Working parents often place their infants in child care centers or have a caretaker watch them. Hara Estroff Marano, a Psychology Today writer, reports that researchers have found effects on babies who are cared for by someone other than their mother for at least 10 hours per week. These effects touch many areas, from language development and memory skills to social relationship and overall behavior, and not all of them are bad. Studies are still ongoing, but evidence points to definite differences between babies raised by Mom and those cared for by others for extended periods.
Behavior
Several recently released long-term studies found that infants placed in child care are more likely to misbehave at school or get into fights by the time they reach sixth grade. Teachers also reported that they are more argumentative, according to Marano. Dr. Jay Belsky, who heads the Institute for the Study of Children, Families and Social Issues at London's Birkbeck University. speculates this may be because these babies do not form secure attachments, leading to the later problems.
Vocabulary
Babies who are placed in high-quality day-care situations often develop a better vocabulary, Marano reports. This was determined by testing long-term study participants in the fifth grade This effect is likely because of early exposure to adult conversation.
Social Skills
Babies tended to develop stronger social skills in day care, but Marano states these effects did not last as the youngsters grew older. However, some researchers believe they may reappear later as children continue to develop.
Cognitive Development
High-quality child care supports a baby's cognitive development, preparing him for higher academic achievement once he enters school. This appears to result from being provided with intellectual stimulation during the early developmental period. This leads to better performance in reading, math and memory-related tasks, Marano explains.
Health
Dr. Shari Nethersole, a pediatrician at Children's Hospital in Boston, warns that babies in group child-care situations tend to get more infections, because they are exposed to many other youngsters. Rotavirus is particularly common, because it tends to affect babies who are not yet old enough to be potty trained, and it is a hard infection to control.
Intelligence
Many babies placed in child care, particularly those with teenage mothers or infants from low-income backgrounds, got a positive effect on their intelligence from the child care. Their IQ scores were an average of 10 points higher than youngsters from similar backgrounds who did not attend day care by the time they were 4 years old, a National Institute of Child Health and Human Development study discovered.
