A new study about child care is out this morning. My computer homepage has a link to the story, and their headline is, "Study Links Child Care to Acting Out". And the news crawl across the top of my computer screen says, "Study Links Child Care to Poor Behavior." My hometown newspaper, on the other hand, says, "High Quality Child Care Linked to Good Vocabulary". Guess it's all in how you want to interpret the results.
I guess the moral is - if you use child care, your child will behave badly, but will have a better vocabulary to talk back to the teacher.
My children would have fallen into this category of child care even when they were being picked up after school every day by their grandmother - that was usually at least 10 hours a week. So they don't just target parents who use center-based care - anyone who is "somewhere else" for ten hours a week.
I also like the way they slip in a "blame the teacher" message. OK, all you elementary teachers out there, you're spending too much time on academics (what a novel idea!) and not enough time teaching your students how to behave!!
Thank goodness they at least admitted that parenting quality was a much more important predictor of child development.
I also like the fact that they were forced to admit, in the very last sentence or two, that all the behaviors fell into the range of normal.
I wish the article had said, "Although slight differences in quality of vocabulary and in behavior were noted over time, the differences were small, and it is generally accepted that both high-quality child care and in-home care, coupled with quality parenting, lead to well-developed children."
Study Links Child Care to Acting Out
By KEVIN FREKING (Associated Press Writer)
From Associated Press
March 26, 2007 7:43 AM EDT
WASHINGTON - Youngsters who had quality child care before kindergarten had better vocabulary scores by fifth grade, but the more time they spent in child care, the more likely their sixth grade teachers were to report problem behaviors.
The findings come from the largest study of child care and development conducted in the United States. The 1,364 children in the analysis had been tracked since birth as part of a study by the National Institutes of Health.
In the study's latest installment Monday, researchers evaluated whether characteristics observed between kindergarten and third grade were still present in fifth grade or sixth grade. The researchers found that the vocabulary and behavior patterns continued, though many other characteristics dissipated.
The researchers said the increase in vocabulary and problem behaviors was small, and that parenting quality was a much more important predictor of child development.
In the study, child care was defined as care by anyone other than the child's mother who was regularly scheduled for at least 10 hours per week.
The researchers said the enduring effect of child care quality is consistent with other evidence showing that children's early experiences matter to their language development.
The long-term effect on behavior also may have a logical explanation, the researchers said.
"One possible reason why relations between center care and problem behavior may endure is that primary school teachers lack the training as well as the time to address behavior problems, given their primary focus on academics," the researchers said.
The study appears in the current issue of Child Development. The authors emphasized that the children's behavior was within a normal range and that it would be impossible to go into a classroom, and with no additional information, pick out those who had been in child care.
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I guess the moral is - if you use child care, your child will behave badly, but will have a better vocabulary to talk back to the teacher.
My children would have fallen into this category of child care even when they were being picked up after school every day by their grandmother - that was usually at least 10 hours a week. So they don't just target parents who use center-based care - anyone who is "somewhere else" for ten hours a week.
I also like the way they slip in a "blame the teacher" message. OK, all you elementary teachers out there, you're spending too much time on academics (what a novel idea!) and not enough time teaching your students how to behave!!
Thank goodness they at least admitted that parenting quality was a much more important predictor of child development.
I also like the fact that they were forced to admit, in the very last sentence or two, that all the behaviors fell into the range of normal.
I wish the article had said, "Although slight differences in quality of vocabulary and in behavior were noted over time, the differences were small, and it is generally accepted that both high-quality child care and in-home care, coupled with quality parenting, lead to well-developed children."
Study Links Child Care to Acting Out
By KEVIN FREKING (Associated Press Writer)
From Associated Press
March 26, 2007 7:43 AM EDT
WASHINGTON - Youngsters who had quality child care before kindergarten had better vocabulary scores by fifth grade, but the more time they spent in child care, the more likely their sixth grade teachers were to report problem behaviors.
The findings come from the largest study of child care and development conducted in the United States. The 1,364 children in the analysis had been tracked since birth as part of a study by the National Institutes of Health.
In the study's latest installment Monday, researchers evaluated whether characteristics observed between kindergarten and third grade were still present in fifth grade or sixth grade. The researchers found that the vocabulary and behavior patterns continued, though many other characteristics dissipated.
The researchers said the increase in vocabulary and problem behaviors was small, and that parenting quality was a much more important predictor of child development.
In the study, child care was defined as care by anyone other than the child's mother who was regularly scheduled for at least 10 hours per week.
The researchers said the enduring effect of child care quality is consistent with other evidence showing that children's early experiences matter to their language development.
The long-term effect on behavior also may have a logical explanation, the researchers said.
"One possible reason why relations between center care and problem behavior may endure is that primary school teachers lack the training as well as the time to address behavior problems, given their primary focus on academics," the researchers said.
The study appears in the current issue of Child Development. The authors emphasized that the children's behavior was within a normal range and that it would be impossible to go into a classroom, and with no additional information, pick out those who had been in child care.
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