Choosing Childcare

01 November 2011

Kidicorp employs over 1500 qualified teachers who are deeply committed to their work and to ensuring that every child in their care has the best learning start and best emotional support possible, while they are away from their parents.

There are some very good in-home carers and also some very bad ones. Just like there are differences in the kind of quality your child will get at childcare. All we ask is that you judge carefully. As this story shows, good quality childcare centres will tend to be better for children than informal and unsupervised care by untrained carers.

In an ideal world some people feel, they wouldn’t send their child to childcare. Conventional wisdom is that children are better-off learning at home.

But most opinions about childcare are based on feelings rather than hard information. There is, however, a body of research about childcare versus staying home with mum.

There used to be a phrase in child psychology coined by the late Dr Winnicott, called “ the good-enough mother”, and it gave great comfort to many mothers who worried that they could or should be better mothers.By this phrase, he meant that the mother who gives love, care, comfort, consistency, and a normal family life, is good enough. But what is normal family life today? And perhaps the working mum who enjoys her work but still is there for her children can offer love, comfort, and consistency. And how do you know that the stay at home mum who looks after your child while you work can give these things?

The things that distinguish good childcare include sensitivity and responsiveness to a child’s needs and signals, happy, supportive and encouraging interaction with the child, which includes being friendly and involving, and above all, chatty, as this extends the child’s communication skills. The other big advantage of good childcare is the cognitive stimulation, meaning teaching, extending and interesting the child, thus giving the

child opportunities for physical, mental and emotional growth.

Studies comparing exclusive mother care versus quality childcare and home-based care, show that there was no difference by the age of two in cognitive and language  development between exclusive mother care and good childcare centres. In fact, children in formal childcare with professional skilled staff did better than children in all types of care by three years old. The number of hours spent in quality childcare seemed to make no difference to the child’s development.

Children do better in a good quality childcare centre than in an informal childcare arrangement.

This research seems to show that exclusive maternal care is not necessarily better than a  good quality childcare centre. On the other hand, the same research showed that good
childcare centres are better for children than home-based care, whether by family or paid child-carer. Children do better in a good quality childcare centre than in an informal  childcare arrangement.

Among the reasons for this is that children get to be with plenty of other children in their own age group, and develop both language skills, communication and social skills in this
setting.

Childcare centres also have a range of equipment and activities which stretch and extend childrens’ abilities, their staff are all trained to know when a child is ready for the next stage of their physical and mental development and have the skills to support their growth.
They understand how to use language, water games, sand play, music, reading, and all the other activities of a good childcare centre to keep children amused and stimulated.

Unlike home-based care there are no periods of watching tv, or waiting while Granny or  the caregiver chats on the phone. All the staff at a childcare centre are on duty all the time and available throughout the session.Because there are a number of staff, they can support each other, and swap notes on each child, so nothing goes unnoticed.

For older children the skills they learn at pre-school and childcare centres means they start school feeling confident and able to cope with the classroom.

All this encouraging research means that caring parents don’t need to beat themselves up if they decide they need to send their child to childcare. Too often parents feel guilty when they make this decision, but the evidence shows that mother care is good for children, and so is good childcare.

by Victoria Carter