Better opportunities thanks to daycare
Putting your own child in daycare or kindergarten is a big step – for the children, but also for the parents. Therefore, the good news: daycare doesn’t harm children. On the contrary, your child develops a wide range of skills in kindergarten.
In Switzerland over 95 percent of fathers and over four out of five mothers work. Almost 40 percent of households with children under the age of 12 use institutional childcare. Concentrating on the youngest this means: There are growing numbers of studies that confirm connections between the quality of care outside the family and the level of fine and gross motor skills, adaptive behaviour, speech and social behaviour.[1] [2] A German study of 4,000 children shows that children who are cared for in the first two years of life are less likely to suffer from mental disorders later.[3]
Here‘s how the kids do better:
- Physical skills: Coordination and hand-eye coordination are more pronounced, the children are more agile and less often overweight and they develop their gross and fine motor skills more strongly.
- Social skills: They are more adaptable, more cooperative, but can also assert themselves. They are considerate of younger children, include them in their games - and at the end of the day they clean up the toys again.
- Emotional skills: They are less anxious and they are able to deal with their own feelings and those of others. This is also evident on the linguistic level, as the children can describe feelings. They regulate their emotions better, i.e. they calm down relatively quickly when they get excited. And they develop empathy.
- Language and numbers: By interacting with other children, they practice their language skills, they also make first writing attempts. Daycare also offers many opportunities to gain basic mathematical experiences such as counting, organizing or sorting.
- Learning skills: Children want to learn and explore, they learn to trust themselves and therefor they are more keen on making new experiences and develop skills such as perseverance or diligence in order to achieve their goals.
Key is the quality of the Kita
The child‘s well-being depends on the quality of the Kita, Professor Elisabeth Nicolai (The Protestant University Ludwigsburg in Germany) points out. She found that successful childcare is primarily related to the conditions in the daycare center. She said it „is crucial for a stress-free well-being and a healthy, emotional development of toddlers that they have safe, reliable and constant contact with their caregivers and thus can build an intensive bond. The caretaker does not necessarily have to be the mother.“[4]
Information for newcomers to Switzerland:
The school system in Switzerland is regulated differently in the cantons – feel free contacting our family services department (familienservice@globegarden.org) to learn more about the regulations in your canton. In short: Attending kindergarten for two years is compulsory and, like the primary school, is part of the primary level. At Kindergarten the children are specifically prepared for school. Normally children start school when they are four years old. Younger children can attend a day-care center (Kita); at globegarden they can also attend pre-school and kindergarten.
