research re:nurseries

[holloway]

can somebody direct me to any research re: benefits of nurseries for 2 year olds - i thought experts recommended sending kids to nurseries when they are 3;does anybody know?

do you need childcare whilst you work?

if you don't then you don't need a nursery

sorry that was curt .. if you don't need the time away from your child either then there is no benefit to nursery over and above what you can get at playgroups

I could answer this for you in great depth ut am meant to be writing an essay may get back to you later!

Personally I think the formality of nursery sets them up well for starting school.

This article includes much of the reserach with which I am familiar.

here

Message deleted

Well next year (finances dependent) I'll be a horrible nasty mother and send DS2 off to nursery for 1 or 2 days a week.

Not for me - but for him. We already go to 2 toddler groups, - which he loves, but he's SOOOO different to his brother at the same age, and I feel he'd benefit from it. I simply can't 'entertain' him as much as he needs.

If he'd have been like his older brother at the same age I wouldn't even have considered it, as DS1 was only just ready when he started 2 weeks before his 4th birthday!

My dd started nursery just after she turned 2 and a half, I only work six hours a week and she comes to work with me so I didn't need the childcare and I didn't paticularly want a break from her - although I do enjoy it

Dd is a bright little button, an only child and fiercly independent, this combination lead me to think that a nursery would be a good idea. She wanted more stimulation than I could give her at home and I noticed at playgroups that she liked to go off and do her own thing rather than have me tag along. The nursery is attached to her future primary school and our current church so was ideal as it was familiar to her.

She started with one four hour session a week, the first day she skipped in waving bye bye and she loved it. Infact she cried when it was time to come home. After a month I upped it to two sessions at her request and after her third birthday, when we got funding it became three sessions.

I am a SAHM who believes that I have made the right decision so sending her to nursery all be it on a part time basis was a big decision for me and a costly one as it was a "luxury"

But dd loved it , she gained a new independence she got to choose her own friends rather than mixing with my friends children, she gets a real buzz out of learning something new and bringing home certificates or stickers. Her language and social skills have come on amazingly as has her behaviour as she has not had her mum to defend and stick up for her so she as had to behave appropriatly. She has formed new attachements and relationships all on her own. But most importantly she loved it.

Much of the research regarding childcare is american and you need to bear in mind that they may have a more traditional viewpoint about the role of women. It is also important to bear in mind the quality of daycare on offer, my dd goes to a fantastic nursery so she thrives. I think the number of hours quoted by Belsky et al as being the limit advised for daycare under three is 20 hours. But most importantly I think that nursery provision helps children when it is what the family really want rather than a forced choice due to economic or other pressures.

Off the top of my head:
anything up to 10 hours a week for over 18 month olds is socially beneficial

big headlines last year

will rummage it out

this may be of interest not saying your child is from a deprived background but a useful summary of research.

this highlights possible negative effects of daycare before two and between ages of two and three.

Ah that last link is the one I was after. There are two articles entitled "Are nurseries bad for our kids?" at the bottom of that page which make interesting reading too.

I do think though that you have to think about your child as an individual, you know them best not a reseacher at an American University.

You also need to bear in mind the political climate of research, often what gets published is what upholds the society at that time. So after the second world war when women were no longer needed in the workplace women were told that their children needed them at home. It suits our capitalist society to have women earning a wage so much research tends to say daycare is beneficial although I think the view is changing hence research/ articles highlighting concern for daycare for very young infants.

Not wanting to start another woking mums/ sahm debate by the way!

Lots of the studies that criticise day care also use the Strange situation procedure (Beklsky for on who is at the heart of much childcare research) which is not without flaws, so read all research with care.

