Education: Impact of Quality Childcare - Research Paper Example

 Education: Impact of Quality Childcare Abstract Most parents are aware that the individual who takes care of their child several hours weekly certainly makes a huge difference in the life in addition to the well being of their child. Both research and common sense informs us that children’s brains grow fastest during their early years of life, and that the experiences they undergo during these vital first years usually lay the foundation for the reminder of their lives. Consequently, childcare greatly affects the thinking, learning as well as behaviour of children. Studies and researches have repeatedly indicated that quality childcare –that is care that offers a stable, loving, safe, as well as age-suitable stimulating environment assists children begin school prepared to learn. Studies have further shown that quality childcare has an even better impact on children coming from low-income families .On the contrary, poor quality childcare-which repeatedly is most of the time uncaring, unsafe or even not stimulating-deprives children of the great start they deserve. Keywords: childcare, lay foundation, quality, low-income families, caring, early years, stimulating environment. Childcare has been the trend in the US since the early 1990s.Presently over 11 million children under the age of 5 years with working mothers are mostly in some kind of child care arrangement. In addition, these children, on average are in childcare for 36 hours per week. Over a quarter (3 million) of these children are in multiple care arrangements due to the non-traditional and traditional working hours of their mothers. This kind of care basically starts at early stages in life and may last for substantial number of hours, with 44%of the children being under 1 year of age being in nonparental care for 31 hours on average. For those in late pre-school years, 84% of 4-5 year olds spend 28 hours on a weekly average. This unique and prevalent framework as well as early-age usage has raised questions regarding the quality of child care provided. The ascertained view amongst researchers in childcare is that quality childcare highly adds to the developmental outcomes of children. Higher quality childcare usually is associated with superior developmental outcomes whereas poor quality childcare is associated with inferior outcomes for children. Current research indicates that the quality of childcare offered seems to make a difference since benefits of the same are noticed while the kid is undergoing adolescence (Kaphingst & Story 2009). In addition scientists have also evaluated a study that has been long-running and have established that teenagers who experienced high quality child care settings as infants scored somewhat higher particularly on measures of cognitive and academic achievement. Furthermore, the teenagers were somewhat less likely to have incidences of acting-out behaviors as compared to their peers who had been at low-quality childcare settings during their formative years. Additionally teenagers who stayed the most hours in childcare in their initial four and half years exhibited a somewhat greater propensity towards risk-taking as well as impulsiveness at fifteen than did counterparts who stayed less hours in childcare settings. Whereas the study was financed by the National Institutes of Health trailed the experience of children in childcare, its design was not intended for determining cause and effect, and therefore could not establish whether a certain feature of the childcare experience had a specific effect. It might be likely that other factors, not captured in the research, could have been involved. The researchers also noted that the disparities in these measures amongst the teenagers in the research were tiny; however, the enormity of both patterns was found to be constant from early babyhood to adolescence. Preceding studies, had discovered the similar tendencies, however the study is the very first to follow children for an entire decade after their leaving childcare (Trost & Ward, 2010). According to Dr. James A. Griffin, of the NIH, the institute that financed the study, earlier findings from the research signify that parents/guardians seem to have far much impact on the growth and development of their children as compared to the kind of childcare they get. Dr. Griffin further notes that current discoveries disclose that the modest connection between preliminary childcare as well as successive academic accomplishment, in addition to behavior noted in previous study discoveries continues throughout childhood as well as into the teenage years. Thus study findings were published in the May/June 2010 publication of the journal Child Development. Consequently, the 1364 teenagers in the study had been evaluated periodically from when they were one month old ,as part of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development(NICHD) research of Early Child Care and Youth Development(SECCYD),which has been the longest, largest running in addition to most comprehensive research of childcare in America. Recruitment of families was done in 1991, via hospital visitations to newly delivered mothers shortly after delivery in ten localities in the US. Whereas the studied children were not a representative of children in America population, the families participating in the study hailed from different economic, ethnic and demographic backgrounds. Children from one month through the 6th grade were evaluated no less than once per year on tests of academic and cognitive development. Researchers, in addition, regularly queried the parents and recorded the kind, quality and quantity of childcare during the child’s initial 4.5 years. Furthermore, the researchers made observations of childcare interactions so as to assess the quality of care. Almost 90% of all the studied children had their time spent with somebody other than their parent by the time they were 4.5 years old. Care of high quality was exemplified by the, support as well as warmth of the caregiver to the children under their care (Leng & Lessard, 2013). According to the findings of the above study, the researchers discovered a correlation between early high quality childcare and high results on cognitive as well as academic evaluations, including math and reading tests. Such correlation was comparable at 4.5 and 15 years. A new discovery that came out when the children were 15 years, was that teenagers who had more time in quality childcare during their babyhood reported less acting-out behaviour issues in their teens. Findings from many long-term studies have shown that children who had quality early education and childcare are most likely to score high on math and reading tests and thus more likely graduate from high school and proceed to college. Such children were also not likely to get arraigned in a juvenile court or repeat a grade. On the other hand, children raised in poor-quality childcare were discovered to be delayed in reading and language skills. Another study also released in 1999, discovered that children who had been given high-quality care exhibited superior mathematical ability, strong attention and thinking skills in addition to few behavioral issues as compared to children offered low quality care .Consequently, these disparities were found to be true for several children from a wide range of family backgrounds with children hailing from low-income families having greater significance (Nauert & Grohol, 2010). Legislative wise, each state in America has its own administrative and legal programs and structures that cater for the requirements of families and their children. Nevertheless, every state ought to conform to certain Federal guidelines and requirements so as to qualify for Federal funding under specific programs. Over the years there have been amendments to the Child abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) of 1974.For instance this year saw passing of Child Care and Development Grant Act of 2014, Sec 3 that re-empowers the child care and development block grant (CCDBG) programme under the CCDBG of 1990.Sec. 4permits governors to delegate a joint agency or institute a collaborative interagency office tasked with serving as the lead agency tasked with administration of the CCDBG programme. The lead agency is also required, at the adoption of an Indian organization or tribe within the state, to team up as well as coordinate with that tribal organization or tribe in the development of the state child care in addition to development plan in a well-timed manner.Sec.5 raises from 2 to 3 years the time that ought to be covered by a state development and childcare plan. The amendment goes up to Sec.13, outlining the various roles to be played by different state agencies and individuals. There have been various advocacy groups such as America Association of family & Consumer Sciences that have come out strongly advocating for better and quality childcare by supporting programmes, policies and services at all levels of governments as well as via employers to increase the supply of quality, affordable child-care for everyone who needs it, so as to expand access to gainful employment in addition to preventing and reducing poverty. In addition, AAFCS members assist in expanding the availability of quality, affordable care for school-age and pre-school children as well as children with special needs by acting as catalysts in their respective communities as well as contributing directly in the management and design of care options, training of care givers as well as offering support in parent outreach, educational resources and education regarding care assistance and options (Johnson & Rigby, 2011). References Read More