Care Courses Blog

You have prob­a­bly heard of the Child Devel­op­ment Asso­ciate (CDA) cre­den­tial. But what is it? Do you won­der if a CDA cre­den­tial is worth it? Is CDA cer­ti­fi­ca­tion right for you? We work close­ly with the CDA Coun­cil here at Care Cours­es, so here’s our take on the top 5 rea­sons you should get a CDA Credential.

1. You learn more!

Whether you’ve been work­ing in the field of ear­ly child­hood care and edu­ca­tion for a long time or are new to it, there is always some­thing to learn about young chil­dren. Most of the the­o­ry in ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tion might be close to 100 years old, but there’s still good new research com­ing out. Get­ting your CDA Cre­den­tial makes sure you know the lat­est stuff. Care Cours­es has train­ing cours­es specif­i­cal­ly designed to address the 8 CDA sub­ject areas defined by the Coun­cil for Pro­fes­sion­al Recog­ni­tion. With Care Cours­es you get the lat­est infor­ma­tion about young chil­dren, you are well pre­pared for the CDA Exam, and you have the pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment to prove it.

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2. For better pay, recognition, and a sense of accomplishment.

These days, many in ear­ly child­hood care and edu­ca­tion know what a CDA Cre­den­tial is. If you haven’t heard it yet, you prob­a­bly will soon! The mod­el of QRIS (Qual­i­ty Rat­ing and Improve­ment Sys­tems) is an exam­ple of how essen­tial it has become. Many states have or are devel­op­ing QRIS for child care cen­ters and home care facil­i­ties that rec­og­nize valu­able pro­grams and advanc­ing staff devel­op­ment. How? Well, in many places ear­ly care and edu­ca­tion work­ers can be award­ed indi­vid­ual mon­e­tary bonus­es for hav­ing the CDA Cre­den­tial. Bet­ter yet, cen­ters are then com­mend­ed for their high­ly qual­i­fied staff and pro­gram and thus pro­mot­ed as more desir­able to sur­round­ing par­ents and com­mu­ni­ties. Get­ting a CDA helps you and your place of work. It shows your ded­i­ca­tion and pro­fes­sion­al­ism and will be wide­ly rec­og­nized by every­one you work with and beyond.

3. Because you’re a professional in the industry!

Many in the indus­try know that work­ing with young chil­dren can be incred­i­bly reward­ing, but agree that it can be incred­i­bly chal­leng­ing as well. Many also know that this dynam­ic is a part of the com­mit­ment you make to the pro­fes­sion. When you decide to do more with your career in ear­ly child­hood care and edu­ca­tion by get­ting your CDA, you’re say­ing loud and clear, “I want to be a pro­fes­sion­al at this no mat­ter what the chal­lenges are.” Get­ting your CDA shows your ded­i­ca­tion to this com­mit­ment and the demands of work­ing in ear­ly child­hood. YOU are an ear­ly child­hood professional!

4. To meet the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) standards.

NAEYC stan­dards pro­vide a com­mon nation­al frame­work for all ear­ly child­hood pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment sys­tems and pro­grams. Research and prob­a­bly even com­mon sense say that the exper­tise need­ed to pro­vide a nur­tur­ing envi­ron­ment for young chil­dren is acquired through spe­cial­ized pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment. In oth­er words, how can you go wrong if you get great knowl­edge about young chil­dren and then are actu­al­ly able to put into practice? 

NAEYC and the CDA Coun­cil believe in state and nation­al pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment sys­tems that help those who work in child care and ear­ly edu­ca­tion make con­nec­tions between the infor­ma­tion they learn in their train­ing, begin­ning with the first clock hour and con­tin­u­ing through all those that fol­low. Get­ting your CDA Cre­den­tial is a big part of that con­nec­tion and helps you iden­ti­fy who you are today, who you’ll be in the future, and the ongo­ing pos­i­tive impact you’ll have in the industry.

5. So parents can be even more confident in you!

Par­ents and fam­i­lies of chil­dren in ear­ly child­hood care and edu­ca­tion expect a lot from those who care for their chil­dren. After all, in many instances, care­givers and ear­ly edu­ca­tors often spend just as much time if not more with the chil­dren than their par­ents. On the flip side, providers expect par­ents to trust them. By hav­ing the CDA Cre­den­tial, you are rein­forc­ing this trust. Pro­fes­sion­al ear­ly child­hood care and edu­ca­tion providers under­stand that teach­ing and learn­ing with young chil­dren is com­plex. Pos­i­tive rela­tion­ships and sup­port­ive inter­ac­tions with the par­ents and fam­i­lies of the chil­dren they work with need to serve as the foun­da­tion for this com­plex work. The CDA Cre­den­tial estab­lish­es the back­ground knowl­edge, under­stand­ing and abil­i­ty to imple­ment devel­op­men­tal­ly appro­pri­ate prac­tice, instruc­tion­al strate­gies, and tools to con­nect with chil­dren and fam­i­lies and pos­i­tive­ly influ­ence each child’s devel­op­ment and learning.

Please let us know how we can assist you fur­ther with the CDA process! Call us: 1–800-685‑7610, Mon­day through Fri­day, 9–5 ET, or email us days, evenings and week­ends: info@CareCourses.com. We’re here to help!