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Early
or Later Day Care
Many
young parents are confused about whether their children should have early day
care, and there have always been different views on this subject.
The
British psychoanalyst John Bowlby believes that separation from parents during
the sensitive "attachment" period from birth to three may scar a
child's personality and lead to psychological problems in later life. Some
people have drawn the conclusion from Bowlby's work that children should not be
subjected to day care before three because of the parental separation it
causes, and many people do believe this.
According
to Bowlby, a great deal of psychological harm can occur when young children are
separated from their parents. If they are left without touch for a while, they
will have a higher stress level. Parents' influence on their children's
well-being may never be greater than during the earliest years of life, when a
child's brain is developing
rapidly and when nearly all of her or his experiences are shaped by parents and
the family environment.
However,
there are critics. Some anthropologists (人类学家) point out that the love affair
between children and parents found in modern societies does not usually exist
in traditional societies. There has been a long history of the fact that father
and mother did not bring up their children alone. Plato, around 394 B.C.,
argued that a system of early child care would free women to participate in
society. Results from Israeli and Dutch studies show that child-raising duties
are more evenly distributed among a broader group of people.
Besides,
studies have reported that early day care has a neutral or slightly positive
effect on children's development. They learn the benefits of being socially
smart, understanding the concept of sharing and caring. They promote
concentration skills, which is very important in their learning. There are
games where children are taught basic language and mathematical skills through
stories and everyday examples.
Common
sense tells us that early day care would not be so widespread if children had
problems with it. But Bowlby's analysis raises the possibility that it has
delayed effects. The possibility that such care might lead to more mental
illness 15 or 20 years later can only be explored by the use of statistics.
Whatever the long-term effects, parents sometimes find the immediate effects
difficult to deal with. Children under three dislike leaving their parents and show
unhappiness. At the age of three almost all children find it easy to go to the
nursery. The matter, then, is far from being clearly known, though experience
and available evidence indicate that early day care is reasonable for young
children.