Agree with Twinset re political climate and encouragement/discouragement of the use of childcare facilities.
I feel though that in addition it can be a peer/social pressure that can force your hand in the decision making process.
Friends and family all have their opinion on what you should do WTF!
For me personally i refused to be swayed, although a difficult decision to uphold in the early days i am adamant and very clear in my feelings that i made the best decision for me and my child.
I have many thoughts on the subject and have listened with interest to many other opinions.
I agonised and twisted myself up in nots about whether or not i was making the right choice to not send my son to a nursery.
It wasnt necissary for work commitments as i have MIL to take care of ds when i need her to.
(there again is another debate recently raged on MN about "using" grandparents as child carers)
My quandry was the social benefit to ds.
In the end i decided that some thing that made me feel so very uncomfortable quite simply could be right for me or for my son so i made my decision there and then.
Come September ds will be 2.2 years old and i feel that he is ready to spread his social wings, to have the freedom to meet other children and to find his feet in an unfamiliar place without me to buffer him.
He will be attending a nursery attached to the future school that he will be attending.
I dont feel uncomfortable about this at all, we are ready for this.
I have always felt that i waited so long for my son that it was unnacceptable for me to hand him over to some one else to watch grow.
Also he can talk now and can tell me if he is unhappy etc, we can discuss his adventures.
Having never parted from ds, other than when work has raised its ugly head, the one and ONLY thing that has made me feel better about leaving him with his nana is that she loves and wants him as much as us (well, not quite as much but YKWIM).

In fact no, i take ALL that back,
He will be admitted into the local orphanage from tomorow am as i cannot deal with his terrible behaviour any longer.
Last week he did a huge poo in next doors paddling pool, tonight he did one in my bedroom.....can 2 year olds be issued with ASBO's?????

and yes I mean woking mums! To be honest I have no time for those mothers who refuse to breast feed and insist on preparing a stirfry for their child instead!

I think I am loosing the plot!

what????

sorry made a typing error meant working and put woking as in a wok you could cook with.

Just taking the piss out of myself, always get feintly hysterical when an essay deadline is looming.

Every child is different, some will benefit from fulltime at home with parent/s. Some will benefit from Nursery.
It totally depends on the child imo.

I worked in Nurseries for 10 years before having dd. Many children started fulltime at 3 months old and stayed with us until they were 5 years. It became apparent that some of them had really thrived and benefited and others possibly would have been better off with more one-to-one care at home. This could be to do with the child, or in some cases this could be because i knew the kind of environment they had when at home and felt they were better off spending more time at nursery.

Some children grew up thinking that we were their parents (actually calling me Mum which of course i corrected them on), and they never had holidays from nursery because their career driven parents took holidays themselves and left relatives in charge of collecting and dropping their child at nursery.

I have heard from reception teachers at our local schools, that pupils who have previously been to nursery get on far better education wise once they start school as they already have the groups social skills, sitting still and listening skills, carrying out instruction etc. So the groundwork is done and they can go ahead with the working once they start school. Compared to children, who of course have probably learnt all the same skills at home, but find it difficult to use those same skills in large groups and unfamiliar environments. So they have far more settling in to do prior to "learning".

So initial thoughts are - oh yes nurseries are great for them.

But whose to say it is necessary that they are ready to "start learning" straight away and leap up to be top of class instantly.

Other countries in Europe don't start formal education as early as Britain, but there is no evidence to say that British pupils do better in senior education due to their early start with education, in fact i have read research that proved the opposite.

So my own opinion is the ideal situation is that if a child seems old enough and ready to attend a nursery parttime, and that they enjoy it, then great. But no i don't think its an essential part to a child's upbringing that should be recommended.

I totally agree with you about children bieng individual with individual needs.
I didnt even consider the formal education point of view in my decision to keep ds with me until now.
My thoughts were of a social benefit rather than laying down groundwork for school.
I consider that by placing ds in a play school attached to the school he will be attending, he will move ahead with the children that he will be starting school with. Familiar faces so to speak.
I feel that i can move at his pace with learning and teaching as i know his pace better than any one.
But by "learning and teaching" i mean things like speech, numbers, shapes, colours painting and drawing.
Milestone type achievements.

Thank you for this - what amazing response. I wondered what would a child psychologist recommend? It seems odd that such an important issue should be a sort of "taboo", surely the government should encourage as much research as possible,even though they may not see it in their short-term interest.