The Identifying Essential Elements of Childcare Project (IEEoC) was an early childhood advocacy project and the only one of its kind in Minnesota specifically focusing on the development of infants and toddlers in childcare settings. The IEEoC was the evaluation component of the Baby’s Space Expansion Partnership. The project spanned 13 childcare centers in Hennepin County (the seat county of Minneapolis, MN) tracking the effect of childcare environment and parenting behavior on infant and toddler development in a spectrum of childcare settings, focused on families eligible for subsidized childcare assistance. It is hoped that conclusions reached from this project will help policy makers and legislators in Hennepin County and the State make decisions about those services which are in the best interest of young children and families who are working.

IEEoC, the evaluation component of the Baby’s Space Expansion Partnership

IEEoC Project components included assessment and tracking parenting behavior as well as tracking the development of infants and toddlers placed in high-risk families attending childcare in Hennepin County. In addition, the dynamic changes in the infant and toddler care environs at the childcare centers were tracked at periodic intervals as well as the work attitudes, perceptions, and needs of childcare staff working at the participant sites.

Research instruments used included:

• Tracking the development of infants and toddlers through use of:
  • Bayley Scales of Infant & Toddler Development, 3rd Edition
  • Ages and Stages Questionnaires (ASQs), and its Social-Emotional supplement, and
  • Carey's Temperament Scales for infants and toddlers
• Evaluating life circumstances of parents and tracking their parenting behavior by in-person interviews. The questionnaires used were uniquely designed to capture parents’ life events and experiences, their social and emotional outlook, and elements that screen for depression in the parent.
• Evaluating childcare staff work attitude and their perception of participant infant/toddler development by self-administered questionnaires, and for the latter by using ASQ’s and Carey’s Temperament Scales.
•  Assessing quality of care by primary care providers in the childcare environment using the Infant & Toddler Environment Rating Scale – Revised (ITERS-R) & monitoring changes in quality of care. In fall of 2009, IEEoC partnered with CEED’s Assessment Training Center to implement the final cycle of data collection using the ITERS-R in the infant and toddler rooms in all of its 13 participant sites.

About Baby's Space

Baby’s Space, the original program located in Little Earth NELC, opened in 2000 and was previously operated by the Irving B. Harris Center (now Harris Programs within CEED). In fall of 2007, Baby’s Space: A Place to Grow, transitioned out of CEED to function as an independent non-profit organization. The Baby's Space model of integrating high quality child care and family support services for infants, toddlers, and their families was replicated in 2002 in three childcare centers in Minneapolis, namely, Northside Child Development Center (Catholic Charities), Turnquist Child Enrichment Center (A Chance to Grow), and Whittier Early Childhood Learning Center (Children's Home Society and Family Services) which resulted in the formation of the Baby’s Space Partnership in 2002.

Project Staff

• Michael Rodriguez, Principal Investigator  
• Naharajakumar Naharajakumar, MD, Project Coordinator
• Naharajakumar coordinated the Identifying Essential Elements of Childcare Project (IEEoC), the evaluation component of the Baby’s Space Expansion Partnership.
• Michelle Fallon
• Nam Keol Kim

Funding

The IEEoC project was supported until fall of 2008 by the Ruben Bentson grant in pediatric community health, administered through CEED with Amos Deinard, MD, MPH, Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics and Michael Rodriguez, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Educational Psychology and CEED Fellow, as the principal investigators.

This project was funded by the McKnight Foundation, The Minneapolis Foundation, Medtronic, and Thrivent Financial Inc.

This project was housed in the Department of Educational Psychology.

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