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Daycare: How Is It
Influencing The
While understanding the teens of the future may hinge partly on understanding the teenage years themselves (as a phase of life), we must also take into account the uniqueness of each generation. Let's take a moment now and consider one of the major factors that has been impacting the personalities and perspectives of this generation of future teens -- professional childcare.
The Impact of Childcare 55% of American mothers now return to work by the time their children are one year old -- out of either financial, professional, or personal necessity. Because most businesses expect their employees to put in a 40 or 60 hour work week, children too must put in long hours -- at the daycare center, even longer hours than their parents put in at work. (Professional daycare centers account for the largest slice of the daycare pie.) If these 60 hours that children spend away from their parents is enjoyable, low in stress, and conducive to healthy emotional and cognitive development, then the future -- and the present -- should be bright. But what if it is not? Let's take a look at the present state of professional childcare.
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs As we consider the quality of current childcare, let's bear in mind the work of Abraham Maslow -- which teaches that in order to be healthy productive contributors to society, human beings must first have their basic needs met. These needs include being well fed, warm, and safe from harm or threat of harm. On top of this, all of us -- but especially children -- need love and a sense of being valued. Much of this comes through the attachments human beings form with one another. Studies have shown that without a sense of mutual attachment, children fail to thrive -- even when they are provided with adequate food and warmth. Furthermore, current research suggests that children who are only able to form shallow attachments (because of insufficient quality time with parents, because of having cold, unaffectionate caregivers, or because of frequent experiences of loss -- such as when their daycare provider leaves for a new job elsewhere), become adults who are able only to form shallow attachments. For such persons, all relationships may become disposable, and it may be harder for them to see others as people rather than objects.
Are Needs Being Met? In general then, children who have their needs met, are better able to grow into healthy, happy, creative, and loving adults. So the question is, are we putting children into situations where their needs are not being met? I believe that all too often, the answer is "yes". Many of us working with young children -- as teachers, caregivers, and child advocates -- are deeply concerned about the ability of many daycare providers to adequately address these needs. It is not that daycare providers cannot not address these needs -- there are some truly wonderful caregivers and daycare centers out there. The issue is that in too many cases they simply are not adequately addressing children's needs. Some of the reasons for this fact are:
Child To Adult Ratios Let's begin with child to adult ratios. In licensed daycare centers, the required ratio of adult to children is 1:4 for infant and toddler rooms, and 1:12 for preschoolers. Many daycare centers barely manage to keep with this legal boundary. But these boundaries are themselves unrealistic if taken to represent the "ideal" or "appropriate" ratio. While parents (and even daycare providers themselves) generally assume that these ratios were created by "childcare experts" in order to provide children with the highest quality care, this simply isn't the case. Take for example the ratio for the infant and toddler rooms: 1 to 4. This ratio was derived from fire safety codes -- not from treatises on child development! The idea being that 4 infants or toddlers was the maximum number that a caregiver could safely evacuate simultaneously from a building. (Just try to picture yourself running safely from a burning building with 4 squalling toddlers in your arms, and you'll have some idea of logic we are dealing with here!) Furthermore, the 1 to 12 preschool age ratio also represents a less than ideal standard of care. Have you ever tried to look after 12 three, four, or five year olds, by yourself? I have! (As a substitute "teacher" in professional daycare centers.) I can tell you this -- I know I was not meeting the needs of all those children. There is no way one adult human being can comfort an injured child, break up two separate brawls, oversee an "organized" craft activity, comfort a child hanging against the fence crying for his mother, and scan the play area to make sure all are safe, all in the same moment. How can we fool ourselves that such children are "having their needs adequately met"? They are not. And yet, this is exactly the situation that I have seen in some licensed daycare sites. Obviously, then the standard set by licensing should be viewed as a minimum standard, not an ideal standard. The ratio of children to adults must be lower than that required by licensing in order for children to adequately have their needs met. How much lower? That is a point open to much controversy.
Are The Ratios As Low As They Claim? But what about sites who claim that they have lower ratios? My personal experience is that some who make these claims are not following through on them. In fact, at one site that claimed to have an 8 to 1 ratio, there was typically a 12 to 1 ratio and and sometimes a 15 to one ratio -- according to my own observations and the self-reporting of the caregivers there. The result of these high ratios? Children, and caregivers, under stress. I observed crying children going uncomforted, aggressive behavior (hitting, kicking, biting) being ignored or dismissed without consequence, and children who were cold, hungry, exhausted, and lonely left to themselves, wandering about the playground as their appointed "primary caregivers" ignored them. How could this happen? In my opinion, it's not because these caregivers are cold, unfeeling people, with little interest in children. Far from it. Rather, it seemed that they were burned out. That the logistical reality of having to care for so many children day in and day out -- of routinely experiencing what I described earlier (the impossibility of one human being successfully caring for the needs of 12 little people, including their need for discipline/limit setting) -- had simply worn them down. They, like the children, were just trying to make it through the day -- in good enough condition that they could manage to show up and do it all over again the next day. Clearly, high child to adult ratios are hard on everyone concerned -- caregivers and children alike. It makes it hard for the adults to attend to their own basic needs while still attending to those of the children. Somewhere, something's gotta give.
