Childcare News: Family Care Develops Better Language Skills in Infants & Center-Based Child Leads to Better Motor Skills

Children's formative years are crucial in their growth and development. At this age, one factor that is very influential in their progress is the people who look after them. A new study suggests that childcare arrangement has an impact on the children's language and motor skills.

In a study carried out by Maynooth University, it was found out that infants under the care of their extended families or any close relative develop better language skills compared to those who are looked after in crèches, The Irish Times has learned.

The researchers admitted that children cared by family members only stand out in their language skills at the age of three. "This was the only type of childcare arrangement to have a positive influence on cognitive development," said the authors of the study. However, its positive impact is only limited to vocabulary and did not extend to helping the toddlers improve their visual recognition abilities.

Busy parents without relatives to look after their kids, who resort to leaving their toddlers in "center-based-care," should not be dismayed. The same study reveals that even if their children are not advanced in their speaking skills, they are ahead in developing their motor skills such as hand-eye coordination.

"Babies in centre-based care show greater abilities in fine motor skills (e.g. turning of page, holding of pencil) than babies who have not attended centre based care," Mail Online reports.

Although the majority of children are under the care of their parents or close relatives, the same report from The Irish Times reveals that 61 percent of nine-month-olds, around 50 percent of three-year-olds and 77 percent of nine-year-olds from high-earning families are under non-parental care. The same report says that non-parental childcare is too expensive for families with minimal income.

Apart from childcare arrangement, the study also found other factors that are more influential in children's development. These include household income, primary care giver's level of education, household employment and the primary care giver's stress and depression status. The Irish Times learned that children with depressed mothers, when they were infants, develop more social and emotional problems by the time they reach the age of three.

The study used the data collected in the national longitudinal study, Growing Up in Ireland.

According to The Irish Times, the study is the first in Ireland that examines the influence of childcare arrangement from infancy (nine months) up to nine years old relative to the toddler's physical, cognitive and socio-emotional development. The results of the study is expected to be published later this month, Mail Online reports.