Nursery 'boosts child's success'

Putting a child through nursery education may set them up for success in later life, a study suggests. The Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) research found adults with pre-school education were more likely to be employed and earning higher salaries. It also found attending nurseries or playgroups could have "long-lasting" effects on cognitive test scores throughout school years.

However, opinions on the effects of nursery schooling on behaviour were divided. Some teachers said pupils who had attended nursery were better "socially adjusted" than others, but some parents reported that they believed it made their child's behaviour worse.

IFS researchers, Alissa Goodman and Barbara Sianesi, said, "Our findings suggest that starting education before the compulsory school starting age at five can have long-lasting, positive impacts on children's lives." In their report the authors said children aged seven, who had attended nursery school, showed large improvements in cognitive tests such as maths and reading, and these results remained significant, although diminished, until age 16.

(www.bbc.co.uk, 12 December 2005)

Depriving young children of cuddles and attention subtly changes how their brains develop and in later life can leave them anxious and poor at forming relationships, according to a study published in November 2005.

Love and affection from parents and carers are vital to developing brain pathways associated with handling stress and forming social bonds. Psychologist Seth Pollak and colleagues at the University of Wisconsin compared the progress of children being raised by their biological parents in America with children who had come from crowded orphanages in Russia and Romania and had been adopted by American parents. The researchers suspect that if deprived of close adult contact soon after birth, children may never fully develop the pathways. Dr Pollak comments: "It used to be thought that the brain came all wired up, but now it seems that social experiences after birth are vital for opening up the pathways and strengthening the connections in the brain for these hormones." The group plans a follow-up study with the same children to see if this is the case.

"It suggests we need to pay a lot more attention to children growing up in deprived environments," said Dr Pollak. He also speculates that giving children plenty of cuddles at birth leads to an addiction to close relationships in later life. "The area of the brain that acts as the receptor for oxytocin is also the reward centre associated with drug addictions. It is possible that close relationships function like an addiction, making us go and seek them out in later life," he said.

(Guardian, 22 November 2005)

Mothers who find more satisfaction in their jobs than staying at home looking after toddlers should not feel guilty about leaving their children in a nursery, research suggests. The study, published in November 2005, found that children of mothers who were fulfilled at work were much less stressed after attending nursery, than those whose mothers had unfulfilling, often part-time, jobs or who were exhausted by staying at home all day. The findings will reignite the controversy over whether very young children should spend lengthy periods apart from their mothers in a formal group-based child care setting.

Dr Penelope Leach, the childcare expert, said recently that children looked after by their mothers did significantly better in developmental tests than those cared for in nurseries. Her report was seized upon by those who believe that mothers should stay at home after childbirth. But the latest research, by academics from three British universities, suggests that more time in nursery care could benefit children whose mothers were in unrewarding employment or who felt emotionally drained by the role of "stay-at-home mum".

(Telegraph, 21 November 2005)

Survey into parents of children under six

A BBC story, New media 'help toddlers learn', describes the findings of a survey of parents with children under six. Parents believed that used in a measured way, electronic media can be useful tools which help children learn new skills.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4403224.stm

(www.bbc.co.uk, 3 November 2005)

Goals for five-year-olds may be lowered

Reading and writing goals for five-year-olds may be lowered, as children leave reception year with academic scores trailing behind physical and personal skills for the third year running.

By the time they are five, children are expected to read simple words and attempt more complex ones, write simple sentences sometimes using punctuation and be able to find information in non-fiction texts.

But this year just 28 per cent achieved the goals in writing and 36 per cent in reading compared to 60 per cent reaching the expected level in PE and 52 per cent in emotional development. Lesley Staggs, director of the foundation stage for the Primary National Strategy, has now said that the reading and writing goals may be pitched too high.

Ms Staggs, who in a former role at the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority led the work on the foundation-stage curriculum guidance, said: "I don't think it is about five-year-olds not doing well enough.

"There are two questions: are we teaching them well enough and did we pitch the goals ambitiously high? I think the pitch of the goals is very high. Part of the difficulty is we wrote the early learning goals to be aspirations. It is very unlikely that all children will have achieved all the goals at the end of the foundation stage."

A report on the foundation stage by the QCA, published last year, found almost one in four practitioners thought the goals in reading, writing and linking sounds to letters were too challenging.

The report also found most reception classes gave top priority to language and literacy followed by maths.

Teachers told the QCA that they felt they had to rush children into neat, legible handwriting - sometimes before they were ready - and as a result children did not progress well. They also said there was increasing pressure from parents to "teach" literacy to three-year-olds rather than letting children learn through play.

(TES, 21 October 2005)

Research has shown that young children can learn as much from everyday objects such as shoeboxes, saucepans and car keys as they can from specialist playthings. The market in educational toys is booming, with an increasing number of affluent parents willing to spend money on products they believe could help their pre-school child's educational development.

