Infancy: Benefits of High Quality Child Care
Introduction
The article focuses on child care and the benefits derived from high quality child care practices in society. The contents of this article are relevant to child care because they constitute the findings of several research programs. They present to readers how child care standards should be raised in order to give infants a good life. It expounds on several infant research studies concerning the benefits. High quality levels of child care make a significant difference on the lives of an infant and their future. For instance, the article reveals that teenagers who had a good quality of child care had better academic performances than those who had poor quality child care. Therefore, child care is portrayed as a basis of every individual’s future success.
Quality child care also provides children with good behavior and self-presentation in future. Based on the article, research indicates that children with high quality child care often show little or no acting-out behavior in their teenage years. This is opposite to those who had poor child care. Furthermore, those who undertook over 4.5 years of child care have great impulses and are good at risk taking than the rest of their peers. The article also provides details on how the children were identified in their early stages and how they were observed during the study. Other factors in the study apart from child care are not mentioned. However, it is possible that these factors were ignored during the study as part of the assumptions of the study.
Relevance to infancy
This article has a close relation with infancy because it focuses on the impacts of quality child care on how infants can develop into productive and well behaved individuals in the future. Child care is a central part of infancy because it provides infants with the necessary skills in education. It makes children adaptable to school environments so that by the time they are admitted in school, they are ready and mentally strong to learn. It also gives them the interpersonal skills to relate with other people , both adults and their peers. The article provides the necessary link between academic performance and individual ability of infants who attend child care. The article provides real life proof provided from past research conducted by the National Institute of Child health and Human Development. Therefore, this article is relevant to infancy because it focuses on an important topic in infancy, child care.
Contribution of the article to infancy
This article mainly focuses on child care as part of the human development process. It explains how child care can contribute towards the improvement of an individual’s future life. It explains these benefits based on actual research conducted by reputable organizations. Therefore, it provides proof of the importance of child care for children. The article’s contribution to the field of infancy is recognized through the establishment of a correlation between the amount of time in hours and the report obtained from the caregiver concerning the child’s behavior. This article contributes to child care by outlining all the benefits obtained from child care. It also explains how child care can be conducted to ensure maximum benefit by the infants. The article gives an analytical explanation of how children who went through child care behave at school and perform academically. There is also an analysis of how children of different gender benefit from child care services. In the explanation of the research process, the article focuses on other factors that affect child care service outcomes such as family income, parent’s level of education and depression. These factors are considered risks in child care.
Methods used in child care
This article outlines the different methods used in child care to achieve maximum desirable outcomes. The methods used include recruiting infants from different backgrounds and placing them under a child care program. In the research, other infants who were not under the child care program were also included in the research to develop a comparison between the two groups of infants. The research took a long time until the children were in their teenage years. The behavior in school and the academic performance of the children was observed over time to establish the effects of child care.
Observation
This method is used to examine children who underwent child care and those who did not get child care. The aim is to establish any correlation between the behavior and performance of the children with the attendance of the child care program.
Reporting
This method is used to give the progress of the infant undergoing the child care program. The reports are prepared by both care givers and parents or guardians of the infant. The care giver gives a report on the behavior of the child and their performance. This is meant to establish any progress in the child’s mannerisms. The parents are also supposed to observe the child and report the progress. When the children are in school in their infant and teenage years, their teachers are also supposed to report on their performance and behavior to determine whether the child care program was helpful or not.
Critique
The conclusion in the article is that child care forms a strong foundation for children that make them have improved academic performance and good behavior. It also concludes that child care provides socialization experience, making the individual develop impulsive and risk taking behavior. However, this article also explains that there are other factors that influence child behavior and academic performance. Factors such as background of the child, financially and socially, the school environment, child’s attitude all influence how the individual will behave and perform at school. Therefore, it is not correct to conclude that child care is responsible for the good performance of students. However, child care plays a major role in making the child ready for school and makes them socially friendly.
Implications and limitations of the study
The study on child care was conducted with a fixed perspective on its impact on the academic performance and behavior of children. The study did not consider other factors that could influence academic performance and individual behavior. This makes the study less credible because the performance could be as a result of other factors.
The study did not take into perspective the time changes. Children attend child care at their infant stage. However, the study takes a long period until these children are teenagers. This reduces the credibility of the study because children learn new things and behaviors. As teenagers, children are prone to peer influence hence; their behavior and performance in class could have little or no correlation with child care.
The implications of this study are that child care provides a strong foundation for the future of every child. Children should be taken through child care programs to help them have the mental preparedness before joining school. This will help them adapt easily in school and perform well. Furthermore, the child care helps children learn how to socialize and behave well. This gives them the impulsive and risk taking attitude than makes them unique and outgoing.
Conclusion
Therefore, child care is a major aspect of human development, which helps infants develop desirable mental and behavioral traits. The article outline the major benefits of child care programs and how they are conducted to ensure children benefit most. There are other factors that can affect the behavior of children that are not explained in the article hence; this is a chief limitation in the study. The study conducted implies that child care helps give infants a head start in their education, makes them outgoing, impulsive and risk taking.
Reference
Nauert, R. (2010, May 17). Benefits of High Quality Child Care. Retrieved March 18, 2013, from PsychCentral: http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/05/17/benefits-of-high-quality-child-care/13866.html
