My Plea to Parents Part 3

My final plea to parents is do not embitter, exasperate, provoke, etc. your children. (Eph. 6:4 and Col. 3:21) This is the evidence I have gathered that separation from parents (especially Mother) when younger than 3 or 4 does all of these things. Please do not leave your precious little babies or toddlers with others for more than 20 hours a week.

Early Childcare: Infants and Nations at Risk by Dr. Peter Cook, ©1996, Part Three, Research into Outcomes of Early child Care; Chapter 5, Six Subsequent Studies Showing Risks, P102
A Swedish study of infants' reactions in child care.
...Dr Ingrid Harsman (1984, 1994) studied the reactions of infants before and after placement in day care centres in Stockholm. Her study is important because it may be unique in its scope and qualities and it was done in the capital of the country with the world's best day care (Sweden).
...52 per cent of the day-care infants...were assessed as sad and depressed in the day-care setting.
..."after seven weeks of day-care attendance, the day-care infants showed a significant drop in speech development...
P105



Fear on nursery care (daycare) forces rethink by Madeleine Bunting, The Guardian, 8-Jul-04
In the UK, a government-funded study by the University of London's Institute of Education concluded that "high levels of group care (day care) before the age of three (and particularly before the age of two) were associated with higher levels of antisocial behaviour at age three". It also found that while higher quality of care could reduce the "antisocial/worried behaviour", it could not eliminate it.
Category = Behavior


Nursery Tales by Madeleine Bunting, The Guardian, 8-Jul-04
But the popularity of this revolution is at odds with what the experts are saying. Over exactly the time period that the sector has boomed, research on both sides of the Atlantic has reached remarkably similar conclusions; namely, that large quantities of care in a day nursery (daycare) before the age of three increases the incidence of insecurity and aggression

(Child development expert Penelope Leach) chooses her battles carefully, but she believes the day nursery (daycare) debate is one she now has to get into. Since 1998, she has been co-director of the largest ever UK study of childcare from birth to school age, Families, Children and Child Care (FCCC).
...initial findings fit with those from other studies in the US and the UK: "It is fairly clear from data from different parts of the world that the less time children spend in group care before three years, the better. Infants spending as little as 12 hours a week in day nurseries - this is such a low threshold that it covers almost all infants in this childcare setting - showed slightly lower levels of social development and emotional regulation (less enthusiastic cooperation, concentration, social engagement and initiative) as toddlers.

The two biggest longitudinal* studies in the world on the impact of childcare on infants have come to strikingly similar conclusions. In America, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) published conclusions last summer that were remarkably similar to those of the UK study, the Effective Provision of Pre-school Education (EPPE). Both make for uncomfortable reading.
...The EPPE study focused predominantly on the impact of pre-school education on three- and four-year-olds.
...buried in the small print it (the EPPE study) acknowledged that "high levels of group care before the age of three (and particularly before the age of two) were associated with higher levels of anti-social behaviour at age three"
*Longitudinal = Over a long period of time


Daycare bad for kids aged under 2?, The Straits Times (Singapore), 9-Jul-2004
LONDON - The British government is reconsidering its strategy on childcare in the face of mounting evidence that day nurseries for children under two can lead to increased incidence of antisocial behaviour and aggression.
...remarkably similar findings (of researchers around the world) indicate that group-based care can have damaging effects on emotional and social development for the under-two age group.
These effects are evident even in children who are in daycare for as little as 12 hours a week, some studies have found.


Raising a Wild Child
Is daycare preparing toddlers to become bullies?
Christianity Today, June 11, 2001
Problem behavior in children, ranging from rudeness to cruelty and physical attack is in the media spotlight because of two new research reports from the NICHD. According to this research, these problem behaviors increase as children (age 4.5 to 6) spend more hours in child care, regardless of the quality of the care.
...There seems to be no threshold. As hours increase, aggressive behavior increases.
...Researchers also reported that bullying is widespread in American schools, says Duane Alexander, NICHD director, "and the bullies themselves are more likely to engage in criminal behavior later in life."
...In many communities, churches are leading providers of (daycare) services to children. But a church-based preschool (day care) that graduates a Scripture-quoting bully into kindergarten hasn't accomplished very much.
Church leaders should honestly ask themselves: If this research about child aggression stands the test of time, how should we balance the needs for quality childcare with the risk that the care provided increases aggression in many young children?

Vive la Differénce! by Allan Carlson, National Review, 12-Jul-2004, p48 (Book review of Steven E. Rhoads' book, Taking Sex Differences Seriously)
Regarding day care, for example, Rhoads reports that "two-career families who put children in subsidized day care apparently produce a near tripling of the odds that these children will be disobedient and aggressive -- hardly a trend the government should support financially."