NIU parents looking for child care while they go to class or work can now look to resources on campus for help.

The Child Development Laboratory of Human and Family Resources and the Campus Child Care Center/Shirley W. Nelson Campus Child Care Center both offer a day-care setting for student parents and to faculty and staff who work or take classes.

“The centers are not child care per se,” Donna Wilber, the supervising teacher at the Child Development Lab said. But they offer a child-oriented atmosphere, she said.

Both the Shirley W. Nelson Campus Child Care Center and the Child Development Lab offer a program for toddlers, which includes children from the age of 12 months to 2 years.

The centers are working in a joint effort to provide the program, said Chris Herrmann, director for the Shirley W. Nelson Campus Child Care Center.

errmann and Wilber said the program is child directed or oriented in that they give children the freedom to explore. They said they give children the choice to decide what areas they want to play in.

Both Wilber and Herrmann said the program provides the children with areas for play, with each area in a different room.

Herrmann and Wilber said there is an area for dramatic play, which includes such activities as “dress-up, house, bus driver, office and restaurant.”

There are other areas to play with blocks, an area where children can read books and an area where children can work with art materials, Herrmann said.

“The program is based on play because that is their way of learning,” she said. “It is important that the children are active and involved.”

Wilber said, “There is an emphasis on gross motor development, where children can learn to crawl, walk and run.”

There is also an emphasis on sensory stimulation, she said, with the child using his fingers and hands to deal with different textures.

There is also a group activity time during which students read stories to the children, play music or present puppet shows, Wilber said. “This involves something to develop listening and attention skills.”

Wilber said the staff for the toddler program is comprised of senior NIU students.

Herrmann added the staff has some interns and the staff to child ratio is two to one for the toddler program.

The Shirley W. Nelson center offers a program for 2 to 6-year olds as well as the toddler program, Herrmann said.

The Child Development Lab has a program for pre-schoolers in addition to the toddler program, Wilber said. She said the pre-school program is similar to the toddler program.

The toddler program is simpler in terms of the activities involved because toddlers move around more, they have a lower attention span, she said.

Both centers charge a fee for their programs, the Shirley W. Nelson center charges $19 per child for a full day, and $9.50 for a half day in the toddler program, Herrmann said.

The Child Development Laboratory charges $360 per semester, which works out to about $22 per week or $2 per day, Wilber said.