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National Child Care Association
Providers Working for Children and Families |
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Public Policy Brief
An Electronic Newsletter of the National Child Care Association
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| A Welcome from the Government Relations Chair and President |
Dear Colleague,
The NCCA Public Policy Brief premiered on March 9 of this year with a distribution to the NCCA Government Relations Committee, the NCCA Board of Directors, and the NCCA State Leadership Council which represents the members of our state associations' board of directors. With this issue, the Public Policy Brief becomes a member benefit and will now be distributed to every member of NCCA with an email address on file with our headquarters. The information in this issue touches on a report released on Monday, March 26, by the National Institutes of Health updating its findings on the longitudinal study of children in child care settings initiated in 1991. This information was sent to your state association by end of business on Monday, the day of the report's release. Because of the importance of the subject matter, this issue of the Public Policy Brief is being published to the entire NCCA membership one week before our expected publication date. We hope you find this information of value.
Sincerely, |
Johnny Anderson
Chair
Government Relations and Industry Relations
Connie Kraus
President
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NIH Longitudinal Study on Children in Child Care Settings
On Monday, March 26, the National Institutes of Health released the most recent report on its longitudinal study of children in child care settings. The study appears in the March/April 2007, issue of Child Development.
The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) started the Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (SECCYD), formerly the NICHD Study of Early Child Care (SECC), in 1991 to collect information about different non-maternal child care arrangements and to determine how variations in child care are related to children's development.
In prior published work, the study showed higher quality child care predicted higher levels of pre-academic skills and language performance. This most recent study shows that children who experienced higher quality child care displayed somewhat better vocabulary skills in fifth grade.
The study authors also found that the more time children spent in center-based care before kindergarten, the more likely their sixth grade teachers were to report such problem behaviors as "gets in many fights," "disobedient at school," and "argues a lot."
However, the researchers cautioned that the increase in vocabulary and problem behaviors was small, and that parenting quality was a much more important predictor of child development than was type, quantity, or quality, of child care. |
March 30, 2007
In This Issue
NIH Longitudinal Study on Children in Child Care Settings
Links to the NIH Study
Talking Points
Get Active! Join our Grassroots Action Network and the NCCA PAC. |
You will likely have seen press coverage of this issue. Please note that the NIH Press Release on the most recent report emphasizes "Early Child Care Linked to Increases in Vocabulary, Some Problem Behaviors in Fifth and Sixth Grades" – our emphasis on increases in vocabulary and "some".
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Links to the NIH Study
See the following press release at www.nih.gov/news/pr/mar2007/nichd-26.htm
See the full report at www.nichd.nih.gov/research/supported/seccyd.cfm
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| Talking Points |
To assist NCCA members in communicating with parents and others inquiring about the study, we are providing the following talking points. These talking points combine points prepared by NCCA as well as the Early Care and Education Consortium, a strategic partner of the NCCA.
NCCA and Its Members
- NCCA and its members are dedicated to excellence in the child care system and providing the highest level of quality care, education and environment which have been shown to positively impact children's academic performance.
- It is recognized that a child's emotional and social health is a result of a complex interplay of factors, including home life, the child care program, and the larger social environment.
- As child care professionals, we welcome continued research into the child care environment. The recent NIH-funded study adds to our growing knowledge about the impact of child care and will serve, along with other research and data, as part of the foundation for future initiatives to enhance quality in the national child care system.
NICHD Study
- The NICHD study brings forward findings of a longitudinal study of 1,364 children born in 1991. The study reviews the impact of child care on the child as he/she grows.
- Previous reports from this study found positive results from greater exposure to center-type care related to predicting better language skills and performance on memory tasks.
- The actual negative effects reported in the NICHD study resulting from center care are characterized as modest, involve a very small number and percentage of children, and the behaviors are still within the normal range of behavior.
- The positive developmental effects for quality child care are important, and may be very important for some children. The fact that gains may not be lasting may have to do with the issue of continuity of quality from quality child care to the school-age experience.
- The study found a small increase in problem behaviors. It is important to note that the researchers continue to find that parenting is a more important predictor of child development than the child care environment. The authors also note one possible reason the problem behavior may remain "is that primary school teachers lack the training as well as the time to address behavior problems, given their primary focus on education."
- The "negative behaviors" lumped together in the study ranged from arguing to bullying, demands a lot of attention to cruelty. There is a huge difference in concern between assertiveness or contentiousness, and meanness or defiance. Some development of assertive and aggressive behaviors is a natural consequence of life in small groups. What may be a "problem behavior" in a particular school may not be a problem behavior in another school or outside of school life.
- The study authors have always said that the study was not designed to prove cause and effect relationships. The behavior problems the researchers documented might be due to some other characteristic of the children or of their environment. In fact, the same longitudinal study last year acknowledged that: parent and family features were two to three times more strongly linked to child development than was child care during the preschool years. Rarely is research able to attribute cause and effect or predict effects for individual children because a child's development is complicated, families are complicated, child care settings are complicated, and life is complicated. Where does that leave parents? Most likely feeling frustrated, confused or guilty as they try to do the best for our children and families.
- Quality is more than the simple factors of staff-child ratios and teacher experience. Quality lies in the culture of the center and the human interactions. Quality is whether teachers work with parents to ensure that every child receives the care and education he or she needs and deserves: whether a child is treated as an individual, whether the day is relaxed and rich with learning opportunity, whether teachers encourage exploration, problem-solving, cooperation and empathetic responses, and whether parents receive the support from the program to accomplish the difficult task of balancing work and family. And the same is true for the school-age setting of the 5th and 6th graders involved in the longitudinal study covered by the recent report.
Further Consideration
- Whether the child is at home or at the child care program, we need to see these not as distinct and unrelated pieces of a child's life, but rather as part of a complex interplay of factors. If our children are going to grow up socially and emotionally healthy, we must view the entire set of environmental factors influencing the child. And we must be mindful of the continued responsibility parents, teachers, and society have for our children as they enter school age.
- Child care centers are part of our society. The child care profession and the NCCA are committed to bringing excellence to each and every center. The question for the parent is how to identify and find quality child care appropriate to the individual child. The question for society is to make the commitment and investment in every stage of a child's developmental experiences, from birth through early care and education, from elementary through secondary education, and indeed from higher education into careers. As parents, providers, and members of our communities, we need to ask ourselves what makes the most sense for our families and for our children and how to provide a meaningful, developmentally appropriate learning environment in every stage of a child's learning experience.
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Pass it on! |
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Please feel free to forward the NCCA Public Policy Brief to other providers in your community. |
National Child Care Association
2025 M Street, NW, Suite 800, Washington, DC 20036
Phone (202) 367-1133, Fax (202) 367-2133
Toll Free (800) 543-7161, E-mail info@nccanet.org
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The NCCA Public Policy Brief is developed by the staff and volunteers of the NCCA Government Relations Committee. It is available to all members of the National Child Care Association and sent out on an as-needed basis as developments of issues and policies in Washington merit. |
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