However, in one book to be published in October 2005, one expert questions whether there is such a thing as an "educational toy". Krister Svensson, director of the International Toy Research Centre in Stockholm said, "Toys don't teach cognitive or motor skills - they just encourage children to practise them. You can make a complex toy that forces children to manipulate them in a certain way, but children can learn just as much from repeatedly taking the lid off a shoe box and putting it back on again."

The UK toy market is worth more than £2.1 billion a year. Around £360million of that goes on items for babies and preschool children. Such is the boom that there are now numerous companies and website specialising in educational toys, which are said to help language, dexterity, shape and colour recognition and other skills. Products aimed at babies and toddlers include CD software, "talking" books and electronic gadgets, as well as more traditional wooden or plastic toys.

"The toy industry gives parents the impression that their children will have a head start if they play with their product but there is no scientific power to these claims," said Mr Svensson. "It is the setting of play that is educational, not the toy itself. You could pick any object at all and help a child to use it in a way that helps develop a huge range of skills."

In his book, Children and Toys in Play and Learning, Mr Svensson accuses parents' desire to "hothouse" their children's intelligence.

(Daily Mail, 26 September 2005)

Study shows value of toddlers' views

Listening to children as young as three and four is a key aspect of improving the quality of childcare, according to new research from Northern Ireland.

Techniques such as interviewing children with puppets and giving them cameras to take pictures of things they liked and disliked were used to get their views on attending playgroup as part of research commissioned by the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety. Researchers from Queen's University in Belfast talked to 84 three and four year olds at 14 randomly selected playgroups as well as collecting the views of parents and staff.

They said the research confirmed that children as young as three were able to express their views given the right media. Favourite areas photographed by children were linked to activities that involved being creative, using their imagination or physical play. Children did not like areas where they had to sit for long periods of time.

...The study - Giving Children a Voice - found most playgroups offered a satisfactory to high quality learning experience despite being poorly funded. But it found that play environments could be more challenging. "Perhaps if more emphasis was placed on listening to the children themselves in playgroup, the overall quality of the learning experience could be enhanced," the report said. It found most parents were satisfied, praising workers' attitudes.

But it also revealed the extent to which staff in playgroups feel undervalued due to poor pay and conditions and lack of funding.

(Nursery World, 21.09.05)

Research into parental incomes and child outcomes

The recent review of research into early years outcomes, which found that the impact of early years investment is not sustained through primary schooling, is augmented by research into parental incomes and child outcomes.

Parental background and child outcomes: How much does money matter, and what else matters, by Laura Blow, Alissa Goodman, Ian Walker and Frank Windmeijer, found that a bit more money matters - a bit. A bit more on child benefit, or tax credit, or whatever, matters much less, however, than permanent, reliable improvement in household income. This significantly affects parental educational achievement, which in turn influences children's educational achievement. Class sizes influence outcomes, parental income influences post-16 education.

The report was published on 28 July 2005 and can be downloaded at www.dfes.gov.uk/research/

(Written by Beatrix Campbell, Nursery World, 18.08.05)

Modern fathers are more involved in parenting than ever before and are now responsible for a third of all the childcare in the home. Fathers in Britain spend an average of 129 minutes a day with children aged under three, and 75 minutes entertaining them, finds a survey.

Mothers are still spending much more time with children than their partners, on average four hours and 25 minutes a day. But the research shows childcare is becoming more of a joint responsibility. In the 1960s, men's share of parenting was around 19%, but that has now increased to 32%, finds the survey commissioned by Baby Einstein, a company that promotes 'discovery through play' in the under threes.

Analysis of the findings showed that while women sacrificed work, sleep and social life when they had children, men also gave up time spent watching television and going out with friends. Almost three quarters of men under 35 felt they were just as capable of bringing up children as women, while less than half of men over 65 agreed about that statement.

For the survey, men were asked where they found information and advice on how to be a good father. Only 17.7% said they had spoken to their own father or father-in-law, fewer than the number who felt they had learned about parenthood from television programmes (19.5%) and books (42.7%). The most common source of parenting advice was still from mothers (61%).

(Extracted from article by Sophie Kirkham and Diana Blamires, The Guardian, 17.08.05)

Babies tune in to foreign beats

A baby cannot talk, sing or dance at six months. But it has got rhythm. Researchers report today that at six months, babies can detect subtle variations in complex rhythmic patterns of Balkan folk dance tunes. Adult migrants from Macedonia or the Bulgarian mountains can tell the difference. Western adults cannot.

Erin Hannon, of Cornell University, and a colleague at the University of Toronto report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science that a seemingly innate musical awareness in infants seemed to falter as the months went by, and the babies heard more Britney Spears, Charlotte Church and the Crazy Frog.

"By the time the babies are 12-months old, they much more closely resemble adults who are more sensitive to the rhythms in their own culture's music than to rhythms in a foreign musical culture," she said. They found infants make sense of language, tell faces, and can distinguish Vivaldi played forwards or backwards. The study confirms a growing suspicion that babies begin life with an open mind, but start to develop personal tastes in the first year of life.

