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What does a child care provider do?

Updated January 8, 2025
7 min read
What does a child care provider do

A childcare provider is responsible for supervising a child's safety while developing fun activities and assisting the child's needs throughout the day. Childcare providers' duties include ensuring that facilities are safe for the child's use, monitoring the child's routines, serving healthy meals, assisting the child with homework, and reporting any concerns to their parents or guardians. Childcare providers must have excellent time-management skills and should be able to multi-task to attend with the child's needs.

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Child care provider responsibilities

Here are examples of responsibilities from real child care provider resumes:

  • Provide first aid and CPR, prevention of the spread of blood borne pathogens and access of emergency services as needed.
  • Maintain necessary documentation for licensing as well as certifications including CPR.
  • Complete accurate and timely documentation on kids' behavior as outlined by policy.
  • Accumulate early childhood experience through daily interactions and continual training sessions.

Child care provider skills and personality traits

We calculated that 25% of Child Care Providers are proficient in Nutritional Meals, Child Care, and CPR. They’re also known for soft skills such as Communication skills, Instructional skills, and Interpersonal skills.

We break down the percentage of Child Care Providers that have these skills listed on their resume here:

  • Nutritional Meals, 25%

    Planned and provided nutritional meals, educational and recreational activities.

  • Child Care, 22%

    Major Accomplishments Certified First-Aid Worker Multiple Child Care Certificates Certified Serve Safe Worker

  • CPR, 11%

    Completed all training required for CPR, first aid, safety and food handling required for promotion to civil service employee.

  • Homework Assignments, 9%

    Assisted with educational learning activities & homework assignments.

  • Social Development, 4%

    Supported children's emotional and social development by encouraging positive behavior and healthy eating.

  • Applied Behavior Analysis, 3%

    Studied Applied Behavior Analysis to ensure constructive interaction and adequate feedback.

Common skills that a child care provider uses to do their job include "nutritional meals," "child care," and "cpr." You can find details on the most important child care provider responsibilities below.

Communication skills. One of the key soft skills for a child care provider to have is communication skills. You can see how this relates to what child care providers do because "childcare workers need good speaking skills to provide direction or information effectively and good listening skills to understand parents’ instructions." Additionally, a child care provider resume shows how child care providers use communication skills: "job skills: verbal and written communication skills, medication administration, cpr certification, etc. "

Interpersonal skills. Another skill that relates to the job responsibilities of child care providers is interpersonal skills. This skill is critical to many everyday child care provider duties, as "childcare workers need to work well with people in order to develop good relationships with parents, children, and colleagues." This example from a resume shows how this skill is used: "assist children in academic and personal/social growth development-to include interpersonal, organizational and conflict resolution skills. "

Patience. For certain child care provider responsibilities to be completed, the job requires competence in "patience." The day-to-day duties of a child care provider rely on this skill, as "childcare workers need to be able to respond calmly to overwhelming and difficult situations." For example, this snippet was taken directly from a resume about how this skill applies to what child care providers do: "manage all day-to-day operations of daycare/preschool provide excellent child care with patience and understanding. "

Physical stamina. A commonly-found skill in child care provider job descriptions, "physical stamina" is essential to what child care providers do. Child care provider responsibilities rely on this skill because "working with children can be physically demanding, so childcare workers should have a lot of energy." You can also see how child care provider duties rely on physical stamina in this resume example: "prepared a checklist and monitored each child's social/emotional development, physical development, cognitive development and linguistic developmental stages. "

All child care provider skills

The three companies that hire the most child care providers are:

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Compare different child care providers

Child care provider 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.

We looked at the average child care provider salary and compared it with the wages of a toddler teacher. Generally speaking, toddler teachers are paid $2,442 lower than child care providers per year.While the two careers have a salary gap, they share some of the same responsibilities. Employees in both child care provider and toddler teacher positions are skilled in child care, cpr, and social development.

While similarities exist, there are also some differences between child care providers and toddler teacher. For instance, child care provider responsibilities require skills such as "nutritional meals," "homework assignments," "applied behavior analysis," and "meal preparation." Whereas a toddler teacher is skilled in "customer service," "open communication," "classroom environment," and "classroom management." This is part of what separates the two careers.

Toddler teachers earn the highest salaries when working in the finance industry, with an average yearly salary of $42,458. On the other hand, child care providers are paid more in the finance industry with an average salary of $47,625.On average, toddler teachers reach similar levels of education than child care providers. Toddler teachers are 1.2% more likely to earn a Master's Degree and 0.1% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.

Child care provider 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.

Baby sitter positions earn lower pay than child care provider roles. They earn a $2,173 lower salary than child care providers per year.A few skills overlap for child care providers and baby sitters. Resumes from both professions show that the duties of each career rely on skills like "child care," "cpr," and "homework assignments. "

Each career also uses different skills, according to real child care provider resumes. While child care provider responsibilities can utilize skills like "nutritional meals," "applied behavior analysis," "child development," and "meal preparation," baby sitters use skills like "kids," "nutritious meals," "meal prep," and "family friends."

Baby sitters earn a lower average salary than child care providers. But baby sitters earn the highest pay in the finance industry, with an average salary of $48,994. Additionally, child care providers earn the highest salaries in the finance with average pay of $47,625 annually.baby sitters earn similar levels of education than child care providers in general. They're 0.7% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.1% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

Child care provider 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.

On average scale, floater teachers bring in lower salaries than child care providers. In fact, they earn a $4,332 lower salary per year.Using the responsibilities included on child care providers and floater teachers resumes, we found that both professions have similar skill requirements, such as "child care," "cpr," and "social development.rdquo;

Some important key differences between the two careers include a few of the skills necessary to fulfill the responsibilities of each. Some examples from child care provider resumes include skills like "nutritional meals," "homework assignments," "applied behavior analysis," and "child development," whereas a floater teacher is more likely to list skills in "childhood," "classroom management," "customer service," and "diaper changes. "

Floater teachers earn the highest salary when working in the finance industry, where they receive an average salary of $49,360. Comparatively, child care providers have the highest earning potential in the finance industry, with an average salary of $47,625.floater teachers typically earn similar educational levels compared to child care providers. Specifically, they're 0.6% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.1% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

Child care provider vs. Assistant daycare teacher

An assistant daycare teacher is responsible for performing support tasks in a daycare center. Most of the duties primarily revolve around maintaining a safe and healthy environment for children, preparing meals and learning materials, assisting children during bathroom or hygiene-related activities, and keeping the classroom clean and sanitized. Furthermore, there are instances when an assistant daycare teacher must come up with recreational activities, maintain student records, and help children improve their motor skills and basic knowledge in concepts such as recognizing the alphabet or coloring.

Assistant daycare teachers typically earn lower pay than child care providers. On average, assistant daycare teachers earn a $5,621 lower salary per year.While their salaries may vary, child care providers and assistant daycare teachers both use similar skills to perform their duties. Resumes from both professions include skills like "child care," "cpr," and "social development. "Each job also requires different skills to carry out their responsibilities. A child care provider uses "nutritional meals," "homework assignments," "applied behavior analysis," and "meal preparation." Assistant daycare teachers are more likely to have duties that require skills in "kids," "open communication," "classroom environment," and "diaper changes. "The average resume of assistant daycare teachers showed that they earn similar levels of education compared to child care providers. So much so that theyacirc;euro;trade;re 1.0% less likely to earn a Master's Degree and less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree by 0.0%.

Types of child care provider

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Research Team
Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

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