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Early child development lays the foundation for a lifetime of growth and development. More and more parents are asking how daycare influences the development of their children. Indeed, the effects that these child care settings have on a child’s social, emotional, and intellectual abilities can be overwhelming, especially when the setting focuses on early childhood education that caters to individual child needs. At Starlight Academy, we focus on all these vital milestones through our play-based learning approach. We aim at helping a child grow in an environment that is non-threatening, nurturing yet challenging.
Child development is the growth of physical, social, emotional, and cognitive competence in kids. It includes all these different baby milestones like learning to walk, speak, play, and intermingling with people. A reputable daycare can help endorse this development through various resources, facilities, and activities promoting structured learning, social interaction, and cognitive challenges that are long-term effects on the child’s competence and behavior.
Daycare is important in the field of children’s social skills, as it exposes children early enough to social groupings. The NICHD study considered a large sample size where children who attended high-quality daycare had better social skills and fewer behavioral problems than the ones who did not attend daycare at all (NICHD 2006). This is attributed to children learning to share, cooperate, and express their feelings within a social context. They get used to different social situations, which helps them develop good social skills.
Social Development: We at Starlight Academy believe regular and organized group activities, interaction sessions, and supervised free play develop the social sense in the toddler. Our teachers also motivate children to collaborate with each other to solve problems and thereby support their peers, building that necessary sense of community and teamwork significant to child development needs.
Cognitive development entails how a child can think, reason, and understand events happening around him or her. The first few years mark the critical period of cognitive growth: memory development, language acquisition, and problem-solving skills all stand as baby milestones. High-quality daycares have a great role to play in fostering these cognitive skills by creating activities that trigger a child’s curiosity for learning.
One study that appeared in Developmental Psychology had the astonishing results that children who attended daycare had an advanced vocabulary as well as improved cognitive flexibility compared to the children that did not attend daycare (Burchinal et al., 2000). These findings lend even further support to the findings that a structured daycare setting will provide the higher academic achievement and problem-solving abilities later in life.
Starlight Academy enhances the development of cognition through appropriate activities of learning through play and educative games. The programs are strategically designed to ignite a sense of curiosity and challenge children’s thinking as they attain the critical milestones in cognitive development. Such activities as solving puzzles, storytelling, and guided exploration inspire cognitive development, thus laying a foundation for further learning later in life.
By characteristic, emotional development is the way in which a child comes to understand their feelings and learn to express and regulate them. Children in daycare learn to handle their new feelings such as empathy, patience, and resilience in handling situations that occur while socializing with other children and other grown-ups out of their home environment.
In fact, the work of Dr. Jay Belsky, one of the leading researchers in child psychology, proves that children who participate in a nurturing daycare setting develop great attachments with caregivers, which have positive implications on their emotional development. Where the caregivers are responsive, attentive, and consistent, the children develop a sense of security and thus can handle new challenges socially and emotionally with relative ease.
Our teachers at Starlight Academy are trained in identifying and responding to the unique emotional needs of each child to promote development of security, worth, and awareness within a family-like environment. In addition, this involves daily schedules to provide routine, activities promoting emotional development, and letters home to assist in continuing emotional development.
The signs of physical development in young children include refinement of motor and development of
physical strength. Some of the crucial baby milestones, which mark the early childhood education, include learning to walk, holding a crayon, and developing hand to eye coordination. Various activities, while attending daycare, empower gross and fine motor skills in children.
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, children need at least 60 minutes of physical activity every day to develop healthily, both physically. Those daycare centers offering structured play, outdoor activities, and physical education complement the development of a child’s body and prevent obesity (AAP, 2013).
At Starlight Academy, we incorporate outdoor play, dancing, and movement games to provide a physical element of learning. Through these activities, children build coordination, strength, and balance while meeting the critical physical development pathways for their age.
Research supports that daycare exposure to structured learning at an early age impacts positively on the child’s academic readiness. For example, a study done by Harvard University indicated that a child that attends a high-quality daycare is more likely to excel in language, mathematics, and social skills when he or she joins kindergarten than the child who did not attend daycare at all.
At Starlight Academy, we weave academic concepts naturally and engagingly into its play-based learning method. At Starlight Academy, language development, pre-math skills, and critical thinking are focused upon in order to prepare the children for ease of transition to school when they leave.
Bright Beginnings, a renowned daycare in Chicago, implemented a structured play-based curriculum and saw remarkable gains in the children’s cognitive and social performances. Language skills and problem-solving were targeted through group activities. It was reported that 80% of their preschool-age kids met or exceeded the year in review developmental milestones. Bright Beginnings. (2018).
A multi-location study by KinderCare brought into sharp focus emotional development as the most essential need in childcare. Its programs’ children showed a better ability to regulate their emotions and fewer behavioral issues than the national averages because of the nurturing environment and nurturance of their emotional growth.
Starlight Academy embodies the best practices from these case studies to ensure a nurturing and enriching environment for every child. Emphasizing play-based learning, a family-like atmosphere, and personal attention enables us to meet each child’s needs individually. With care by dedicated teachers, thoughtfully designed programs, and dedication to safety and well-being, Starlight Academy will be a setting where children feel cared for and thrive.
Everything related to child development, from cognitive and emotional development to social and physical growth, is affected by the choice of daycare. Hence, quality daycare, such as Starlight Academy, can really make a great difference. We at Starlight Academy give importance to providing children with a tender, caring, and playing-to-learn environment that develops them to their fullest potential and gets them ready for a brilliant future.
Starlight Academy offers assured, reliable, and research-driven early childhood methodology to parents seeking quality daycare with improved child development. Please visit and learn how growth, learning, and development are supported at each stage in our programs.
References
KinderCare Learning Centers. (2019). Emotional development study results.
Burchinal, M., Roberts, J., Nabors, L., & Bryant, D. (2000). Quality of center child care and infant cognitive andlanguage development. Developmental Psychology.
American Academy of Pediatrics. (2013). Physical activity guidelines for children.
Bright Beginnings. (2018). Program report on child developmental milestones.