The scientists counted the seconds a baby would stare at a cartoon. The same cartoon was paired with two different song versions. One kept the basic rhythm, the other disrupted it. "If the infants showed a greater interest in one.it's because they detected a difference," Dr Hannon said. "Young infants, who have much less experience listening to music, lack these perceptual biases and respond to rhythmic structures both familiar and foreign."

(Written by Tim Radford, science editor, The Guardian, 16.08.05)

This research report by SEED describes what children know and what they can do when starting school and records how much this varies according to gender, home background, pre-school experience and first language. The developmental stages of children starting school in Scotland are compared with children in three other countries, and researchers also considered the question of optimum age for starting school.
www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2005/02/20634/51600

(NfGL, July 2005)

British fathers fourth most involved in the West

Aka Pygmy men do more in the way of childcare than fathers in any others society, according to the FatherWorld report, published by Fathers Direct, a British charity.

Aka fathers may hold their baby close to their bodies for a couple of hours at a time, according to Barry Hewlett, an American anthropologist who has studies the tribe for more than 20 years. On average, Aka fathers hold or are within reach of their infants 47 per cent of the time. They beat Swedish fathers, who are number one in the developed world, and who, on average, do 45 per cent of parental childcare.

British fathers are the fourth most involved in the West, and do a third of parental childcare, according to the report, which is based on a review of existing research literature.

The report can be purchased from www.fathersdirect.com

(Alexandra Frean, Social Correspondent, The Times)

A groundbreaking pilot scheme seeking the most effective ways to involve fathers in early years settings has been launched by the Pre-School Learning Alliance. Following on from its research published last week, the Alliance is aiming to address barriers to fathers' involvement by testing three models in 12 member settings across the country.

The first strand of the research found that the overwhelmingly female childcare workforce is a significant factor that puts off fathers. The second part of the research, which looked at the views of involved and non-involved fathers, found that many fathers felt ambivalent about being involved in their child's early years setting. The three pilot programmes, which start in September, will attempt to redress some of the barriers to involving fathers in childcare settings.

The summary report, Fathers involvement in early years settings: Findings from research can be downloaded from www.pre-school.org.uk

(Nursery World, 09.06.05)

There is a percentage of children who arrive in reception classes developmentally not "ready" for school. These youngsters run the risk of being lost in the system. Some may become academic underachievers or develop behavioural problems. This is the finding of a series of studies carried out in schools over the past four years, which highlight the need to take children's physical development into account.

Twenty-five years ago, school doctors and paediatricians carried out simple developmental tests, to assess balance and coordination when children started school. However, about 20 years ago, the emphasis moved towards "evidence-based medicine".

A growing body of evidence shows that control of balance and motor skills is linked to academic achievement. Not only can these problems be identified, but in many cases there is an effective remedy available in the form of a simple exercise programme, which can be carried out in school for 10 minutes each day. Devised at the Institute for Neuro-Physiological Psychology in Chester, it involves carrying out a series of developmental movements, based on those normally made by children in the first year of life. Unlike many other popular programmes, such as Brain Gym, the INPP exercises take children back to the very beginning of balance training. All exercises are carried out on the floor and help to develop proper head alignment with the body (the basis for good posture), ability to use left and right sides and upper and lower sections of the body in different ways (the basis for coordination).

Reflexes that support posture are developed and balance and coordination are taught in much the same way that a young baby learns to hold its head up when lying on the floor, to roll, to sit, to crawl and eventually to stand and walk. By using natural movements in a developmental sequence, improved coordination becomes natural. Children in the programme have made substantial gains in reading and have developed better reflexes, balance and coordination. The programme also helped to identify children who are at risk of under achieving at school.

Such children are often assumed to be performing well enough, while others attain marginally below expectations and do not qualify for additional support. Many could do better if the physical nature of their difficulties was identified and remedied. Furthermore, developmental immaturity has implications for behaviour. Pilot studies funded by the Department for Education and Skills's Best Practice Research Scholarships in 2000 and 2001 found that at Mellor Primary School in Leicester, children in the exercise group made a gain of 23 months in reading compared with 12 months in the control group over nine months.

(TES, 1 April 2005)

A five-year-old whose parents earn more than £67,500 has reading skills six months more advanced than one whose parents are jobless, a Government-funded study revealed. The gap occurs irrespective of natural ability, parents' education or how often mothers and fathers read to their child. The children of those earning between £30,000 and £66,000 have an advantage of almost four months; for families with a joint income between £15,000 and £30,000, the figure is less than two months. Children whose parents' earned income is between £2,500 and £15,000 are three weeks more advanced.

Prof Edward Melhuish, the project's leader, said: "We have isolated the effects of an earned family income on a pre-school child's education attainment from their parents' occupational status, education level and home environment, and have found that it has a profound effect." Families with an earned income are more likely to be actively involved in society, have a more stringent attitude to learning and higher expectations of their children. "We suspect this advantage will become more extreme as the child's education continues," added Prof Melhuish. "Teachers will assume that children who enter school already confident, fluent and familiar with learning have great potential and will push them to achieve accordingly," he said.

