Notes on childcare, revisions

[jmbttown]

@rockhopper72 Just regarding the point about whether daycare is high quality, it is helpful to differentiate. In the UK we have a inspectorate body who assess daycares, so if you can say "30 hours at an outstanding daycare is just as good as a stay at home parent in terms of emotional development", that's potentially the difference between a woman continuing her career or not.

 

[rockhopper72]

@jmbttown For children up to 30 months, UK OFSTED scores are essentially uncorrelated with the research-backed measures of quality. See Mathers S, Singler R & Karemaker A, Improving Quality in the Early Years: A comparison of perspectives and measures. As they note:

a setting graded as
outstanding by Ofsted would not necessarily
receive a high score on the ITERS-R, and
vice versa

 

[rylt]

@rockhopper72 I found the article well-researched and seemed to have a balanced take on assessing the sources cited.

I would be interested in any research on

 

[rockhopper72]

@rylt I'm afraid there isn't any specific research I know of. There's way too little on 0-2 generally.

On language delay: don't panic! Very many children with early language delay end up catching up, and 19 months is early. How is his language comprehension? Also I'm guessing you've had his hearing checked; if not that is definitely worth doing.

Language delay is not an area where I know the research thoroughly, but have a read of McLaughlin (2011), Speech and language delay in children. If there's anything you find hard to follow in there, feel free to DM me. In the final section it recommends a couple of books that might be useful to parents.

 

[rylt]

@rockhopper72 Thanks for the info! I'm definitely not concerned about the language delay (partially bc my nephew also spoke late, and partially because he tested at or above average for every developmental area except language, and that's only because of the one subscore (expressive)). His receptive is so high it actually brought his combined language score to 78.

But thank you for the new resources! It's definitely stressing my so out. On the plus side we qualify for B23, which is nice bc he gets some interaction with non-family/close friend adults every week in our home.

I didn't think there'd be much that specific, but one can always hope!

 

[katrina2017]

@rylt I fall into that category! I'd also be interested in any studies. I just started sending my 18-month-old to a high-quality daycare twice a week. Previously, my parents watched him twice a week for me, but I just had to move about 4 hours away, so daycare was somewhat inevitable. Luckily, it seems to be a positive experience for him so far, and his language has exploded. Plus, the staff are all vaccinated and masked, and the parents/guardians of the children are also required to be vaccinated, so I feel like this is a fairly safe option for my son to get some socialization.

 

[darwinrules]

@rockhopper72 Thank you so much for sharing! I missed your first post so just read your article today. I found it very digestible and helpful

 

[rockhopper72]

@darwinrules Thank you for the kind words!

 

[jwfletch]

@rockhopper72 This is a great article and I am constantly citing it to parents considering sending young child to daycare. Appreciate you writing up and sharing with us

 

[rockhopper72]

@jwfletch Thank you for the kind comments. I'm very glad to hear that you have found it useful.

 

[cassiemarie]

@rockhopper72 Thank you for writing this!

 

[katrina2017]

@rockhopper72 I read this article the first time and I think your intro nails why you get such strong responses to it - societal expectations make some parents feel guilty about circumstances that are beyond their control (for many reasons, the inability or unwillingness to stay home with an infant).

As an early childhood educator who chose to "take a break" to stay home with our 2nd baby, I'd say that your findings are pretty consistent with my own anecdotal experience, both as a professional and as a parent. I'm sure you're more confident in the science than my anecdotes, and probably also don't need the validation of internet strangers, but I just wanted to back you up and say this is quality stuff you're putting together.

I haven't read the whole thing since the earlier post, so I apologize if it's already been covered - is there anything in there about the mental health of the primary caregiver? Since the beginning of the pandemic we are seeing a rise in mental health concerns both in parents and in teachers. And some parents feel that staying home is truly a bad fit because it affects their mental health - anecdotally I would find that a good enough reason to put their child into care instead. A depressed SAHP is not going to have positive outcomes for their child. I'm also hearing reports of k-12 kids coming back to school post-lockdown a couple of years behind socially, so I'm excited to hear more research about this when it comes out (obviously this will take years, if not decades).

This is a great resource and I appreciate you sharing it!

Edit - added a couple sentences to end of 2nd and 3rd paragraphs.

 

[rockhopper72]

@katrina2017

I'm sure you're more confident in the science than my anecdotes, and probably also don't need the validation of internet strangers

Actually, it's appreciated more than you realise. I would never have posted the article without kind and supportive comments from people like you. I'd never even have written it if @josh4285 hadn't asked the key question. And I wouldn't have posted it publicly if @godwithpeter hadn't made a community which was welcoming to the science. Thank you all.

----

On mental health of the caregiver -- no, nothing in the article. I know some of the research, but not comprehensively enough to feel competent to write about it. It is certainly known that maternal depression leads to worse outcomes for children.

A depressed SAHP is not going to have positive outcomes for their child.

Right. It's actually quite tricky to analyse because some of it is genetic -- inheritance of depression-linked genes. See this paper.

For avoidance of doubt (from anyone reading), I really did mean the article for people who had choices. I don't count suffering under postpartum depression as a real choice. If I knew of a way to stop people without choices reading the article and feeling guilty, I'd take it.

 

[continualseeker]

@rockhopper72 I have been thinking about one aspect your summary of child care science: Longer hours in daycare for kids age 1 and 2 (12 to 36 months old) is associated with behavior problems later in elementary school. And the association is statistically significant. This has shown up in large studies in the Canada and the USA.

Note that the behavior problems have to persist (or somehow be latent) for 3 years or more to show up in elementary school. And, this is not a new finding, this association been known for more than a decade.

What is interesting is that there is good applied science on how to reduce behavior problems. So why does the problem persist?

One issue is that the behavior problems associated with daycare are viewed as minor in the US.They are statistically significant but small enough to not raise a general alarm that would cause reform.

After some research, I found that this increase in behavior problems is not found in studies of Norway's daycare system. Norway has regulations for high quality standards at daycares. And Norway was the first nation to adopt a nationwide evidence-based parent training program designed to improve parenting and reduce behavior problems. They use Parent Management Training-Oregon Model (PMTO). That program has recently been rebranded as "GenerationPMTO"

 

[continualseeker]

@rockhopper72 You might find this interesting:

https://heckmanequation.org/resource/new-13-roi-share-graphic/

 

[rockhopper72]

@continualseeker Thanks. That’s the stuff I was referring to when I wrote:

You sometimes hear that investing in early childhood has huge returns. That’s specifically true for low income children. It’s based on an analysis of two high-quality interventions (1962 Perry Preschool and 1972 Abecedarian). The 200 or so children in those projects were all poor, and nearly all African American.

You can see the word ‘disadvantaged’ on the first item on the sheet you link to!

 

[cruciformdesigns]

@rockhopper72 Thank you for putting out this article.

I found that some researches you cited do not support the conclusion you suggested. I would like to learn more.

for example, in the article,

children spending long hours in any kind of out-of-home childcare have been found to be three times as likely to have “elevated levels of aggression”. citing this research

The relationship between quantity, type, and timing of external childcare and child problem behaviour in Switzerland

However, Reading the research abstract, it says

Analyses on timing of childcare suggested that the accumulation of childcare over the life course, and not so much childcare in the first years of life, was associated with child problem behaviour.

It suggests that the accumulation of childcare, not childcare in the first years of life, is associated with child problem behaviour.This doesn't support your claim of "age makes a huge difference."

you follow with more notes, but it's not clear how it explains this.

Note the age and long-hours effects are separate: putting 6-month-old children in daycare for long hours has a particularly large negative effect on later behavior.

would love to learn more. Thank you