The Effects of Day Care As more and more mothers are entering or returning to the workforce, the demand for good quality crèches, nurseries and childminders is growing rapidly. This section considers the effect that day care has on the children's cognitive and social development. Important: It is very difficult to generalise the effects of day care because the quality and types vary so widely and research studies only sample a small section of this variation. Generalisation is also difficult because most of the research is carried out in the USA, which means that the findings may not be relevant in other cultures. Furthermore, individual differences in personality, social background and family relationships will also influence the effect of day care on a child. Day care and cognitive development Cognitive development refers to the growth of cognitive functions, such as thinking, reasoning and linguistic skills. It seems that day care can have a positive influence on the child's cognitive development provided it is good quality and provides intellectual stimulation. This is particularly true for working class children (Scarr, 1998), presumably because middle class children receive the appropriate stimulation at home anyway. Evidence for this comes from research comparing the cognitive abilities of three groups of 8 year-old children, who had received different types of care in infancy - day nurseries, childminders or remained at home. Those children who had experienced care in day nurseries had better verbal and mathematical abilities than the others. There was even a positive correlation between length of time spent in day nurseries and cognitive ability (Broberg et al., 1997). The above findings, however, are not universal and research has shown day care to have a harmful effect on children's cognitive development. For example, a study compared the cognitive ability of children whose mothers went to work either before or after their child was one year old. The findings showed that the cognitive ability of those children who started day care earlier was lower than that of the later starters
Chapter seven of “Making the “Terrible” Twos Terrific” by John Rosemond is about sending your children to daycare. Rosemond believes that if possible one of the parent stays at home for the first three years of life. “The first three years of life constitute the single most critical, precedent-setting developmental period” (Rosemond 207). He also talks about putting your child in a three day or half day daycare. From birth to age two children rely completely on their parents. At age three is the transition time when children learn they are not the center of the universe and this should be taught by the parents.
Some day care can be beneficial for the children as they offer great facilities and have positive effects on the child rather than having negative effects. Day care is not a replacement of a family it is there to work with the family and complement the
Parents are always questioning whether they would like to have any more children someday. One of the aspects parents think about in this decision is child care. Child care can be pricey and the quality of the child care is also something to think about as well. Parents want their child to grow up and become very successful in life. Choosing a daycare from infant on, is part of the process to becoming successful as they grow. For one to add on to the family they need to think about the quality of child care, the price of child care, and attention of care: how their child will be raised. High-quality child care should be provided at public expense to all working parents!
This paper is but a brief overview of this topic and a great deal more research not included in this paper has been devoted to the biopsychosocial influences of genetic predisposition, parents, daycare providers, the daycare environment, and the many other factors that effect children that attend daycare. However, it’s encouraging to know that progress is being made in the development of a safe, healthy, and nurturing environment for our children at this most vulnerable age.
McCartney, K. (1984). The effect of a quality day care environment upon children’s language development.
When selecting childcare for your child the foundation of early learning has offered some tips that they believe will be helpful in the process. The foundation says that parents have always known that good early experience was important for their child. Now scientist and researchers are confirming how critical these first years of life are to your child’s healthy development (Selecting child care, 2002). Because the brain matures in the world rather than in the womb, the brain growth and development of infants and young children is deeply affected by their earliest experiences. In a childcare environment the relationship your child has with the caregiver will also affect how that child feels about himself and the world around him and as he grows up (Selecting child care, 2002). I ...
A normal day for a daycare facility is to have many classrooms full of students like a typical public school; however, they are younger children and are being supervised by an adult. That adult is responsible for, on average, four to ten students at any given time, ages ranging from zero to six. During that time, a lot can happen. These busy workers have many responsibilities throughout the day. The most important one is safety. Because these children are so young, they are also adventurous therefore need a lot of attention. Daycare workers have to spend much time supervising these children while performing other tasks throughout the day. Not only do children need to be supervised to be safe, but they also need to have a safe, clean and presentable environment that the daycare workers of the facility are to maintain. One way to keep things clean is to sanitize, in which is a big task of these workers. Children are always putting things in their mouth and then passing it off to other kids; therefore, sanitation is a big deal in these types of facilities. Another responsibility that daycare providers have are to enforce rules. When rules are broken, these providers are to then enforce discipline policies. These can sometimes become an issue seeing that these providers are not the parents of the children thus they have to consult with the parents on certain discipline techniques to use on specific children. On the other hand, these providers are similar to parents in the sense that they wash children's clothing and clean up after every child. In addition to all the other responsibilities, daycare providers also have to maintain current, accurate and confidential client files per child. These files are to consist of observations and r...
