When behaviors are seen as a symptom there are more opportunities to play with a child and change the dance. Staying in very close proximity to anyone who becomes mad quickly and offering words to use and different choices to handle the anger supports peer relationships while building self-confidence, self-esteem and healthy attachments between both caregiver to child relationships and peer to peer relationships. All feelings are welcomed and encouraged to be used. When a child and their family enter the building daily they are approached with freshness of each day is a new day and new opportunities to learn.

Curiosity fosters all relationships, and supports the caregivers to see challenging behaviors as symptoms versus labeling a child. Transitions are seen as opportunities to practice skills such as self-control or healthy dependence or independence skill building. Another part of curiosity is self-reflection. Caregivers use a set of attributes, created and written by ACPCC staff, that is in the “I’m Home!!: A Manual for Providing Therapeutic Childcare.” There is space in the week to meet with other staff for peer supervision, offering another place for reflection. Clear and direct communication from caregivers to children and caregivers to parents builds trust, healthy attachments and co-regulation. Between staff it’s crucial to the work environment; there is an understanding that when the air is clean between adults then the atmosphere is clean and fun for children.

All children need space to work on social emotional skills in an environment with warmth, curiosity and dependability; who doesn’t need that as a strong foundation?