E-International Research Journal Vol. 6 Issue 3, 2014
Enhancement Program on Day Care Children’s Development
Aileen V. Elarco
Southern Luzon State University
Lucban, Quezon
Philippines
aileenelarco@yahoo.com
ABSTRACT
This study intended to design an enhancement program on day care children’s development in Quezon Province. It
used a mixed-method research design in which qualitative and quantitative data were collected. A total of 168
respondents were the target beneficiaries, which included 16 day care workers, 8 MSWD workers, 24 parents and
120 day care children. The instruments used in this study were checklist/observation forms, structured and openended interview forms, and questionnaires. The gathered data were computed, analyzed and interpreted by utilizing
weighted mean, percentage, mean, Pearson r and t-test. The results showed that the day care children’s development
program has several problems in curriculum, guidance and interactions and assessment. Hence, an enhancement
program on day care children’s development was developed. Besides, it included the outputs subjected to tryout
such as rubric compilation, and prototypic session guide for day care workers. After the tryout, the findings revealed
that there was a significant difference in the post-assessment scores between the experimental and control groups of
respondents in all selected locales at Quezon Province. The age and length of service of day care worker respondents
also affect the day care children’s performance. The enhancement program was highly accepted as the performance
of the experimental groups has shown highly advanced performance. It is likely that the government, particularly the
DSWD, may support the needs of day care workers and children. Day care workers need trainings on the integration
of gender fairness and prevention from abuse and exploitation, material development, child-directed and small group
activities.
Keywords
enhancement, enhancement program, day care, day care children, development, children’s development
INTRODUCTION
The early childhood years are special time in the life of young children. During this period, they
begin to trust others outside the family. They gain independence, self-control and learn to take
initiative in socially acceptable ways. At the same time, they become keen observers of their
world and experiment with their surroundings to find out what happens when they interact with
other people and maneuver objects and materials. Indeed, children are little people who develop
differently. Understanding their development helps day care workers know the things that give
impact in children’s lives, and expectations from them.
Boyse (2012) defines child development as to child’s progress in doing complex things as they
get older. It is about developing core capabilities such as motor, language, cognitive and socialemotional skills, called developmental milestones which directly affect later performance.
Failure to reach milestones during early childhood leads to poor development of those skills
upon reaching teenagehood and adulthood, even with extraordinary intervention later in life.
Day care centers in the country have concern to help young children develop target milestones.
The day care program’s curriculum, guidance and interactions, and assessment give emphasis to
the importance of preparing children for school and future success. This is possible since the
Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) aims to review and update the
program on children’s development as indicated in its User’s Manual for the Accreditation of
Center-based Early Childhood Care and Development Programs.
In view of this, an enhancement program can help day care workers improve their services
towards children’s development. Thus, providing them with the learnings needeed for better life
and work in the 21st century.
E-International Research Journal Vol. 6 Issue 3, 2014
FRAMEWORK
Day care workers develop day care children in Quezon Province. Their demographic
characteristics, such as age, sex, length of service and educational attainment, affect children’s
progress. Besides, the day care program areas of curriculum, guidance and interactions and
assessment also influence children’s advancement.
To help day care children, there is a need for enhancing the program in the mentioned areas. It
starts with needs assessment to identify the existing problems. Besides, a good plan of activities
and available resources benefit the learners.
More so, several theories serve as foundations in this purpose. The theories of play by Piaget,
multiple intelligences by Gardner, and interactive learning by Vygotsky have bearing on the
outputs of this study, such as rubric compilation and prototypic session guide.
The process of the study included a structured observation in curriculum, guidance and
interactions and assessment procedure of the day care worker respondents. A structured and
open-ended interviews with several respondents supported and verified the quantitative results of
the study. Consequently, the instruments and enhancement program were developed and
validated by MSWD workers.
The dependent variable is the developed enhancement program on day care children’s
development. Its acceptability depends on program’s quality, usefulness to others and
educational significance.
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
Generally, this study attempts to design an enhancement program on day care children’s
development in Quezon Province. Specifically, the study aimed to determine the status of day
care children’s development program in terms of curriculum, guidance and interactions and
assessment; identify the problems on day care children’s development program; determine the
significant difference in the post-assessment scores between the two groups of respondents in the
target locales; correlate day care children’s performance and day care workers’ characteristics;
and to determine the acceptability of the enhancement program in terms quality, usefulness to
others and educational significance.
