On your 2025 return you would report the expenses that you pre-paid in 2024 as if they were paid in 2025 when the care was received ($556 per month), but only as long as the care was actually received and you still qualify. For example, if you stopped qualifying in April because you left work to be a stay at home parent, then you could only claim the expenses up to the point where you stopped qualifying, even if you did not get a refund.
The first part of what you quoted means you only claim 4 months on your 2024 return even though you paid 9 months, and the second part of the quote means you claim the other 5 months on your 2025 return because that's when care was provided,, even though it was paid in 2024.
