Family Child Care

The Family Child Care track is intended for early childhood professionals serving children birth through 12 years of age as home-based child care providers. This track offers training and professional development resources, including written narrative, video, skill building activities, and program tools. The Family Child Care track consists of courses that mirror the core Child Development Associate (CDA) competencies plus a course on preventing child abuse and one on recognizing and reporting child abuse.

Your first responsibility is to keep children safe from harm. In this course, you will learn important strategies for preventing child abuse and neglect. These include learning about typical child development and realistic expectations for preschool children, helping children express their emotions appropriately in order to solve social problems, responding positively to challenging behavior, and ensuring the safety of your program space.

Sexual Development & Behavior in Children and Youth

Sexual development and behavior follow a developmental path and is influenced by children’s diverse environments and experiences. This course will guide your understanding of factors that shape sexual development, how to build a program that promotes healthy sexual development in children and youth, and developmentally appropriate responses to all types of sexual behavior, including sexual behavior challenges or problematic sexual behavior.

Read the case study about Logan, then complete the activities on the following pages. Reflect on your responses with a coach, trainer, or administrator.

Logan is a 16-month-old in a toddler classroom who is thought of as a healthy and typically developing child with a supportive family. Program staff have noticed that during diaper changes, Logan often attempts to touch his penis in a way that appears to be self-stimulating. Logan will become upset and cry when staff quickly finish cleaning him up, preventing him from continuing. This only lasts a few minutes, and Logan quickly moves on to playing.

One morning Danielle, Logan’s mother, requested to change Logan’s diaper before leaving, explaining that Logan had a bowel movement on the way to the center. The staff observed Danielle respond to Logan’s touching by saying, “That’s nasty. Don’t touch your wee-wee!” as she quickly swatted Logan’s hands away from his genitals.

Case Study - Preschool: Avery

Avery is a 4-year-old child in a preschool classroom with social-emotional and communication delays. An intervention specialist and a speech therapist come to the classroom once a week to fulfill services on Avery’s individualized education program (IEP). The family has mentioned that Avery goes to weekly speech therapy at an outpatient clinic, too. Avery is the youngest of five children, and the program staff think the parents “baby” Avery. Staff members have discussed that the family let’s Avery “walk all over them.” Adam, Avery’s father, has shared that they feel bad for Avery because of Avery’s difficulty with speech, and the family feels the need to “spoil” Avery.

Avery primarily uses gestures, grunting, and long strands of “gibberish” sounds to communicate. It seems like Avery has a lot of thoughts but isn’t able to get them out. The program staff observe that Avery accesses the learning environment and physically engages in play similar to the other children in the classroom. Outside time seems to be Avery’s favorite activity.

Avery is interested in interacting with peers but is often ignored, likely due to difficulty understanding Avery’s speech. When Avery wants to play with another child, staff observe Avery doing the following: licking other children’s faces, giving unwanted hugs, and sometimes touching other children’s genitals over clothing. Avery thinks it is funny when children respond to these behaviors. Staff have noticed that these behaviors primarily occur during morning free play. When this happens staff respond by saying, “Stop, friends don’t like that.” While Avery stops in the moment, the behaviors have continued for several months now.

Case Study - School-Age: Devon & Kelly

Devon and Kelly are twelve-year-old children in an after-school program. They attend the same school and both claimed to be “boyfriend and girlfriend,” about two months ago; though they frequently “break up” and get back together. Devon and Kelly’s families are good friends, and they socialize together often. Other children in the program gossip about how the two of them “make out in Kelly’s bedroom” when Devon’s family is visiting.

Devon and Kelly have been observed to hold hands and put their arms around one another during the program, especially when getting off the bus and during outdoor time. Program staff have asked that they not engage in these behaviors and explained what types of touch are appropriate, but they need to be reminded of these guidelines. Sometimes when they are “broken up,” Devon will attempt to put his arms around Kelly even when it is unwanted. Program staff respond to this by telling Devon to, “Leave Kelly alone.” A staff member has separately spoken with both sets of parents about the behaviors and guidelines given to Devon and Kelly about appropriate touch while in the program. Both sets of parents seem to think, “kids this age will be kids.” Kelly’s parent responded that their behaviors are “cute” and says that this is the age when kids start dating. Devon’s parent found the behavior to be funny and stated, “Devon is learning how to chase girls.”

Washington State Child Abuse Video (Mandatory)

Prevention & Identifying and Reporting (Link Provided Above)

Sexual Development Course (Link Provided Above)