What does a child care aide do?

A Child Care Aide is primarily in charge of children's care and personal needs. They typically work at schools, offices, and even in residential areas. Their responsibilities include meeting the parents to identify the extent of the children's needs, developing care plans, monitoring the children's behavior, and updating parents regularly. They also perform various tasks depending on the children's age and needs, such as changing diapers, dressing, preparing meals and snacks, feeding, and toilet assistance. Moreover, a Child Care Aide must ensure a safe and healthy environment for children.
Child care aide responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real child care aide resumes:
- Work with the children with ABC's and numbers.
- Help with ABC's and numbers on part-time schedule.
- Provide activities of daily living for a child with autism.
- Purchase and order groceries and household supplies to keep kitchen and household stock.
- Provide individual needs prescribe in IEP and direct by teacher for students with autism.
- Coordinate recovery at nursing facilities, and rehabilitation treatment in the home setting, through VNA.
- Certify in infant, child, and adult CPR, first aid, and blood born pathogens.
- Assist with her daily ADL's such as bathing and dressing her, brushing her teeth and hair.
- Provide high-quality patient care within surgical, acute-care, rehabilitation, and nursing-home settings.
- Coordinate with patients and medical staff regarding scheduling of appointments and retrieval of medical documentation.
- Deliver patient belongings and information as well as provided exceptional assistance to patients and their families.
- Provide a safe environment for all clients-Protect client's HIPPA rights-Assist with ADL's-Provide companionship-Remind and monitor each client take their medications
- Prepare, plan, organize, and instruct interactive classes to engage children in bible and life lessons.
Child care aide skills and personality traits
We calculated that 37% of Child Care Aides are proficient in Child Care, CPR, and Behavior Management. They’re also known for soft skills such as Instructional skills, Physical stamina, and Communication skills.
We break down the percentage of Child Care Aides that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Child Care, 37%
Maintain confidentiality of General Services Administration, military families, and child care provider information.
- CPR, 29%
Certified in adult First Aid and CPR.
- Behavior Management, 6%
Enforced all general safety rules of center and enacted positive behavior management techniques when required.
- Child Development, 5%
Facilitated parent workshops on child development.
- Foster Care, 4%
Assisted mentally and physically disabled children in foster care with everyday living.
- First Aid Training, 4%
Specialized Training/Computer Skills/Professional Affiliations Microsoft Word/Power Point/Internet/Fax CPR/First Aid Training Honors Program-Overlea High School Early Childcare Assistance Program-Overlea High School IT Training
"child care," "cpr," and "behavior management" are among the most common skills that child care aides use at work. You can find even more child care aide responsibilities below, including:
Physical stamina. Another soft skill that's essential for fulfilling child care aide duties is physical stamina. The role rewards competence in this skill because "working with children can be physically demanding, so childcare workers should have a lot of energy." According to a child care aide resume, here's how child care aides can utilize physical stamina in their job responsibilities: "create activities to keep youth active and learning including planning art projects and creating physical activities and games. "
Communication skills. Another skill that relates to the job responsibilities of child care aides is communication skills. This skill is critical to many everyday child care aide duties, as "childcare workers need good speaking skills to provide direction or information effectively and good listening skills to understand parents’ instructions." This example from a resume shows how this skill is used: "maintained daily open communication with parents and created an enriching classroom environment. "
Interpersonal skills. child care aide responsibilities often require "interpersonal skills." The duties that rely on this skill are shown by the fact that "childcare workers need to work well with people in order to develop good relationships with parents, children, and colleagues." This resume example shows what child care aides do with interpersonal skills on a typical day: "facilitated strong interpersonal relationships, organized activities to stimulate children's physical, emotional, intellectual, and social growth. "
Patience. Another crucial skill for a child care aide to carry out their responsibilities is "patience." A big part of what child care aides relies on this skill, since "childcare workers need to be able to respond calmly to overwhelming and difficult situations." How this skill relates to child care aide duties can be seen in an example from a child care aide resume snippet: "maintain open communication with childern and parentsskills used patience with children and adults. "
The three companies that hire the most child care aides are:
- CARE54 child care aides jobs
- Learning Care Group13 child care aides jobs
- North Country School10 child care aides jobs
Choose from 10+ customizable child care aide resume templates
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Child care aide vs. Nanny
Nannies are family employees who are primarily responsible for taking care of children in the family's house. They are usually tapped to take care of the kids while the parents are at work or away on vacation. Their responsibilities include preparing food for the children, feeding the children, bathing them, dressing them up, ensuring that they take a nap, playing with them, and tucking them to bed at night. They also ensure that the schedule set by the parents is being followed. They may also do other household chores such as cleaning, watering the plants, washing the dishes, among others.
