Placing Kids in Child Care Early on Has No Negative Influence on Behavior or Development

Researchers at Charles Sturt University in Australia have said that placing a child in child care before its first birthday does not affect its behavior or development negatively.

More than 1,000 children were involved in the study with researchers checking whether the popular belief that placing kids early in child care may lead to behavioral or developmental issues. All of the children involved in the study were 2-3 years of age and had started formal care as babies.

The researchers compared the children with other children who started child care in later years and observed the differences for a number of factors including their enjoyment of activities, interaction with others and level of problem behaviors.

"Starting child care in whatever type of care as babies was not a factor in terms of how these children were doing in these sort of social and emotional areas of development at age two to three in child care. There were other important factors about the child's personality or features of the childcare center they were currently attending", lead researcher Linda Harrison said.



Source: Medindia