Anne Longfield, chief executive of the educational charity 4Children, called the study a "stark reality-check". "It shows that the only way to level the playing field is to look at ways of providing extra child benefit and extra educational emphasis to disadvantaged children. "We have to accept those findings and work with them to bring the other children up to speed, but schools have gone as far as they can go in raising literacy in normal school hours. So now we need to work with families themselves and utilise the extra hours that 'wrap-around' schooling will provide."

The findings were welcomed by Peter Silva, chief executive of PEEP (Peers' Early Education Partnership), which has just completed a six-year study for the Government on the impact of early education on low-income families. "There is no doubt that income has a direct and an indirect impact on children's educational achievements and, if there is no intervention to change that, then it becomes a very powerful and permanent influence," he said. "It is, however, possible to devise programmes to reverse that effect and people from disadvantaged areas can gain enormously from such interventions."

http://k1.ioe.ac.uk/schools/ecpe/eppe/index.htm

(Observer, 6 February 2005)

Fully integrated centres - "those closest to children's centres" - providing care, education, health and family support are the most effective. Disadvantaged children also gain significant developmental benefits from attending pre-school, especially if they attend alongside children from different social backgrounds.

The EPPE study followed around 2,800 children at 141 settings in six English local education authorities since 1997, and a control group of 310 children who stayed at home. The EPPE researchers will continue to follow the children's progress until they reach the end of key stage 2.
(Nursery World, 2 December 2004)

The study identified seven characteristics of the most effective nurseries:
o "Shared thinking" - adults and children worked together in an intellectual way to solve a problem, clarify a concept, evaluate an activity, extend a narrative.
o Children were not left to their own devices - instead, there was an equal balance between staff and children in initiating activities.
o Pre-school workers had a sound knowledge of what they were teaching.
o Play activities were freely chosen but "potentially instructive"; they were combined with "interaction traditionally associated with the term `teaching'".
o The staff included properly trained teachers.
o Parents were fully engaged in their children's learning.
o The children were encouraged to behave well.
Although pre-school education helped to reduce the effects of disadvantage, it did not eliminate them, the study said.

(Telegraph, 26 November 2004)

More information and a link to the full report

Fear on nursery care forces rethink

The government is reconsidering its strategy on childcare in the face of mounting evidence that day nurseries for children under two can lead to increased incidence of antisocial behaviour and aggression. Ministers also fear a public backlash against putting pressure on mothers to get back to work, and are shifting tack to put an extension of paid maternity leave ahead of pledges to boost childcare provision. Margaret Hodge, the minister for children, is widely expected to announce extending paid maternity leave from six months to one year.

Since New Labour came to power, the rate of mothers returning to work before their baby's first birthday has continued its rapid rise - in 2001 it was 67% compared with 24% in 1981 - and the number of nursery places has doubled. It is estimated that more than 200,000 children under three attend a day nursery either part-time or full-time. It is now the most common form of non-parental childcare after grandparents. But the popularity of nurseries with parents does not match the conclusions of researchers around the world. Their remarkably similar findings indicate that group-based care can have damaging effects on some aspects of emotional and social development for the under-two age group. The situation reverses between two and three years, and group-based care benefits all aspects of the child's development. These effects are evident even in children who are in daycare for as little as 12 hours a week, some studies have found. One of the biggest international studies, by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development in the US, found that 'the more time children spend in childcare from birth to age four and a half, the more adults tended to rate them as less likely to get along with others, as more assertive, as disobedient and as aggressive'.

In the UK, a government-funded study by the University of London's Institute of Education concluded that 'high levels of group care before the age of three (and particularly before the age of two) were associated with higher levels of antisocial behaviour at age three'. It also found that while higher quality of care could reduce the 'antisocial/worried behaviour', it could not eliminate it. Penelope Leach, the child development expert, has urged the government to support other forms of childcare such as childminders and nannies. 'The trend towards more day nurseries is out of kilter with what the research is finding,' she said.

The government has been keen to expand the provision of childcare in poor neighbourhoods. The 1,700 children's centres pledged in the poorest wards by 2008 by the chancellor, Gordon Brown, must have daycare facilities to qualify for funding. The Treasury has been impressed by the fact that getting mothers into work is one of the most effective ways to reach targets on reducing child poverty. But the government has come under increasing pressure from child development experts to prioritise extending paid parental and maternity leave rather than invest more resources in daycare for the under two age group.

Edward Melhuish, a professor who is heading evaluation of the government's early years programme, Sure Start, said: 'We know that the responsiveness of group care is much less than other childcare settings such as childminders. 'To improve the responsiveness of group care requires maintaining very high staff-infant ratios and keeping staff turnover down to an absolute minimum. Both are very expensive.' Turnover of nursery staff is running at 30-40%, caused by low pay, poor training and low status. Britain spends only 0.3% of GDP on early years provision, compared with 2% by Sweden.

