Quality of educational care for children living with their mother at penal institutions in Spain

Abstract

In the wider context of a investigation whose objetive was to study the development of children who live with their mothers in penitentiary centres up until three-years-old, an evaluation was carried out of the quality of educational attention offered by nursery schools within the four mothers and baby units who depend on state penitentiary administration. The instrument used was the Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale (Harm, Cryer, and Clifford, 1990). The data reveal that the quality of educational attention notably varies from one centre to another: while in some cases the average score can be considered acceptable (4 of a possible of 7), in others it is cleary insufficient (2,2). The aspects more highly scored were classroom interaction and language activities; on the other and, the lowest scores were for personal care routines and learning activities. Finally these punctuations are compared with those of external public nursery schools and some suggestions are made to improve the quality and conditions in which these programs are offered to the children.