ModC5

DAY CARE AND CHILDREN

What can be more comforting for a child than a mother 's gentle hug and smile when he / she comes back from school Children come back from school loaded with silly little stories , events and similar other idiosyncrasies which only a mother may find interesting . But sadly , such happy scenes are now a thing of the past in most families where mothers are working . With women joining the work force in a big way after World War II , mothers are no longer at home when children come

back from school . Thus , day care centers have stepped in to occupy the vacuum . Whether they are really successful and play a positive role in a child 's development , still remains to be seen

Old timer 's sentiments , which demand a mother 's presence at home to welcome the child back from school , should in no way bias our objective analysis of the constructive or destructive role that day care centers play in a child 's development . The effect of day care centers on the physiology , psychology and emotional quotient of the child depends on a number of variables such as the socio- economic background of the family the quality of the day care centre and the length of time for which the services are used

Children 's health and its relation to day care services has become a highly controversial issue in recent times . Some studies point out that children who spend time at day care are more likely to fall prey to infectious diseases such as colds , flu , gastroenteritis and whooping cough . This may be because of the large scale contact with a large number of children at such an early and vulnerable age . However , another study points out that all this makes the children immune and thus they contract fewer illnesses by the time they enter school ( F . Denny , F . Henderson and A . Collier , Acute respiratory infections in day care , RID , Vol 8 (1986 , pp 527-532 . Also it is obvious that better quality day care services are hygienic and there is not much danger of children contracting a serious disease

In learning and language acquisition skills , day care services don 't seem to have a negative impact on children . Also , it can be shown by some studies , that children from a disadvantaged socio- economic background , seem to perform better at these tasks when they are sent to a day care centre Children with learning disabilities also benefit from good quality day care centers . In short , it can be said that better quality day care services have a positive impact on learning and language acquisition and also intellectual development of the child

Studies do not provide conclusive evidence that children who spend time at day care services are emotionally insecure . The large number of variables involved in this study , make it difficult to draw conclusions of this nature . But common sense allows us to argue that since children in day care services spend a long time away...