(Guardian, 8 July 2004)

Contrary to the Guardian's report, later in July 2004 the Government announced plans to extend its early years childcare provision and create more nurseries for children. More

Response by Jo Stephenson in Children Now magazine

The research in question is not new and even the academics behind it say they are "baffled" at the storm that has arisen. It consists of selected findings from two studies of early childcare y the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) in the US, which has followed the progress of more than 1,000 children from birth; and the Effective Provision of Pre-school Education (EPPE) project, a British study looking at the effects of preschool education on more than 3,000 three and four-year-olds.

As early as 2001, the American researchers reported that the more time children spend in daycare, the more likely they were to become "disobedient" and "aggressive". But they cautioned that for the vast majority this was well within what was normal for children of that age. They found no evidence to suggest there was a "cause and effect" link between daycare and behavioural changes and later research by the same team found that family environment was far more strongly linked to a child's development than childcare. It was also reported that any negative impacts of daycare appeared to have disappeared by the time children turned three, although it was pointed out that problems might re-emerge as children got older.

A summary of EPPE's findings, first published in 2003, said: "High levels of 'group care' before the age of three (and particularly before the age of two) were associated with higher levels of anti-social behaviour at age three." But the report notes this effect appeared to decrease in three-year-olds who continued attending high-quality daycare settings. It also found children with high levels of group care before the age of three showed better cognitive attainment and highlighted the positive impact preschool learning had on children.

(Children Now, 27 July 2004)

Staff turnover 'harms pre-school learning'

High turnover of staff in day nurseries and other preschool settings is threatening the language and social skills of children, one of the country's child-care organisatons warns today.

The Daycare Trust said young children could suffer delays in language development, which could persist until they were six years old, if the nursery or childcare staff looking after them were constantly changing. Its study, carried out by Edward Melhuish of the University of London, also warned of increased aggression among children whose carers kept coming and going.

Professor Melhuish said: "Children learning to communicate will often use idiosyncratic speech or gestures. A caregiver who is familiar with a child is likely to learn such idiosyncrasies and be able to respond, where as a new caregiver is more likely to fail to understand."

(The Independent, 14 June 2004)

Reception day too long for youngest children

Research shows that the demands of reception classes are making four and five-year-olds tired and unhappy. The Government research shows that four-year-olds are struggling to cope with the long school day when they start in reception class.

A survey of parents by the National Centre for Social Research found that 46% of children had substantial difficulty on entering reception. The most common problem, reported by one in six, was finding the day too long.

Other problems included unhappiness about separating from a parent, finding it hard to make friends or coping with the lunchtime break.

The researchers found that attending a nursery or nursery class seemed to make no difference to how a child settled in. They also found no clear link between the age of the child and whether they had problems, pointing out that older children reported more difficulties at lunchtime than younger ones.

The effective provision of preschool education project, which is following 3,000 children through pre-school and into primary, found that going to pre-school was associated with children having better relationships once they started primary school. The impact was particularly important for children at risk of developing special educational needs.

Sixth survey of parents of three and four-year-old children and their use of early-years services is available at www.dfes.gov.uk/research.

(TES, 14 May 2004)

Working mothers "bad for children"

The children of mothers who return to work full time in the years before they start school have slower emotional development and score less well in reading and maths tests, according to a study published in November 2004 by the Institute for Social and Economic Research.

An early return to work by the mother reduces the child's chances of progressing in A level from 60% to 50%. The employment patterns of the father have little effect, said the study by John Ermisch and Marco Francesconi, professors at Essex University.

They found in Britain the adverse effect on children was the same whether mothers returned to work full time before the child's first birthday or before the age of five. This ran counter to studies overseas suggesting that a return to work in the first year had more impact on the child.

They said the consequences were less severe for the children of better-educated mothers. And the positive effects of higher household income brought about by the mother returning to work went some way to compensate for the negative effect of reduced contact in the early years.

Professor Francesconi said the findings came in part from studies comparing the outcomes for siblings, looking at the relationship between educational attainment and the age at which the mother returned to full-time work. This confirmed that the negative effect of an early return could not be explained by difference between families.

The study was presented as the first large-scale appraisal of international research on working mothers.

(Guardian, 14 November 2003)

The introduction of state-subsidised universal childcare for under-fives would generate millions of pounds a year for the economy, far outweighing the costs, according to accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.

They conducted the first detailed analysis of universal pre-school care and found that it would initially cost £3 billion a year to fund childcare places. Higher female employment and earnings, resulting from the increased ability of mothers to find paid work, would eventually generate more than enough tax revenue to meet these costs, although this would take some years.

The study estimates that over the first 20 years the overall economic benefits to society would broadly match the overall cost of provision. In the longer term - over a 65-year period - the net benefits could be as high as £40 billion at 2003 prices.

Stephen Burke, director of the Daycare Trust said the study supported the recent call by the Work and Pensions Select Committee for much higher investment by government in affordable daycare in every community.

