Child Care Resume Skills [40+ Examples]

Need tips on how to write a resume that stands out and proves you have the compassion and patience necessary to take care of children? Include these top child care skills on your child care resume:

1. Child development knowledge

If you’ve studied the fundamentals of child development, say so on your resume.

For instance, if your target job requirements include recognizing developmental milestones, show employers that you’re familiar with common theories like the Montessori method.

You can also describe how you’ve used your child development knowledge to:

• help children develop with age-appropriate activities like putting together puzzles
• keep accurate records of a child’s progress
• identify any developmental concerns — physical or social — so they can be addressed early on
• keep up-to-date with the latest in developmental research

2. Empathy

As a child care worker, you have to understand children’s needs, give them support, and help them to express their feelings.

Emphasize the following child care resume skills to highlight your empathy:

• Conflict management
• Cultural sensitivity
• Active listening
• Patience
• Emotional awareness
• Calm and gentle demeanor

3. Infant care skills

Parents are wary of leaving their newborns with others. So show the hiring manager at the daycare or preschool you’re applying to that you have expertise in infant care.

Prove you’re equipped to care for infants by listing relevant certifications on your resume, along with other hard skills like:

• infant CPR/AED certification
• taking infants’ temperature, and vitals
• routine hygiene and feeding
• soothing techniques (like swaddling)
• knowledge of safe-sleeping protocols

4. Interpersonal skills

When you work in child care, you regularly interact with people, including:

Show that you’re a good communicator on your resume by listing interpersonal skills like:

• positivity
• a good sense of humor
• leadership
• sensitivity and compassion
• communication
• respect and professionalism
• teamwork

5. Energy and focus

Children have tons of energy, so you’ll spend most of the workday on your feet when you work in child care. Tasks like carrying infants or chasing toddlers are physically exhausting.

Child care also requires good mental focus. Accidents can happen anytime, so you’ll need to be on high alert even when you’re tired.

Show that you’re an energetic, focused person by adding these skills to your child care resume:

• Physical fitness
• Self-control
• Patience
• Ability to monitor multiple children at one time

6. Teaching skills

Impress employers by showing how you can help educate kids.

Include skills like:

• sourcing age-appropriate toys or materials
• designing interactive learning activities
• encouraging children to explore their curiosity
• preparing children for formal schooling
• helping older children with homework

7. Problem-solving skills

Problem-solving ability is key when dealing with disobedient children. Outline any discipline or reward systems you’ve used to keep children in line.

Here are other problem-solving skills to put on your child care resume:

• Time management skills
• Organizational skills
• Quick and confident decision making
• Logical thinking
• Innovation

8. Basic health knowledge

While you don’t need medical qualifications to be a child care worker, you should have enough know-how to create a safe environment for kids.

You should be able to identify unusual symptoms, administer child-safe medication, and act responsibly during emergencies. You also need to prepare nutritious food, encourage outdoor play, and reduce screen time.

Mention these health care skills on your resume:

• Medical certifications (CPR, first aid, and AED)
• Training in child safety regulations
• Knowledge of food safety and nutritional needs
• Caring for children with special needs

How to put child care skills on your resume

Once you’ve determined the child care skills you’d like to highlight, it’s time to put them on your resume. Here’s how:

1. Make your child care skills shine with data

Support your resume skills with hard numbers. Your resume will stand out to hiring managers if you include specific evidence of your abilities.

Give precise data about the ages and numbers of children that you cared for in previous positions. Where you can, provide statistics about any accomplishments on your resume.

Here are two versions of an example work experience entry for a child care resume. The first version is plain and unimpressive, but the second version describes relevant skills with numbers and examples that will grab the hiring manager’s attention:

2. Put your child care skills all over your resume

Add your child care skills to the following 3 parts of your resume:

Resume objective

Grab the employer’s attention with a resume objective that spotlights your abilities. Summarize your most relevant experience and child care skills, using skills-based resume keywords from the job ad to target the hiring manager’s interest.

Here’s an example of a well-written objective filled with relevant child care skills:

Work experience section

You should also put your skills in your resume’s work experience section. By doing this, you can prove how you’ll transfer your skills to the job in a compelling way.

Here’s an example of a child care worker linking soft skills to real-life examples in their resume:

Skills section

List any relevant skills that didn’t fit into the rest of your resume on the skills section of your resume.

Include a mix of hard and soft skills, formatted as a list, like this:

More skills-related resources

Here are some additional skills-related resources to help you write your child care resume.

• Transferable skills
• In-demand job skills
• What are secondary skills on a resume?
• Is a skills section necessary on a resume?
• How many skills should you list on a resume?