There are some key differences in the responsibilities of each position. For example, child care aide responsibilities require skills like "behavior management," "child development," "foster care," and "first aid training." Meanwhile a typical nanny has skills in areas such as "meal prep," "kids," "household chores," and "transport children." This difference in skills reveals the differences in what each career does.
Nannies tend to make the most money working in the non profits industry, where they earn an average salary of $41,844. In contrast, child care aides make the biggest average salary, $35,622, in the finance industry.The education levels that nannies earn slightly differ from child care aides. In particular, nannies are 0.7% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree than a child care aide. Additionally, they're 0.2% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Child care aide vs. Floater teacher
A floating teacher is in charge of teaching in various rooms and buildings, unlike most teachers with fixed room assignments. There are also instances where they teach at different schools. However, just like most teachers, their responsibilities still revolve around preparing lesson plans and coursework assessments, grading the students' papers, facilitating discussions, and monitoring the students' progress, assisting them when necessary. Furthermore, as a floating teacher, it is essential to maintain a safe and effective learning environment for students.
In addition to the difference in salary, there are some other key differences worth noting. For example, child care aide responsibilities are more likely to require skills like "behavior management," "child development," "foster care," and "cleanliness." Meanwhile, a floater teacher has duties that require skills in areas such as "childhood," "classroom management," "customer service," and "diaper changes." These differences highlight just how different the day-to-day in each role looks.
Floater teachers earn a lower average salary than child care aides. But floater teachers earn the highest pay in the finance industry, with an average salary of $49,360. Additionally, child care aides earn the highest salaries in the finance with average pay of $35,622 annually.floater teachers earn similar levels of education than child care aides in general. They're 0.3% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.2% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Child care aide vs. Toddler teacher
A toddler teacher is responsible for teaching young learners by administering physical care and monitoring their social and mental development. Toddler teachers prepare fun and engaging activities for the children and evaluate their behaviors and assess how they interact with the environment. They create lesson plans that adhere to the learners' appropriate curriculum, such as teaching them how to speak and count. A toddler teacher must comply with the safety guidelines to keep and promote a safe and healthy environment for everyone.
The required skills of the two careers differ considerably. For example, child care aides are more likely to have skills like "behavior management," "foster care," "cleanliness," and "first aid aed." But a toddler teacher is more likely to have skills like "customer service," "classroom management," "naeyc," and "toddler room."
Toddler teachers earn the highest salary when working in the finance industry, where they receive an average salary of $42,458. Comparatively, child care aides have the highest earning potential in the finance industry, with an average salary of $35,622.Most toddler teachers achieve a similar degree level compared to child care aides. For example, they're 0.4% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.1% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Child care aide vs. Baby sitter
A Baby Sitter is responsible for the welfare and safety of children while their parents or guardian are away. The tasks will vary on the age, behavior, or needs of the children. However, most of the time, a Baby Sitter must supervise the children's activities in a friendly and fun manner, prepare meals, assist in bathing or dressing, and get them to bed. There are also instances when the Baby Sitter must do some light chores, such as cleaning up after the kids or washing the dishes.
Types of child care aide
Updated January 8, 2025











