Research Indicates Adverse Effects of Daycare, Preschool
by Jim Brown
November 14, 2005
(AgapePress) - - Two new studies indicate parents might want to reconsider sending their children to daycare or preschool. In one study, Stanford University and University of California researchers found that children who spend more than six hours a day in center-based care outside the home showed poor social skills. According to the researchers, the children in the investigation showed "diminished levels of cooperation, sharing, motivated engagement in classroom tasks, and greater aggression."And in another study, this one conducted by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, a researcher found that kids who spent long hours in daycare and preschool exhibited "poorer work habits and poorer social skills through third grade." These children, according to the study, tended more than others to have trouble concentrating and completing their school work.
Denise Kanter with the California-based "Considering Homeschooling Ministry" believes these research findings make a good case for mothers to stay at home with their children. In the average preschool or day-care situation, she contends, "You're actually putting young children -- two, three, four, five and on up -- with children their own age, and they all come from different kinds of backgrounds; and there's a lot of bullying and violence and mistreatment that's happening among the children."
It is hard to see how young children "can even survive that situation," Kanter observes, "so it's not surprising to me that they're emotionally and socially not doing well." She says U.S. states considering universal preschool as an educational option may want to think twice about adopting such programs, especially in light of these new studies.
This latest research should raise red flags for those states seeking more funding for early education programs, the home education advocate asserts. "You have all these governors and these states pushing universal preschool, but what they're pushing is something that is not going to be of benefit to the children," she says.
Kanter feels the Stanford-UC and National Institute studies confirm what she has long maintained -- that children are better off when raised at home by their mothers. "I'm hoping these states will take a second look at universal preschool and realize it's not the optimum way to raise children," she says.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
