Chabot College Children’s Center is the newest PITC Demonstration Program. It began collaborating with the California Department of Education and WestEd in the academic year 2002-03. The Center is located on Chabot’s campus, which is east and south of San Francisco in Hayward. Like the other colleges that have PITC Demonstration Programs, Chabot has a highly diverse student population.

The Children’s Center accommodates college student schedules, providing care and education services for young children from 7:30 AM to 10:00 PM, Monday through Thursday, and closing at 5:00PM on Fridays. The Center cares for approximately 120 children, including those enrolled in Head Start, State Preschool, wraparound child care, and general child care. The infant/toddler component of the program, which participates in the Kidango Consortium, serves 29 children. Alameda County First Five funding supports both a parent resource coordinator and student resource coordinator at the Center.

Since becoming a PITC demonstration program, Chabot’s Children’s Center has begun planning a series of changes in their environment that have been inspired by the PITC. This photo tour gives an overview of the infant/toddler program and its plans for renovating the caregiving space.

Building on a Strong Program so Relationships Can Flourish

At the beginning of an academic year, each infant/toddler care teacher is matched with a primary group of children. The infant/toddler care teacher moves with the primary group as the children progress through the program. This approach to care exemplifies two of the PITC’s essential program policies: Primary Caregiving and Continuity of Care. In putting these policies in practice, Chabot is working to create a climate for care that (1) is responsive to the children’s needs and interests, and (2) fosters the growth of positive, emotionally secure relationships between the children and the infant/toddler care teacher and between the families and the infant/toddler care teacher.

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Being at the children’s level promotes physical closeness, which fosters young children’s development of emotional security. It also facilitates nonverbal and verbal communication between the teacher and individual child, which is essential for children’s language, cognitive, and social development. Planned changes in the environment will provide the teachers and the children with furnishings and equipment that make being together on the same level easy, natural, and comfortable.

At Chabot children freely explore their surroundings and make discoveries. Giving children freedom to move, make choices, and explore are critical aspects of PITC’s approach to fostering early learning. Every day, infant/toddler care teachers observe closely to decide how to get in tune with each infant and best support the child’s natural curiosity. The staff is using what they have learned from observations to redesign environments in ways that invite the children to explore, make discoveries, and learn.

At Chabot, toddlers are encouraged to participate in their own care. In these photos a child is helping to prepare for naptime. Providing opportunities for young children to experience success participating in daily routines builds their self-confidence and sense of competence.

Children’s experiences participating in routines are often reflected in their pretend play, as the following two photos show. Creating a setting in which toddlers and twos have ample opportunity to explore and learn through imaginative play is an important part of the PITC approach.

The photo of the room for infants (6 weeks to 12 months) shows a large window that looks into the napping area. As recommended by PITC, the room has a variety of protected play areas, and everything is on a scale appropriate for young infants. It has a loft for the infants to engage in active play, a pull up bar and mirror, and a quiet area for looking at books.

In another part of the infant room there are child-sized chairs and a child-sized table for eating and messy activities. Chabot follows the PITC recommendation to hold children during meal times or feedings until they are able to sit on their own at a small table such as the one shown in the photo.

Below are two photos of the toddler room that will eventually be remodeled to accommodate a group of two-year olds. The room currently is “home” to 12 children ranging in age from 12 months to 24 months. The large windows provide natural light. The amount of space in the room fits with PITC square footage recommendations for a group of active older toddlers or twos.

The Renovation Plans

As part of becoming a PITC Demonstration Program, the Chabot Center has sought to make their infant/toddler environments more intimate, to better support the PITC policies and philosophy. The staff is currently working with Louis Torelli, a PITC faculty member and nationally recognized expert on environments for young children, to develop plans to renovate the existing space. The plans include:

1: enhancing the infant room and play yard,
2: moving the two year olds (24 months to 36 months) to the existing toddler room, which will allow an increase in the twos’ total group size from 8 to 12 children,
3: converting an adult education room and adjacent outdoor area into a new room and yard for toddlers (12 months to 24 months), and
4: building an observation room.

The two-year olds are currently located in a narrow room within a relocatable building. The space is designed for eight 24-36 month-old children. The conversion of the current toddler room into a twos room will result in a setting that will accommodate 12 children and 3 infant/toddler care teachers.

The following two photos show the adult classroom that will be renovated to become the toddler room. The large amount of space for toddlers to move and explore, along with plenty of natural light, make this room the kind of space that can be easily designed to fit the PITC definition of a high quality toddler environment.

Here are two views of the patio area next to the adult classroom. This area will be renovated as an outdoor play area just for toddlers. There will be easy flow between indoor and outdoor areas, a key concept of the PITC. The trees and gardens will give the children appealing places to explore nature. Just as the PITC recommends, when completely renovated, this outdoor environment will be set up to offer the children everything they experience indoors—and more!

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