Citation

Endsley RC, Minish PA. Early Child Res. Q. 1991; 6(2): 119-135.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1991, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/0885-2006(91)90002-3

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Communication between parents and staff was observed in 16 proprietary day care centers during morning and afternoon transition (i.e., drop off, pick up times). Results revealed large, stable differences among centers in the frequency and usefulness of these exchanges. Approximately two-thirds of the transition time opportunities resulted in parent-staff communication, the median length of their conversations was 12 seconds long. About half of the conversations were more than purely routine and typically involved the giving of or asking for information about the child's behavior, health or day at the center. Analysis by time of day suggested that caregivers were relatively more accessible during the morning transition, while parents were relatively more accessible during the afternoon transition. There were also large differences in parent-staff communication in preschool versus infant and toddler programs favoring the younger age group in measures of frequency and usefulness. Follow-up analysis suggested that these age differences may be due more to the communication needs of infant and toddler staff than of parents.