METHODOLOGY
This study used a mixed-method research design. It utilized the combination of the following
quantitative approaches such as observation questionnaires, survey and experiment and the
interview qualitative approach. Being able to mix different approaches has the advantages of
enabling triangulation. Thus, the researcher used a concurrent triangulation designed to confirm,
and corroborate findings within the study (Creswell & Clark, 2007). In this strategy, the
quantitative and qualitative research and data analysis take place at the same time (Pole, 2007).
In the tryout of the prototypic session guide, this study also utilized an experimental method
following the matched-pair design. There were two groups: the control group, which is exposed
to common session guide and the experimental group exposed to the researcher’s self-made
session guide. In this design, the groups were matched according to their 1 st evaluation and preassessment results.
A total of 168 respondents were the target beneficiaries, broken down as, 16 day care workers, 8
MSWD workers, 24 parents and 120 day care children.
E-International Research Journal Vol. 6 Issue 3, 2014
The instruments used in this study were observation and interview forms, acceptability
questionnaire and pre/post assessments. An observation form secured from the Provincial
Social Welfare Development Office (PSWO) in Lucena City was used to determine the status of
the day care children’s development program.
A 54- item observation form included statements on curriculum, guidance and interactions, and
assessment with a scale of 4= highly observed, 3= observed, 2= moderately observed and 1= not
observed.
Structured and open-ended interview forms written in English and Filipino were constructed
patterned after PSWO to determine the status of day care children’s development program and
acceptability of the enhancement program. The structured interview form contains questions on
curriculum, guidance and interactions, and assessment answerable by yes or no. On the other
hand, the open-ended interview form contains questions on quality of program, usefulness to
others and educational significance.
A 21- item acceptability questionnaire on the enhancement program patterned after the Rhode
Island Department of Elementary and Secondary Education program evaluation questionnaire,
2007 was developed. It included statements on quality of program, usefulness to others and
educational significance.
The 35- item pre/post assessments patterned after ECCD checklist, 2004 and Bethlehem Central
School District Preschool Skills Rubrics, 2010 were developed to measure the performance of
the day care children respondents before and after the tryout of the enhancement program. These
intended to measure the skills in gross motor, fine motor, self-help, receptive language,
expressive language, cognitive, and social-emotional domains.
Responses of the participants were analyzed using weighted mean, percentage, mean, Pearson r
and t-test.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
1. Demographic Characteristics of Day Care Workers
Results of the study revealed that day care workers were predominantly female, aged 35- 64.
Most of them were undergraduates and have been serving in day care centers for more than ten
(10) years.
2. Status of Day Care Children’s Development Program
Management of curriculum was not a serious problem among the respondents. They were willing
to comply in session planning, documenting, and reviewing the curriculum since they have
concern on children’s development. They had adjusted with the mentioned tasks through their
experiences with the help of MSWD heads/ workers .
Moreover, they executed physical exercises, interactive games, group indoor/ outdoor games at
least twice a week and special activities once a year. These were going on field trips, inviting
resource persons, gardening, cooking and making books.
All respondents had television and/ or karaoke in the center since parents or barangay council
were supportive sponsors of audio-visual facilities. The day care children could view educational
shows, sang, and dance with music. Thus, there was development of language, literacy,
numeracy and problem solving skills.
E-International Research Journal Vol. 6 Issue 3, 2014
More so, the respondents used materials from natural environment that promote inquiry and selfdiscovery. They love collecting local resources from nature since these could be used freely.
They also have resource center for children’s use located at the corner.
Despite its strengths, curriculum has problems in content and activities, as well as, in learning
materials. Respondents have not observed integration of gender fairness and preventive
education on child abuse and exploitation, as well as provision of puppetry, table games,
dramatic play and poetry.
In terms of guidance and interactions, the respondents demonstrated meaningful gestures and
desired behavior to children. They made eye contact while speaking, listening and responding to
the children and let the children say what they feel as they gave positive reactions.
