Fowler Report on Day-care and Its Effects on Early Development

This study was conducted as a five-year study of child development in social, emotional, cognitive, and personality factors. The design of the study allowed the research team to compare a matched group of children cared for in day care centres over the five year period and a group of home-reared children. The children came from low-income families of several ethnic groups in the Metro Toronto region.

The study reports the following:

1. Infants generally adapt with little stress to day care. Infants reared in day care centres show a short-term gain over home-reared children in cognitive development; and their socio-emotional development is at least as good as that of home-reared children.

2. The development of 3 to 5 year olds in pre-school environments have generally shown positive developmental outcomes on both cognitive and personality factors. This is particularly true for centres which elect an educational focus for the children and whose personnel is well-trained in pre-school education concepts and activities. Day care children generally adapt better to strangers than home-reared children, play more readily with toys, and adapt to peers more actively.

3. However, over the long-term, there is a gradual decline in the initial differences between day care children and home-reared children. By age 10 years, they are more or less equal. The greatest differences (gains) are found mainly in children from greatly disadvantaged environments. These gains tend to remain with the child as long as the environment continues to be enriched.

4. One of the major factors contributing to gains made by day care children is the level and quality of training of the staff. One major weakness in this training is in the area of educational and developmental activities for children in the 3 to 5 year groups.

5. Continuity in staffing and program is also important. In those centres where the staff holds a satisfying level of autonomy in program development and control in operating procedures, staff satisfaction and motivation is high and staff turn-over reduced.

6. There appears to be a general decline in the quality of the parenting provided by the parents of day care children over the five year period. This is particularly true as the child reaches pre-school levels. This is in sharp contrast to the parenting provided to home-reared children. It seems that the parents of home-reared children learn enough from watching Sesame Street or being with their children to be able to apply some of the creative and enriching principles as part of their own parenting. This decline is true only for white parents. Non-white parents appear to maintain a consistent level and quality of parenting as their children grow older.