Nurseries do not harm children, says expert

Toddlers may benefit from attending nursery, according to a child development expert, providing reassurance to parents following a raft of recent warnings over the effects of handing children over to care.

Kathy Sylva, professor of educational psychology at Oxford University, said her research shows nursery does no harm to the “majority” of children under two. She also argues that those who attend average to high-quality nurseries will be able to form better relationships at primary school.

Her findings, reported in the Sunday Times, are based on data from the Effective Provision of Pre-School Education (EPPE) project, the largest study of its kind in Europe on the impact of early education and care on children’s development. It has followed the progress of 3,000 children since 1996.

Millions of parents now send their children to some form of nursery care following expansion under Labour government policies intended to help mothers return to full-time work.

However, a number of experts have insisted children do better when cared for full time by their parents.

Oliver James, clinical child psychologist and author, has written in his book, How Not To **** Them Up, that while nursery care "may do no harm to about two-thirds of children, there is undeniable evidence that the experience is highly stressful and can be harmful."

He claims levels of the hormone cortisol – which is secreted when we feel threatened – double after being in group daycare for just one hour, and remain significantly heightened even te months later.

Dr Penelope Leach, a psychologist who wrote the bestseller Your Baby and Child: From Birth to Age Five, also claims children under two develop better, both socially and emotionally, at home, preferably with their mother, than in nurseries or with childminders or grandparents.

Professor Sylva told the Sunday Times: “A lot of parents worry unnecessarily about this issue but my research shows that the vast majority of children are not impaired on any measure by attending nursery under the age of two.”

However, she did concede some children placed in nurseries before the age of two show “slightly higher” levels of aggression at primary school.

That finding echoes research by Professor Jay Belsky, of the Institute for the Study of Children, Families and Social Issues at Birkbeck College, University of London, who claims to have found higher levels of aggression and disobedience in children who go to nursery before they are two.

Source http://www.telegraph.co.uk/journalists/alastair-jamieson/7806696/Nurseries-do-not-harm-children-says-expert.html