“What do you do in child care?” Children’s perceptions of high and low quality classrooms Nancy W. Wiltz a, *, Elisa L. Klein b a Department of Early Childhood Education, HH 403G, Towson University, 8000 York Road, Towson, MD 21252-0001, USA b University of Maryland, College Park, College Park, MD, USA Abstract Children’s perceptions of their child care experiences in classrooms that varied in quality were explored in this study. One hundred twenty-two children were observed and interviewed about their likes and dislikes in 4 high and 4 low quality classrooms. Children verbalized an accurate under- standing of procedures, events, and activities, but their responses differed by classroom quality. Children in low quality centers listed activities as rigidly sequenced events, whereas children in high quality centers highlighted notable events and numerous choices. Play was the favorite activity of all children in all classrooms. Mean behaviors, circle time, and nap time were primary dislikes that did not vary with classroom quality. Children in both types of environments offered many more positive than negative perspectives, revealing an optimistic outlook that transcended the quality of the setting. Results are discussed with regard to the contributions of children’s understandings to the complex issues of child care quality. © 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The influence of child care quality on young children has been investigated widely since the seventies. Research indicates that the quality of child care matters since experiences in child care impact children’s development and readiness for school (Cost, Quality and Child Outcomes Study, 1999; Whitebook, Howes, & Phillips, 1989; Vandell & Wolfe, 2000). However, the contexts in which children are cared for and children’s perceptions of their experiences in centers of varying quality, are areas where the literature offers little or no * Corresponding author. Tel.: +1-410-704-4955; fax: +1-410-704-2733. E-mail address: nwiltz@towson.edu (N.W. Wiltz). Early Childhood Research Quarterly 16 (2001) 209 –236 0885-2006/01/$ – see front matter © 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved. PII: S0885-2006(01)00099-0