Many preschoolers in the industrialised world have clean water to drink, good food to eat, and excellent educational opportunities available to them.
Across industrialised nations of the world, out-of-home childcare is a fact of life for more and more children - and they’re not only getting younger, they’re also being put in care for longer hours than ever before.
Today’s preschoolers - including our youngest New Zealanders - are the first generation of children in which a majority are spending a large part of early childhood in some form of out-of-home care. In the US, for example, more than half of under-ones are in some form of childcare - three quarters of them from the age of four months or earlier, and for an average of 28 hours per week.
A recent OECD paper that looked at group-based childcare studies from around the world clarifies this highly contentious issue. It concludes that somewhere after the age of two - and probably closer to three - when children begin to relate to each other properly, high quality group-based care is beneficial.
However, when young children - especially under the age of one - are placed in nurseries, even for as little
as 12 hours a week, there can be grave risks to the proper development of the child.
Good parenting and high quality care can buffer children against the stress of group-based daycare. But there are some negatives - according to the paper - that various studies have been able to pinpoint:
A lack of close interaction with a devoted adult can result in a mis-setting of the body’s stress management systems, leading to difficulties for the child in regulating his or her responses to the world
Long term effects may include depression, withdrawal and an inability to concentrate
Too much care can weaken the attachment between parent and child and might jeopardise the child’s sense of security and trust in others
Children who have spent a lot of time in care can be more assertive, disobedient and aggressive
Infants spending as little as 12 hours a week in day nurseries showed slightly lower levels of social development and emotional regulation (less enthusiastic cooperation, concentration, social engagement and initiative) as toddlers.
In short, leading child psychologists such as Australian Steve Biddulph and prolific UK author Penelope Leach recommend that children under three avoid group-based child care if possible.
Why?
And no-one knows what this will mean for the current crop of preschoolers, or for those that come after.
Because the bottom line - according to Oxford psychotherapist Susan Gerhardt, is that "babies come into the world with the need for social interaction to help develop and organise their brains. If they don’t get enough empathetic, attuned attention... then important parts of the brain simply will not develop as well."