Preparing the classroom environment for babies and toddlers has been a current challenge for day care center's professionals all over the world. Despite the fact that young children in Brazil have been traditionally looked after by family members, the number of parents looking for quality day care centers is growing rapidly. Therefore, having groups of babies and toddlers attending such centers from a very early age has proved to be a topic worth studying. Many disciplines have emphasized that context is an important aspect to consider, since it has a great impact on development. Assessing the quality of the environment prepared for young children in Brazil is, consequently, of utmost importance. This study intended to assess all day care centers in a small town in the southern of Brazil (a total of 12 classrooms), employing Iters-R scale, which were translated into Portuguese and tested. Findings indicate that Activities and Personal Care items had the lower medium score of all institutions; Interaction and Parents and Team had the higher one. Of all the groups, the 3 years old had been the one that presented the worse results. The use of this instrument promotes productive discussions about the quality of environment for small children.
DAY NURSERIES; EVALUATION; CHILD DEVELOPMENT; EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION
