Childcare and psychosocial development
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The topic of this paper is the effects of childcare on the cognitive and psychosocial development of infants and toddlers. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, 65 percent of mothers with children below the age of six are working. The Children's Defense Fund estimates that as many as six million infants and toddlers go to childcare centers. Thus, it is little wonder that over the last 15 years, many studies have been conducted to analyze the impact of childcare on the development of young children (Patten, 1999, p. 1). In this paper, the literature dealing with this topic over the last four years will be summarized and evaluated for their strengths and weaknesses. In a study on the relationship between childcare and cognitive and language development, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) (2000) assessed the experiences of children from birth to age three at ten sites, including childcare in a home setting and childcare facilities. Based on the information collected from the children's family and child care environments, NICHD found that the quality of childcare and the amount of language stimulation were the key factors that affected the children's cognitive and language development at ages 15, 24 and 35 months. In comparing the effects of childcare centers and childcare in home settings, the researchers found that children who went to childcare centers scored higher in the rating
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s in the classrooms with low child-adult ratios and highly trained educators had strong cognitive and receptive language skills (pp. 353-355).
This study is highly significant in identifying the different characteristics of a high quality childcare situation. The results showed that childcare centers could enhance the cognitive and language development of infants and toddlers if they could provide the children with an ideal learning environment with low adult-child ratios and well-trained caregivers. Nonetheless, because the sample population was limited in number and in ethnicity, the assessment of childcare and its effects on cognitive and language development in this study could not be considered representative of American society.
The interaction between the variables of childcare and parenting and their effects on infant attachment security offers another perspective in understanding how children are affected by childcare. In their study of 98 pairs of mothers and infants within the first year, Scher and Mayseless (2000) found a direct correlation between the number of hours the mothers worked and the rate of insecurity in their infants. Besides the unavailability of the mothers, the children also did not receive respons
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Scher Mayseless, Development NICHD, African American, Caregivers PITC, Defense Fund, Child Development, , quality childcare, childcare centers, Labor Statistics, language development, November Mothers, WestEd Online, cognitive language, cognitive language development, child development, individualized care, childcare cognitive, nichd 2000, development children, childcare cognitive language, language stimulation, quality childcare centers, health human development, human development nichd,
Approximate Word count = 1339
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)
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