David Armstrong, a senior economist at PricewaterhouseCoopers and co-author of the report, said that there had been surprisingly little quantitative research on the economic costs and benefits of universal childcare provision, particularly compared with the many studies on primary and secondary school education. "It may be that the benefits of investing in childcare and pre-school learning could be greater than investment in education at later stages, given that a very significant part of cognitive and non-cognitive skills development occurs before children start school," he said.

The report argues that enabling more mothers of young children to work would also increase the number of economically active people supporting the growing number of pensioners. In addition, it would enable more women to build up pensions of their own.
Key financial points:

Providing childcare for all one to four-year-olds would require about 1.5 million extra full-time places in nurseries, with childminders or in other types of provision.
At an estimated average cost of about £6,500 a place per year, this would cost just under £10 billion.
The immediate economic benefit would be to create 700,000 jobs for women.
Those extra jobs would generate additional tax revenues for the Government, offsetting about 60% of the cost. There would also be savings from women coming off benefits.

(Times, 10 September, 2003)

Children cared for by childminders or nursery assistants fare as well as those brought up at home by their mothers, according to researchers from Bristol University. By the age of three, they found, toddlers are as active and happy in either setting.

However, these findings contradict a series of studies which suggest children whose mothers go out to work are more likely to struggle at school. The findings were dismissed by some academics who questioned its methods and warned working mothers to beware of blanket assurances about how childcare will affect their children.

The Bristol researchers studied the development of children up to the age of three years and two months as part of the Children of the 90s study of 14,000 youngsters.

Mother were questioned about how active their children were, why and when they cried, when they were happiest and when they liked playing or being left to play alone.

(Daily Mail, 13 May 2003)

Children who spend long hours in day centres before the age of two are more likely to be anti-social when they start school. But there is no evidence that their intellectual development is harmed, according to the first major study in England of children's development up to the age of five.

The study, which plotted the progress of 3,000 children, found that the adverse effects of extended child care on the behaviour of some children disappeared if they went on to attend good nurseries at the age of three.

Kathy Sylva, professor of psychology at Oxford University, is director of the Effective Provision of Pre-school Education project (EPPE) based at the Institute of Education in London. She said that the negative effect of day centres before the age of two related to a small group of children, but it was a significant finding.

The most important factors in readiness to start school were parental influence and good quality nursery education. Playing with friends and regular bedtimes were among the positive influences on sociability and security.

Despite the importance of home background, the study found that children who attended pre-schools were better developed overall than those who stayed at home. "The children who were at home tended to be less sociable, less able to concentrate and had lower cognitive development," Professor Sylva said.

Considering all the external factors that influence children's development, the study found that state nursery schools and classes, particularly those combining nursery education with wider support for the family, were most likely to produce good results.

Although there were some excellent private nurseries, many were less likely to have a high turnover of young, relatively inexperienced staff, Professor Sylva said.

Cathy Ashton, the junior education minister, said the study had important implications for the Government's Sure Start scheme which provides health, education and support for parents on the same site.

(Daily Telegraph, 27 March 2003)

EPPE findings on home learning environment and social class

Among the key findings on the importance of home learning, the report says:

"The quality of the learning environment of the home (where parents are actively engaged in activities with children) promoted intellectual and social development in all children. Although parent's social class and levels of education were related to child outcomes, the quality of the home learning environment was more important. The home learning environment is only moderately associated with social class. What parents do is more important than who they are."

The full research summary, The EPPE project: findings from the pre-school period, can be downloaded from www.ioe.ac.uk/projects/eppe/.

Children of working mothers lag behind

The children of women who return to work shortly after giving birth are more likely to be slower developers, research has found. Three-year-olds whose mothers went back to their full-time jobs in the first nine months have poorer verbal skills and are less able than those whose mothers stayed home. They performed 10% worse in tests. 

The US study was backed by British research which looked at mothers working in the first five years of a child's life. It found the negative effects on the child varies depending on how educated its mother was.

Researchers at Columbia University in New York measured more than 50 skills in children aged three including recognising colours, letters, numbers and shapes as well as talking and counting. Those whose mothers worked full-time more than 30 hours a week in the first nine months scored worst.

There were particularly low scores among children whose mothers went back to work between six and nine months, according to the study, which was published in the journal Child Development.

Dr Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, who carried out the research based on a study of over 1,500 families over 36 months, said: "We're saying working a lot of hours in the first year of a child's life is associated with poorer cognitive and verbal development."

But she warned working mothers not to panic. "There are effects but they are not huge."

(Daily Mail, 30 July 2002)

Babies make eye contact in 48 hours

Two-day-old babies have the ability to make eye contact and can sense when they are being looked at directly, according to a report from an Anglo-Italian team. 

The report appears to settle the argument over whether this powerful form of communication, one of the foundations of all social skills, is innate or learned.

If the research technique is developed, it may provide an early test to determine if an infant is at risk of autism, the most severe psychiatric disorder of childhood which has lifelong effects on about 50,000 Britons.Up to 500,000 may be affected when the milder forms of the disorder, which results in sufferers being unable to empathise with others, is taken into account.

