Changing Lives and Careers

When Susan Gallier opened her daycare center, she thought she knew everything there was to know about taking care of young children.

“I was the oldest of five children, and from the time I was about 10, I was babysitting for my family and our entire neighborhood,” she said. “I was used to having a child on my hip pretty much all the time.”

So when Susan agreed to have an infant & toddler specialist visit her home daycare (a service provided by the Virginia Infant & Toddler Specialist Network), she never expected anything but praise. What happened shocked her — and forever changed her perspective on child care and child development.

The Virginia Infant & Toddler Specialist Network, a program of CDR, provides training and on-site mentoring to early childhood professionals across the state to help them fine-tune their skills and provide high-quality programs to the families they serve.

In Susan’s situation, the specialist pointed out specific yet easy ways to help a particularly unhappy child transition to her daycare setting, overcome separation anxiety, and meet other challenges. “She basically told me that if I followed through on her advice, I’d have a different child in two weeks,” she said.

To Susan’s amazement, the advice worked. And it wasn’t the only thing she learned about her business and her long-held ideas about childcare.

“It changed my life and career,” she said. “I learned to help the child by working with the parents, by being collaborative.”

Susan’s growth as a childcare professional didn’t go unnoticed in her community. She quickly went from having openings in her daycare to having a waiting list — one that she maintains to this day.