This article originally appeared in the May-June 1997 Children's Advocate newsmagazine, published by Action Alliance for Children.

Quality Care: Key to a Quality Future

By Jean Tepperman

The pressure of welfare reform has convinced many people that we need to expand the supply of child care. But the whole community also has a crucial stake in improving the quality of child care, to promote the healthy development of the next generation.

In two recent studies, Starting Points and Years of Promise, researchers from the Carnegie Corporation explain the importance of high-quality early education.

from Starting Points (birth to age three)

"Parents and experts have long known," says the Carnegie report, "that babies raised by caring adults in safe and stimulating environments are better learners … and the effects can be long-lasting. Recent scientific research has found that:

• The brain development that takes place before age one is more rapid and extensive than we previously realized.
• Brain development is much more vulnerable to environmental influence than we ever suspected.
• The influence of early environment on brain development is long lasting."

"Touching, holding, and rocking a baby, as well as stimulating the child through talking and reading, seem most effective for later development."

"Quality child care enables a young child to become emotionally secure, socially competent, and intellectually capable. The single most important factor in quality care is the relationship between the child and the caregiver. Children who receive warm and sensitive caregiving are more likely to trust caregivers, to enter school ready and eager to learn, and to get along well with other children…

"The quality of caregiver-child relations depends in part on the sensitivity of the caregiver and in part on the ratio of caregivers to children, the number of children in a group, and the education and training levels of the caregiver."

from Years of Promise (ages three to ten)

This report explains that rapid brain development continues during the years from three to ten and that a child's experiences have a strong effect on the actual physical development of the brain. A stimulating environment can help a child's brain develop the physical structures needed for learning. A child's relationships with caregivers affect the development of the brain and the way it functions, not only intellectually, but also emotionally, socially, and psychologically. Chronic abuse and neglect may harm the development of "biological systems that allow and regulate the expression of emotion.... Children who form strong, trusting attachments to caregivers in the early years and throughout the first decade are more likely to develop coping skills" for dealing with stress.

What quality looks like

Years of Promise describes an imaginary preschool, based on several high-quality preschools the researchers visited:

"Children feel comfortable in small groups [with] a few adults who know them well... There are a teacher, one or two assistants, and often several parents in each classroom... Low staff turnover means that the children are able to form and maintain stable relationships with their teachers.

"Preschool-age children need to learn at their own pace and follow their own interests. ...Rather than sitting at assigned seats, the children move around independently for much of the day, as their interests take them. They may gather in one large circle on the floor to share stories or sing songs, or cluster in small groups in different parts of the room to feed the rabbits, or sit alone to paint a picture or "read" a book. There is almost always a buzz of conversation among the children, because they are learning from each other as much as from the teachers and the materials. The teachers converse with the children constantly, asking questions that help them think through problems on their own, rather than simply giving them answers.

"In one class, two girls and two boys in the block corner are building a supermarket. They are learning, among other things, how many small square blocks will match one long rectangle, or how two triangular blocks can make the square they need to complete their building. A boy at the easel has just shown his friend how to make green paint by mixing blue and yellow. The children in plastic aprons making a mess at the water table are finding out how many measuring cups it takes to fill the large plastic container. Children listening to a teacher read a story are beginning to realize that the words at the bottom of each page have a consistent relationship with the picture.

"The children in the dress-up corner, adorned in a wild array of grown-up clothes, are having a wonderful time, and by playing different roles — parent, teacher, firefighter, big sister — they are also learning that different people have different points of view and different responsibilities. When two children begin to tussle over the large firefighter's hat, a teacher intervenes — not to impose a settlement, but to show them how to talk to each other about the problem and how to share the hat."

The authors point out that creating and conducting such a rich program requires expertise. Teachers must have training in child development and early childhood education. Good early education also depends on close ties between parents and teachers, developed through informal chats when parents pick up their children as well as opportunities for parents to visit and volunteer in the classroom.

The payoff

"Preschools with an appropriately trained staff and a high-quality developmental curriculum," Years of Promise reports, "have long since proven their worth in promoting cognitive, social, and emotional development in young children, with some effects persisting well into a child's adult years. ...Decades of research and the experience of the many successful preschool programs document this fact."

The Ypsilanti Perry Preschool Project of High/Scope, for example, tracked a group of children who attended a high-quality preschool in 1962. Researchers found that children who had attended the preschool did better as teenagers and adults in school, health, social adjustments, and earnings.

"The researchers estimated that every dollar invested in the preschool program returned seven dollars that otherwise would have gone for remediation, welfare payments, unemployment costs, and other compensatory services... [The study] concluded that a high-quality preschool program creates a framework for adult success and makes a permanent contribution to participants' lives."