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April 2000-Study Provides Evidence That the Quality of Child Care in Community-Based Centers is Related to the Cognitive and Language Development of Young Children

Findings from an HRSA/MCHB-supported study indicate that the quality of community-based center child care is a modest to moderate predictor of cognitive and languagte development in young children. Even after adjusting for child and family characteristics, analyses indicate that infants and toddlers in classes with better quality tend to have better cognitive and communication skills at one, two, and three years of age. Furthermore, the analyses provide evidence that the rate at which children acquire expressive language skills is slower for children in poorer than for those in higher quality classrooms.

As it has been the case in randomized clinical trials of early intervention programs, the results of the HRSA/MCHB study also show that children who attended classrooms with child-adult ratios within the recommended guidelines tend to have somewhat higher receptive and overall communication language scores at all ages. This association is consistent with the belief that scaffolded conversations with adults are especially important for language development during early childhood and that the teacher who has more children per adult in her/his class than is recommended will not have enough time to provide the individual language models and responsive turn-taking interactions that are required to enhance language development. Somewhat surprising, the study found that the child outcomes were higher for girls in classes whose lead teachers met recommendations regarding education, but not for boys. These findings may reflect the fact that preschool girls may be likelier to seek out the attention of adults than are preschool boys, eliciting more conversations with them.

The study is unique in three respects: (1) subjects were African-American infants and toddlers from predominantly low-income families; (2) children were followed longitudinally from 6 months to 36 months of age; and, (3) study variables included whether the care rendered at the centers met or did not meet professional recommendations on classroom child-adult ratios and teacher education. These regulable aspects of center child care have been found in prior studies to promote child care quality.

The findings of the study are reported in an article entitled, "Relating Quality of Center Child Care to Early Cognitive and Language Development Longitudinally," which appears in the March/April 2000 issue of the journal Child Development (Vol. 71 , No. 2 ,pp 339-357 ). Lead authors of the article are Margaret R. Burchinal, Joanne E. Roberts, Rhodeus Riggins, Jr., et al. from the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Center of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC. Reprints of the article are available from the HRSA/MCHB Research Program Office, Telephone: (301) 443-2190;
e-mail:kwadhwan@hrsa.gov or rhaggerty@hrsa.gov.

Based on the findings of the study the investigators advocate that community child care or other early intervention for children, especially for those from families living in poverty, should focus on the qualitjy of the child care received by the children. Results of this study, the investigators assert, in conjunction with the early intervention literature, suggest that policy-makers should ensure that low-income African-American infants who are at risk for developmental problems because of poverty and its associated problems receive good quality care beginning in infancy to reduce the likelihood of school failure. High quality child care requires child-adult ratios such as recommended by the American Public Health and American Pediatric Associations to permit the extensive teacher-child interactions that promote infant responsiveness to people and objects. In addition, high quality care also require training teachers in infant and toddler classrooms to be responsive and contingent in interaction with babies and young children.

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