In a study funded by the Medical Research Council, Dr Teresa Farroni of the University of Padua showed 17 two to five-day-old infants paired photographs of faces. In one photograph, the eyes looked directly at the newborn, while in the other the eyes were averted. Video tapes of the infants' eyes showed that they looked more toward, and longer at, faces that made eye contact. "Our research presents the most compelling evidence to date that we are born prepared to detect socially relevant information," said Dr Farroni.

In a separate experiment conducted in the "baby lab" of Birkbeck, University of London, the researchers showed the same photographs to four-month-old infants while measuring electrical activity in the brain. When the babies looked at faces that made eye contact their reaction was much stronger than when they looked at faces with averted gaze.

(Telegraph, 25 June 2002)

Nursery schools add "no extra learning benefit"

Parents are at least as good as nursery schools at teaching three-year-olds, researchers from Swansea University have concluded. The finding casts doubt on the Government's plans to provide free nursery places for all three-year-olds by 2006.

The researchers found that children did not receive any extra educational benefit from being taught in nursery schools so long as their parents made the effort. The study followed three groups of three-year-olds, taken from a wide variety of backgrounds: one was introduced to basic numeracy and literacy by parents and one in a nursery group. The third received no instruction. The children in the first group were found to have done "just as well - if not better" than those in the second group. The children in the third group made the least progress.

Sine McDougall, one of the authors of the report, said the findings showed that parents could match trained staff in raising children's academic attainment. "One of the key findings was that well-structured learning, at home or in the nursery, is the key to good progress," she said.

The Government commissioned the research as a response to concerns from teachers over the wide variations in children's abilities and willingness to learn when they start school. Dr McDougall said parents could help children by reading stories and rhymes with them and by playing number games.

(The Times, 10 January 2002)

Children who weighed more than their siblings and classmates when they were born have higher IQs, according to a study of more than 3,000 children. The research was carried out on children who were mostly within the normal weight range at birth - over 2.5kg (5.5lb) with the heaviest weighing no more than 3.999kg (nearly 9lb). It shows for the first time that the relationship between weight and IQ affects all children and not just the tiniest, premature, underweight babies as past studies have shown.

According to the paper published in the British Medical Journal, the rise in IQ with birthweight is not significant enough to make a difference with individuals, but efforts to boost the birthweight of the lightest babies, a large proportion of whom are born to poorer households with less educated parents, could pay dividends in IQ distribution.

The study was carried out by Thomas D Matte and colleagues from the centre for urban epidemiologic studies at the New York Academy of Medicine. They enrolled 3,484 children of 1,683 mothers born between 1959 and 1966. The children, who were all born after 37 weeks, were divided into four groups by birthweight. A full IQ test comprising four verbal and three performance tests, was carried out at the age of seven.

Previous studies of normal birthweight children have not fully compensated for the effects on IQ of environmental factors, the most important of which is family social environment, the researchers say. This study ruled that out by using siblings of the same sex who had the same family and social background.

(Guardian, 10 August 2001)

Ellen Bialystok, who has carried out 20 years of research in Canada into how language affects learning in young children, has found that children who are bilingual from infancy develop problem-solving skills earlier than those who speak only one language, and also comprehend written languages faster and learn to read more easily.. In her reading tests bilingual children were twice as quick to recognise words without picture aids as they learn quicker that the written form carries the meaning.

(The Times, 5 March 2001)

Children who chat to each other and sing songs together at nursery do better at school than those who spend most of their time on the three Rs says Professor Kathy Sylva. Professor Sylva was one of the key witnesses in an investigation into early years education by the commons select committee. Her paper points to evidence from a study which compared children's success in life with the type of pre-school education that they received. The children were divided into three groups: those who attended nurseries where they were given formal teaching in reading and writing; those who went to progressive nurseries where they were free to choose what they did and those in High/Scope nurseries where they were offered a blend of the two. High/Scope is a philosophy of learning through play developed in America and now being used in this country. Children at these nurseries did better at reading and writing in primary school than the rest; those in formal nurseries were more anxious and less confident.

The study found more songs, rhymes and chatting between children in the High/Scope nurseries than in the other two groups. Other studies, which followed High/Scope children through later life, have shown that they offer social as well as academic benefits. Professor Sylva's paper asks: "Why indeed are High/Scope graduates more likely to be married and living with their spouses, to vote in elections and read a newspaper? Because they acquired not only academic skills at pre-school but they developed social problem-solving skills, and became socially committed to their community of learners." It goes on: " In 25 years we have moved from no curriculum to an overly academic curriculum."

(Independent, 4 January 2001)

New programme for pre-school children with language problems

I CAN, a national education charity, estimates that 370,000 children of pre-school age - one in 10 - have some form of speech and language problem which can be overcome. These children need not fall behind, the charity claims.

