However
Tizard did find that children share more advanced and intelligent conversations with there care givers than they do with teachers. So if the child spends too much time with teachers and not enough time with parents it could be detrimental to their cognitive expansion.
Kelley against Child care
Kelley in 2002 suggested that the amount of substitute care givers and the amount of time children spend with them instead of their parents causes problems in both emotional and cognitive development.
Attachment types: the importance of individuality.
Of course all children are different and thus we have to look at their behaviour closely to understand how they will improve both socially and cognitively to the best of they’re ability. Studies have said that children can experience one of three attachments, either to be securely attached, avoidently attached, or disorganised and resistantly attached.
If your child is securely attached they will feel confident and able to interact socially without the parent, obviously the best attachment type.
If your child is avoidently attached they will feel low self esteem and unable to leave the parents for more than a few minutes, they will not be able to interact with people outside the family or the environment.
If your child is disorganised and resistantly attached they will not seek to interact with the primary care giver or with people outside the immediate family, they will show distress when left by the primary care giver but when the primary care giver returns will not interact with them.
If you feel your child is experiencing either of the last two attachment types please seek to tell your family doctor.
Eeland and Hiester on how day care effects different children
Egeland and Hiester said that day care has positive effects on the social development of insecurely attached children, in that they will learn how to interact with others without their parents, however at the start of leaving the child at the nursery, the child will feel and experience sever distress, and this is often hard for the parents as well.
I would suggest talking to the nursery teachers about what they will do to help the child, visiting the play group with the child first, and if at all possible gradually increasing the amount of time the child spends alone with their peers.
However, Egeland and Hiester also said that day care is detrimental to the social development of a securely attached child, and even further, Belsky and Rovine suggested their is a risk of these children developing insecure attachments.
Violence of full time nursery children?
Park in 1993 showed that children who spend a long time in child care are instrumentally and verbally more aggressive towards those of the peer group.
However
Di Lalla suggested that these merely happened because children who spend a long time in child care interacted more both pro socially and aggressively towards those of there peer group.
Child abuse
Child abuse is of course a major threat to an emotionally developing mind. And regrettably child abuse from those in day care has increasingly grown from over the past decade. However it is still a very limited thing, and although very emotionally disturbing it can be got over with help.
My recommendation
I personally feel that day care should be considered respective of the situation. For example if the child is slightly insecurely attached day care would be beneficial to both their cognitive and emotional development. However if the child is extremely shy and finds it impossible to interact day care would understandably by the worst possible situation.
The parents also have to be considered, some parents find being away from their children torturous were as stay at home parents who feel trapped and have several young children are more likely to suffer from serious depression.
The most important thing though, in considering day care, is that the nursery is good quality, recommended, and a place where the child can be happily stimulated. However deciding what is good quality care and what is not can be an extremely hard task and extremely daunting especially for new parents. Here Leisa Osterich a child psychologist has laid down a few tasks for new parents considering day care to undertake:
Looking for good quality care
Firstly you should consider advice from either “The licensing bureau for child care centres or day care homes” as well as “Day care Trust (a notional charity)”
Parents should visit at least three care givers or childcare programmes and should expect:
- A warm greeting
- Short introduction to adults and children
- A brief tour
- An explanation of fees and policies
- An invitation to stay awhile to see the daily routine and children playing
A few questions you could ask:
- Please describe a typical day
- How do you discipline children
- Do you have CPR and first aid training
- What types of food do you serve for meals and snacks?
- Are children ever transported in a vehicle? Do you use seat belts or car seats
- How do you handle emergencies
In conclusion
Most women choose to work and send their children to nurseries, in fact 58% of women with a child under five work and this is increased to 78% of women with children aged 6-13.
As I said before there are many differences in the child’s behaviour that should be considered before deciding if this option is for you. But to conclude, the numerous studies I have talked about in this introduction to the benefits and detriments of child care are pretty contradictory showing the need to consider the particular child. And even further a study done by Kagan et al in 1980 compared 33 full time nursery children who had been there from 3 ½ months with a home group and found no consistently large differences between them.
Bibliography:
Planet Papers.com
Psychology for AS level
Day care Trust (a notional charity)