Are you thinking about sending your child to a child care centre?
Are you concerned about the impact of a child care centre for both you and your child?
You really shouldn’t be concerned. In fact, there are many benefits of for your child.
The Benefits of a Child Care Centre
While conventional wisdom suggests that every child should be with his or her parents at home, the research shows that children benefit significantly from quality child care.
Study after study has shown that when you compare a child cared for exclusively by his or her parents to a child that has experienced child care as well as home-based care, child care is shown to have no negative impact on the child’s cognitive or language development. There is even evidence that children perform better if they have attended child care from a young age.
The sociologist Mario Small argues that parents “using childcare reap social, psychological, and even financial rewards”. Let’s dig a little deeper and go through the top 5 benefits of sending your kids to a child care centre.
- Preparation for School
The transition to school or kindergarten can be a difficult phase for both parents and children. That’s why any preparation that can help to ease the transition should be taken advantage of.
Sending your little one to a child care centre provides them with an invaluable opportunity to develop and experience many new things that can help prepare him or her for school.
There is evidence that children who attend child care centres develop many of the important and useful skills that are essential for classroom learning at school. These skills can include a wide range of things from being apart from their parents for a short time to problem-solving activities.
In fact, by sending your child to a care centre, you could avoid many of the behavioural problems that define this period for many parents. Instead, your child could seamlessly adapt to his or her new learning environment with fewer issues.
- A Regular Schedule
Young children really benefit from having a strict and regular schedule during the day.
Thanks to a full programme of activities at child care centres, your children will never be bored. From songs to stories, they’ll be able to enjoy their days and full schedules.
The children also enjoy structured periods of playing, learning, napping and eating. Playing is an important part of development and growth for many young children as they learn to explore the world around them.
Better yet, at the end of the day, when parents come to pick up their little loved ones, the children have used up most of their energy. This means they are likely to behave well at home and sleep well at night too!
- Cognitive and Language Development
Research by U.S. National Institutes of Health suggests that children who attend care centres are more likely to have higher cognitive and better academic results than those that didn’t.
Thus, while the decision to send your child to a child care centre may seem like a difficult one in the moment, it may pay off in the future in terms of your child’s development.
According to the research, this is especially the case for children who attended so-called, “high-quality” care centres. The best care centres include extensive interaction between the care providers and the children.
The professional staff is trained to identify when they should challenge a child to reach the next stage and when to comfort them. The combination of loving parents and professional staff works wonders for child development.
There are also practical elements to improving the development of your child. For instance, many care centres teach children topics such as the alphabet and colours.
This is often taught in a fun way through practical play. This can often be a really difficult task for parents at home to accomplish.
- Social Interaction
Children who stay at home often only experience one-on-one interaction with adults, mostly just their parents. Because of this, they may find group interaction much more difficult at a later stage.
In comparison, children in care centres learn to interact and make friends in groups early on. Not only do they learn how to make friends, but they also learn how to make themselves heard in a group.
Children especially benefit from spending time with other children of the same or similar age group. Many parents know this from play dates. However, child care centres offer this on a regular basis.
It’s also important for children to get the opportunity to interact with each other in a safe and supervised environment. It’s also important for children to learn to solve problems and share stories at a young age while their personalities are still developing.
However, it can also be valuable for children to experience social interaction with adults, as well as other children.
Children benefit from social interaction with other adults other than their parents and other members of the family. Child care providers act as role models and mentors.
- Better Health and Less Colds Later
It’s common knowledge that when children first attend kindergarten and school they come home with colds.
However, children who were sent to care centres by their parents are less likely to be sick when they start school. This is because they have already interacted with other people and are less vulnerable to viruses.
Children also get the chance to do lots of playing and exercising at care centres, which results in a healthier lifestyle.
Conclusion
While these are the benefits for your kids, there are also further benefits for parents!
Now that you know the benefits of sending your child to a child care centre, you can make an informed decision for you and your child.
For more information about the benefits of sending your child to a child care centre or if you have any questions or comments, get in touch with us.