Next week in Liverpool I CAN launches the first of 20 "Early Years" programmes aimed at three to five years olds. These will be run in partnership with the local health and education authorities. Under the scheme, three or four children will attend a mainstream state nursery school where a full-time language specialist in the classroom will help them recognise what is being said by teachers and other children. The specialist explains what is being said by rephrasing sentences, using shorter sentences or visual aids and connecting visual clues with words. A child diagnosed as being a special needs case can be referred to an I CAN programme by the local education authority. Parents who think their child could be in need should discuss it with their GP. 

Each programme costs £155,000 to set up and the charity has earmarked funds to cover two years running costs before handing over financial responsibility to local education authorities. It is not cheap but the charity argues that early intervention cuts the number of children who require costly help in special schools or tuition groups later in their educational career.

(The Times, 12 October 2000)

Until recently using sign languages with babies was seen as an option only for deaf children. Now parents and specialists in the US have recognised that though babies lack the motor skills to produce speech, they have the conceptual ability to understand and use language and the physical ability to make signs. The work of child development researcher Joseph Garcia in particular has meant that signing with hearing children has become popular in the US among thousands of families.

Garcia got the idea for his "sign with your baby" system when visiting the family of a deaf friend. He saw a baby of 10 months old communicating in far more sophisticated way than hearing children of the same age, using American Sign Language.

Researching the subject he discovered that hearing children began replicating signs as early as six months. Earlier child development experts had theorised that babies can not mentally represent symbols until they are almost two - about the same time they become able to put together basic spoken sentences.

Garcia advocates that parents start exposing their babies to a few simple signs from the age of seven months. Garcia and his supporters - who include some parenting experts - claim that signing has long-term benefits. They quote studies indicating that signing accelerates language development and increases IQ, including one that shows that by the age of two, signing children have a vocabulary of around 50 words, more than their non-signing counterparts. British child development and language experts will form their own judgement on whether signing with hearing babies is just another money-making US fad (the Sign with your Baby pack costs £50) or if it holds real benefit for families. The initial impression of Professor Sue Buckley, a world authority on communicating with disabled children, is positive. Garcia's theory is almost certainly right she says given that deaf children using sign language have an early language advantage because they learn more vocabulary more quickly than nonsigning children.

Others are more cautious. Bernice Woll, Professor of Sign Language at City University is sceptical about the system's claim that it can lead to increased intelligence. To prove that you would also have to carry out parallel studies showing that stimulating them with, say, music did not have the same effect. It could be the intensive teaching that is the factor." she said.

For more information
www.sign2me.com - Joseph Garcia site: Sign with your Baby 
www.forestbooks.com - The British version of Sign with your Baby, £49.95 including p&p contact Forest Books on 01594 833 858

(The Times, 10 October 2000)

Attempts to teach reading, writing and number to pre-school children in England is damaging their ability to learn maths, according to a study by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research. 

The study states that English children are falling behind Japanese counterparts because they start school younger and many do not have the social and behavioural skills necessary to learn. As a result, English primary teachers spend more time dealing with bad behaviour than their Japanese equivalents sand their pupils are more than four times as likely to be "off task" during lessons. 

The study examined three Tokyo elementary and four London primary schools in 1995 and 1996. A sample of 415 six and seven-year-olds sat specially-devised maths tests, their textbooks and lesson content were analysed and classroom practice was observed. 

English six-year-olds were found to do better in the tests, showing the impact of their earlier start to formal schooling. Japanese children start school the April after their sixth birthday, by which time most English children have been at school for 18 months.  However, within a year the English children had fallen behind. 

Strength in Numbers; learning maths in Japan and England  is available from the National Institute of Economic and Social Research on 020 7222 7665, price £12.99. 

(TES, 28 January 2000)

Under-fives' literacy is rising 

According to research from Durham University the number of four-year-olds able to write their names when they started school doubled between 1997 and 1998. Parents and nurseries are thought to be training the underfives in the new compulsory baseline tests. 

A research team from Durham's Performance Indicators in Primary Schools project analysed 35,000 test scripts. They found that more than one in four children could write their name perfectly when they started school last year, compared to just over 10 per cent of the previous cohort. 

Mandatory baseline tests were introduced in September 1998 requiring reception teachers to assess each child against goals which include counting to 10, writing their name and knowing the alphabet. It enables teachers to assess what skills each new child already has and is intended to provide a way of measuring 'value added' in primary schools. Many schools have voluntarily used one of 91 accredited baseline schemes, including the PIPS test for some years. 

Peter Tymms, director of Durham's curriculum, evaluation and management centre, which carried out the research, said,: "This is a surprisingly large and potentially very significant change to find in the space of one year. It really does look as if people have been sitting down with kids and teaching them to write in a way that never happened before." 

Wendy Scott, chief executive of the British Association for Early Education, said: "It is unsurprising but regrettable that once more it seems as though the tests are influencing the curriculum rather than the other way around. It is human nature for parents or nurseries to want children to do well in the tests but these short-term measures are not necessarily best for children in the long run. 

(TES, 3 September 1999)