What Do Toddlers Learn in Child Care Centers?
Child care centers provide structured activities throughout the day for the infants and toddlers in their care. Staff who are trained in the ways children learn and develop through play and interaction with each other provide necessary guidance and supervision. This ensures that each child has a solid foundation of social experience and practical skills on which to build his life.
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Self-Confidence
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Well-structured child care centers recognize toddlers' social and emotional needs as well as developing their intellectual and physical abilities. Toddlers can develop self-confidence by cooperating with other toddlers in play and in learning to play alone. Through conversation with adult teachers and other toddlers, language improve, which also increases the ability to express emotions.
Problem Solving
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Toddlers learn how to solve problems for themselves and how to ask questions as well as answer them. Active learning takes place with such activities as bricks construction and building with blocks. Toddlers can also develop abstract concepts such as "bigger" or "equal to" through play at their child care center.
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Reading
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Many child care centers have dedicated book sections where toddlers can explore and handle a variety of books. They are encouraged to develop their own reading habits and pleasures and learn to use books as reference materials.
Coordination
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Toddlers learn about colors, texture and shapes through use of art materials in child care centers. Painting and drawing with different materials also helps to develop small-muscle movement for greater control with crayons and pencils as well as hand-eye coordination. The opportunity to work and cooperate with others on joint projects helps the toddler to share and listen to the needs of others.
Music
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Child care centers often have musical interludes where toddlers learn to sing together or where they gather to listen to music or play simple instruments such as drums or triangles and tambourines. They learn about rhythm and beat, vocal pitch and sound imitation.
Significance
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In 1962, David Weikart initiated the long-term High/Scope Perry Preschool study that followed 123 children from age 3 to 40. The study results confirmed that children who receive good preschool child care are more likely to graduate from high school. They have higher earnings and commit fewer crimes when compared to adults who did not have the opportunity to attend a child care center.
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- Photo Credit Toddler with scoop in sandbox image by Olga Sapegina from Fotolia.com