Lack of Developmentally Appropriate Curriculum A factor that exacerbates the problem discussed above, is boredom. Children who have nothing constructive to do get bored -- and then frustrated. If the situation creating the frustration goes unchanged, tension typically mounts until the child begins "acting out". This may include throwing or otherwise mistreating material and equipment, verbally or physically attacking other children, defying or threatening teachers, or engaging in "daredevil" stunts that endanger themselves. It is not that children should be constantly "entertained". But children do need to have activities made available that stimulate their imagination and the development of their cognitive and fine motor skills. Children have an inner drive to grow, to learn, to explore. If this natural drive is frustrated, the results are often apathy and depression and/or the frustration described above. Imagine a herd of 30 children in a daycare center from early morning until early evening without the challenge, novelty, and guidance of a prepared curriculum. Now, not only do you have a bored, frustrated child, you have 30 of them. Sure some will cope better than others. Some have a higher tolerance for boredom and frustration. And certainly some children need less in the way of challenges and stimulation. But when you have a group of 30, there will generally be a handful of children who are incredibly frustrated. These, the staff will tell you are the "trouble makers". "If we didn't have these kids here" they will say, things would be just fine. And yet, I have seen "these kids" at every overcrowded site. Either it's a case of "there's some in every crowd" or it's that the overcrowded conditions are leading some children to become frustrated and aggressive. Whichever it is, the problem would be greatly alleviated (if not completely resolved) by restructuring the environment and the curriculum. Give children the chance to do something interesting and they, typically, will go to it! Here is an example however of what I have seen passing for "curriculum" in some sites: setting out a tub of broken crayons and a little paper -- at one table, big enough for 6 children -- while 12 children swarm around the table, hitting and pushing and grabbing. On another day, the item put out was Duplos. On yet another day it was playdoh. With the same results -- hitting, shoving, scarcity, and desperation. Clearly the children were eager to participate! But a good quality preschool age program should always have such basic materials available to the children. Playdoh, some manipulatives, some paint or crayons, a sand box, blocks, dramatic play, books -- these sorts of basic items should always be present for the children to self-direct to. And of course a climbing structure, some wheel toys, balls, etc. On top of this, there should be planned enrichment activities -- creative art or "science" projects with novel materials to explore, bringing new sights, smells, textures, and results to explore. And the adults planning the curriculum should take into account how many children will be participating in the activity, and ensure there is enough space and materials for all of them. And they should be prepared to redirect children to other activities until there is a space at the table for them.
Insufficient Materials and Equipment But as I described in the example above, sometimes there are not enough materials to go around. And, the basic materials that should be readily available are not. Even more frustrating, some daycare centers appear to be well equipped but are not! In one site for example, there appeared to be little cubbies filled with tubs of materials. But when I pulled those tubs out to see what was inside... I found broken and missing manipulatives, ink pads and markers that were bone dry, and some tubs that were completely empty! Similarly this same site had a large impressive looking Lego table...but no Legos-- not a one! Don't be fooled by appearances. Fresh paint and fancy architecture are not signs of a quality program. Sometimes the parent organization (such as those that run a chain of daycare centers) designs and sets up an attractive environment, however it is the site director and teachers who must be able to maintain the quality of that environment. Hence dry inkpads, missing Legos, broken computers, and so on. Whether you are a parent or a teacher, ask lots of questions about the site you are becoming involved with . If, for example, you see a large attractive playground structure, find out how many children it must accommodate, and for how many hours. What I have observed at some sites is that the children are locked out on the playground all morning, until they are brought in for lunch and then a nap. Then they are locked outside again -- from 2 or 3 p.m. until their parents come and get them at 5 or 6. Clearly in such situations, a play structure is being relied on to provide more entertainment value than it was designed for. Similarly, a rich and varied indoor environment will be of little benefit to the children if they are rarely allowed to interact with it!
Planting the Seeds of Future Violence If our children are stored in an environment where there is constant aggression, scarcity, insufficient opportunities to express and explore their creativity and desire to learn, and a shortage of adult attention and concern, what will they be like when they are teenagers? In the high school shooting spree in Colorado, in 1999, we saw plenty of what happens when teens feel unloved, disconnected, and unable to positively redirect aggressive feelings. What will it be like in 2011 when these kids I have been observing and describing hit their teens? When I originally conceived the Earth's Kids website, I had planned to write about the incredible positive potential of the 2011 demographic shift. I thought, "An incredible number of children entering their teen years, receptive to embracing new insights and drastic social change -- what a great opportunity to move our culture in a more positive direction." Now however, I am concerned that if we don't make efforts to move things in a positive direction, to positively impact these children -- now -- things may actually get worse than they already are, not better. Clearly, we have a choice: we can intervene to improve the quality of the childcare that tomorrow's teen's are receiving, or we can allow things to continue on unchecked and experience the social consequences.
To read more about the 2009-2011
demographic shift
You may also wish to visit our
page entitled
Issues
In Childcare
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