Regular day-care center attendance – an influencing factor on developmental risks in the domain of social skills of 3 to 6 year old children?

Background: Social-emotional skills are associated with subsequent school success [1,2,3,4]. Therefore, it is necessary to early promote these skills in the child development. The federal state law for child day care and preschools Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (MWP) regulates documentation and observation of the children's development [5]. Day-care teachers shall assess developmental motor, language, cognitive, and social risks by conducting the standardized, objective and valid “Dortmunder Entwicklungsscreening für den Kindergarten DESK 3 – 6” [6,7,8]. In the event of deviations from an age-appropriate development, the law stipulates funds to offer targeted individualized support to children prone to developmental delays. Mandatory criteria for claiming benefits based on the law are (1.) the annual performance of the screening and (2.) the participation in a scientific evaluation (n = 143 day-care centers (dcc); 05.04.2016).

Research question: Is a regular dcc attendance an influencing factor on developmental risks in the domain of social skills?

Methods: The DESK items are age-based and vary in three age groups (3-year-olds, 4-year-olds, and 5- to 6-year-olds). The DESK 3 – 6 was carried out by previously trained preschool teachers. Data analysis: t-test of age-adjusted stanine-scores stratified by age; calculation of effect sizes (cohen's d); n = 5.581.

Results: 3-year-olds with unregular dcc-attendance show significant lower results (M = 3.76, SD = 2.240) than 3-year-olds with regular dcc-attendance (M = 4.84, SD = 2.267; p < 0.001; cohen's d = 0.4760).

4-year-olds with unregular dcc-attendance show slightly lower results (M = 3.94, SD = 2.304) than 4-year-olds with regular dcc-attendance (M = 4.46, SD = 2.158; n.s.; cohen's d = 0.2423).

5/6-year-olds with unregular dcc-attendance show significant lower results (M = 3.83, SD = 1.989) than 5/6-year-olds with regular dcc-attendance (M = 4.37, SD = 2.066; p < 0.01; cohen's d = 0.2583).

Discussion: The analysis reveals the important influence of dcc attendance on social-emotional skills especially of children aged 3 and 5/6 years. Regular dcc attendance seems to compensate social inequalities and contributes to equal opportunities in social-emotional development in the pivotal period prior to school enrolment. Referenzen beim Verfasser.