Note: Bathroom and /or diaper change times vary to meet the child’s needs. This is a general schedule and is dictated mostly by the children’s needs and feelings each day.
The foster care program has become such a huge thing worldwide. It can help to provide children homes and families which they would not be able to find otherwise. Foster care programs also offer temporary food, domestic care for children from birth to age eighteen. While programs laws and rules are different from state to state, typically foster care is used by children 's welfare services when a child is identified as having been orphaned, abandoned, abused, or neglected. At the same time though it has a negative impact. The foster care system hurts the structure of the family unit which has existed for centuries. Foster Care has become better and better as time goes on. Before, there would be people who scam the system and it was hard to
Each and every daycare has their own menu for the children’s breakfast and lunch. Through my observations, I have noticed that the “Don’t Worry Childcare” has a variety of food selections throughout the month. For example, the children could either choose from fruit loops cereal, or frosted flakes for breakfast. The children’s snacks eaten varies every day as well. For instance, the children ate milk and cookies one day, and cheese crackers another day. An example of lunch would be, milk, chicken fingers, French fries, green beans, and mixed fruit one day, and spaghetti, corn, peaches, and bread another day. I observed the children eat ham, mashed potatoes, green beans, and peaches one day for lunch. All those food options seemed very delicious.
It is common knowledge that a parent is considered the most efficient caregiver for their children. It’s also known that with daily responsibilities of caring for a child financially, parents partake in full-time and/or part-time employment. While needing to do so, many children attend daycare/preschool facilities. Granted, it is the parent’s responsibility to cautiously select where they decide to take their children. This is because parents know that while they are away for numerous hours of the day, their children are in the hands of another care provider and that their care would have an enormous impact on their children. At a young age, a child’s social and cognitive skills are continuing to take shape and the amount of time spent in these facilities has a resilient impact on a child’s development. With proper and superior care no matter the time spent, such positive effects on a child’s development should endure in a child’s cognitive and social development. In other words, there is a great benefit of childcare/daycare attendance on a child’s development.
This is a realistic example of how the financial obstacles facing young families these days result in the use of non-parental child care. Many families today are faced with financial burdens, forcing them to utilize day care services for their children so that both parents can work. This paper will discuss three types of non-parental child care including center-based care, in-home care, and family day care. Furthermore, in an attempt to understand the effects of day care on children, this paper will evaluate the psychological, social, and cognitive impacts on child development as a result of day care. After reading this paper you will recognize that all types of child care can be effective as long as the provider is a quality caregiver.
According to Swaminathan, (1985) the need for child care is essential for a family. Child care strategies need to be holistic as the early years are most crucial and experiences with the caregiver in the early years have a profound impact on the lives of children. Child care programs need to first look at the needs of children followed by family. India is diverse in its size, cultural ecology and needs, thus variations in child care based on income, caste, creed are prevalent. Need for child care arrangements for women belonging to low income group are based on three factors. Firstly, development of children is most important and children from low income familes are at risk from two ends (poverty and neglect by mother due to work). Second, child care options would enable young girls (6-14 years) to study as girls stay out of school in caring for siblings and other family members at
In addition to the above, it is worth noticing that children in day-care tend to be better adjusted people, due to spending time with people outside their own families. This teaches them how to interact with others. It is the interactions between the parents and other caregivers that actually affect the way a baby’s brain is wired for later learning, as has been sug...
Children from advantaged families attending child day care recorded a slight positive or negative effect intellectually. While children from what is considered economically disadvantaged families benefited from child day care centre attendances (Belsky & Steinberg). These children recorded higher score results on standard tests when compared to disadvantaged children who do not attend child day care. The child care experience seemed to reduce the low test scores usually associated with disadvantaged population. However standard tests used were considered not enough to predict intellectual development. The research stressed an importance for more research on the cognitive effects of child day care using observation in everyday situation not just standardised tests.