On averages most of mine since working from home have been about two weeks for them to be 'mostly happy' in program with the odd crying if the kids get too busy and their anxiety level raises on them.

In centre care the longest time for a child was 10 months of screaming for the majority of the day unless he was being walked 'outside of the classroom one on one' or being held or sleeping he would cry ... and to make it worse he would only come to me for comfort any other staff member he screamed and cried and tried to get away from them regardless of what they tried to do so I ended up being the 'primary caregiver' and my two staff were basically left to deal with the other 9 babies between them .... but the kid had some serious anxiety the minute there was more than 1 kid present he could not cope in the room ~ when I was not in the room the screaming would get so bad for the other staff he'd throw up and get diarrhea and they'd have to send him home to the point where if mom arrive and found out I was 'sick' she'd just take him back home cause she knew she'd get a phone call in 30 minutes to pick him up anyway ... the centre was just at the point of telling the mama that perhaps a nanny would be a better match when a switch went off on the kid and he 'got happy' not sure what happened for him but it corrected itself part of me thinks it was he learned to 'walk' cause he was just turning 13 months old and perhaps that freedom gave him more confidence who knows ... but I can still hear that kids scream and picture his little face 25 years later often wonder what ever happened to him!