Despite its strengths, guidance and interactions have problems in the execution of child-directed
and small group activities. They wanted to attend seminars on teaching strategies. But attending
seminars was expensive so only few could avail them free.
In administering assessment, the respondents have been using mother tongue in assessment since
it was mandated by DSWD and had been easy to use for communication. However, most of them
had no rubrics and they had no idea to create even a single rubric. Use of rubrics started few
years ago so they were not familiar with those.
3. Problems on Day Care Children’s Development Program
The foremost problem was neglect of executing child-directed and small group activities of
guidance and interactions category. The second major problem was absence of rubrics and varied
materials, especially in dramatic play, followed by neglect of integrating gender fairness and
prevention from abuse and exploitation in some lessons. The least problem concerns varied
creative activities.
4. Enhancement Program on Day Care Children’s Development
Based on the problems in the different areas, the enhancement program aimed to provide
different activities such as child-directed and small group activities, integration of gender
fairness and prevention from abuse and exploitation, provision of varied learning materials,
different activities, and development of rubric compilation.
There was a tryout of the program’s outputs through the collaboration of the researcher, LGU,
MSWD heads and day care workers. The LGU and sponsors were the sources of funds.
The tryout was successful since the experimental groups in the target locales performed better
than the control groups.
5. Results of Test of Difference Between Experimental and Control Groups
It was hypothesized that experimental groups in all target locales performed better than the
control groups.
There was rejection in the null hypothesis since there was a significant difference in the postassessment scores between the two groups of respondents in all target locales. Thus, their mean
performances in the post-assessment differed.
6. Results of Test of Correlation Between Day Care Children’s Performance and Day Care
Workers’ Demographic Characteristics
E-International Research Journal Vol. 6 Issue 3, 2014
The t-values of all target locales were significant. Thus, there was rejection in the null hypothesis
since there was a significant correlation in the day care children’s performance and day care
workers’ age and length of service.
The age of day care workers normally affected children’s performance. The younger the day care
worker, the higher the performance of the day care children. Their length of service influenced
the highly advanced performance of the children.
7. Acceptability of the Enhancement Program on Day Care Children’s Development
The respondents highly accepted the enhancement program for the following reasons:
The mother-tongue based rubric compilation was appropriate to the present needs of the day care
workers and children. Besides, the developed prototypic session guide and varied learning
materials corresponded to the objectives of the enhancement program.
The program tied in with the objectives of Republic Act 8980, Section 5. It followed the national
program goals and guidelines, instructional objectives and content outlines integrating local
learning, experiences and indigenous learning materials.
More so, the program is useful since it is adaptable in multiple settings. The respondents trusted
the program’s flexibility and usefulness since the indicated activities were appropriate for the
children residing in Quezon province.
To further, the respondents believe that the program addresses important individual and societal
needs with its design to improve learning among day care children for a wide spectrum. Thus, it
has educational significance as it created significant difference in the children’s development as
discovered during the tryout that the developed prototypic session guide and rubric compilation.
CONCLUSIONS
The respondents performed their tasks in curriculum, guidance and interactions, and assessment
but they overlooked the integration of gender fairness and preventive education on child abuse
and exploitation, provision of varied activities and materials, execution of child-directed and
small group activities, and utilization of rubrics.
The demographic characteristics of day care workers, particularly age and length of service, have
been affecting day care children’s performance. Children have higher performance under the
care of younger and more experienced day care worker. However, sex and educational
attainment of the day care worker did not affect the performance of the day care children.
More so, the enhancement program on day care children’s development was highly accepted as
the performance of the experimental groups has shown highly advanced performance.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The government, particularly the DSWD, may support the needs of day care workers and
children. Investment in day care program is important since it has immediate and long-term
benefits to children. Hence, financial support is greatly needed.
More so, day care workers need trainings on the integration of gender fairness and prevention
from abuse and exploitation, child-directed and small group activities. Seminars on instructional
development, particularly on dramatic play props, and different early childhood activities may
help them become more creative.
E-International Research Journal Vol. 6 Issue 3, 2014
Due to the successful tryout of the enhancement program, other municipalities may use the
prototypic session guide and rubric compilation.
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