Education Commons^™

Child Care Center Directors' Perceptions Of Continuity Of Care: A Qualitative Investigation, Desalyn De-Souza

Child and Family Studies - Dissertations

Continuity of care, keeping a primary caregiver and children together throughout the first three years of the infant/toddler period or for the time that the child is enrolled in child care, is assumed to influence infant and toddler development positively. However, strong empirical support is lacking along with wide variation of implementation among early childhood programs. Employing a qualitative design, this study investigated child care center directors' perceptions of continuity of care as a quality indicator and best practice in early care and education programs. Twenty-one child care center directors were interviewed using a list of open-ended questions gauging knowledge …