How does child care contribute to cognitive development

They found that the children in higher quality child care centres demonstrated [1]:. Booth and Kelly, two authors from the above NICHD study, followed young children with or at risk for developmental disabilities, to determine if child care made a difference to their development [5]. When they compared children with developmental disabilities who attended daycare and children who were cared for at home by their mothers, they found that:. Furthermore, when Booth and Kelly looked at the children with special needs who attended child care, they found that the quality of the caregiving at home affected the outcomes of these children [5].

Therefore, spending time in child care is not necessarily beneficial or harmful for the development of children with special needs [5]. Booth and Kelly were of the opinion that, when children begin daycare when they are a little older, it gives them more time at home with their parents, which allows them to benefit from consistent caregiving and routines.

This seems to help them develop behaviour regulation skills. Therefore, starting daycare early, especially in the first year of life, may not be ideal for children with special needs. However, Booth and Kelly [5] found that:. Regardless of whether children attend child care, what happens at home matters most in terms of their development.

Frequent back-and-forth interactions within everyday activities, during which parents listen to their child, respond warmly and with interest to what he communicates and provide information that he can learn from are what count. Contrary to what many people think, children who attend child care have similar outcomes to children who are cared for at home by their mothers.

This is true for typically-developing children and children with special needs. When a child claps along to a rhyming song, she may be learning literacy, math, and music. Everyday experiences offer preschool children many opportunities for learning.

Preschoolers are naturally curious and eager to explore. As a family child care provider you can nurture their curiosity and promote thinking skills.

Observe the children in your care, note what they are interested in and provide opportunities for exploration. You can use everyday materials and objects to help children learn about their world. Caring for school-age children in your family child care setting means offering experiences and activities that they enjoy.

Again, observing the children and watching what their interests are can help with planning meaningful activities for school-age children. At this age, children may be learning to read, write, do math problems, search the internet for research reports, and conduct simple science experiments. Talking with children about what they are learning in school may help you collect interesting books, materials, games, and software that appeal to children. Here are a few examples of ways school-age children might learn important concepts:.

Reading and writing opportunities help school-age children and youth to develop the skills and knowledge to effectively communicate information, ideas, and opinions to a variety of audiences.

Learning to write, like reading, is a lifelong process. Research has shown that when students receive writing instruction, their reading fluency and comprehension improve.

You can help school-age children become confident and successful mathematicians by planning math activities in your family child care setting. Here are just a few examples:. Children are natural explorers who use all of their senses to investigate their surroundings.

The enthusiasm and energy that children bring to new experiences provides a wealth of opportunities for learning. Opportunities for exploration and problem solving are tied with the physical world, the life sciences, earth and the environment.

Growing plants, collecting rocks, finding insects, or creating a book about different birds seen in the neighborhood are all ways to engage children in science. Activities such as a walk to the park or a trip to the public library can help children make and document new discoveries. You can make social studies come alive by creating opportunities for experiential learning. Experiential learning simply means to learn by doing. Experiential learning is a successful teaching strategy that enables children to learn and retain information through experiences tied to their learning.

When engaged in experiential learning, children draw on all their senses. They read and listen to information to develop background knowledge. Children can see items or visuals related to a particular topic. They can take on roles to experience the topic they are learning about Diem, Many social studies topics can be taught through experiential learning. For example, children studying a particular culture can perform tasks that individuals from that culture may typically perform e.

The children can work together and with you to design engaging and meaningful learning around social studies. All children need a strong developmentally appropriate curriculum, supportive environment, and nurturing relationships. As a family child care provider, you will need to plan experiences and activities that address the varying developmental needs of the children you serve.

Some children you care for will thrive even without much support from you while other children will need your help more frequently. Some children have specific learning needs and require individualized strategies to help them be successful in your child care home.

Parents are the experts about their child. When you can accommodate individual learning needs, you support the individual child as well as the other children in your care. Specialized learning strategies often are helpful not only for the child with special needs but for all the children in your family child care home.

It might be hard for some children who are learning English to easily participate in all the activities in child care. The children learning English may be at different stages of acquiring their home language and English. Some children may hear quite a bit of English in their home, while others may hear none. This means some children may need more help than others.

You can help children who are learning English by a including activities that are culturally meaningful to them, b giving them special supports, and c making children feel included in all activities. Helping all children is characterized by flexibility and a variety of changes. The curriculum should support the development and well-being of all children in a group to foster learning. While children may have diverse learning needs, the skills, and concepts they are learning through the curriculum may be similar.

Think about whether your experiences and activities include the right kind of goals and instruction for children. If not, you can make some changes to how information is presented. For example, some children who have difficulty with reading comprehension may need to have an abridged version of a book while other children can read the book in its entirety.

Children with weak vocabulary skills might benefit from vocabulary instruction before reading a new book. School-age children can use a concept map where they write the vocabulary word, write the definition, identify an example and non-example, and draw a picture of the vocabulary word.

You may have to make some changes to your family child care environment to meet the needs of all children. A school-age child may prefer reading while sitting on an exercise ball. Some children may prefer a self-monitoring chart a list that children use to help know they are staying on task. Some children enjoy quiet classical music playing to help them stay focused on a game. In family child care, the mixed ages of children are an advantage when looking at the overall environment.

Some school-age children with disabilities may enjoy playing in areas of your home child care that are designed for the younger children e. You may have to rethink the environment so that an older child can participate in more age-appropriate ways e. It is important to keep the environment age-appropriate and challenging for all the children in your care.

Children with disabilities might find some activities very challenging. For example, a school-age child who is learning how to add numbers may have difficulty quickly adding up the points when playing a board game with other children. You can make the activity easier by providing this child with a basic calculator.

You can decrease the use of a calculator as the child becomes faster at adding numbers on paper. The help and concrete support that you offer the child will change over time as they become more skilled.

Making modifications to activities and offering individualized support allows all children to participate successfully in activities. As a family child care provider, it is your job to support all children.

In addition to play-based interactions with their peers, children can strengthen their interpersonal skills by learning from their caregivers. Qualified providers will offer appropriate solutions for social conflicts and model prosocial behavior throughout the day so your child can observe and learn. Most daycares provide a structured day with activities specifically designed to engage the senses and stimulate cognitive growth.

A skills-based curriculum with individualized instruction in an early childhood setting can provide a solid foundation for later education and foster a life-long love of learning. Studies have shown that students who attend an early childhood education program are more likely to graduate high school and attend college.

The daycare environment also provides consistent opportunities for your child to interact with others, which means countless opportunities to observe and develop their communication skills. A childcare environment also allows children to build meaningful connections with their caregivers, which research has shown plays a significant role in strengthening communication skills. There is an undeniable connection between confidence and competence , so when children feel capable and empowered by their efforts, their confidence soars.

Your child is an innately confident and capable human being bursting with potential at every turn.