Bonding and the Provision of Suitable Day Care Facilities

“Day Care” is a subject which tends to polarise opinion; to the single parent or the economically struggling two parent family, the adult who genuinely wants to work or the student who is also a parent, the concept is most acceptable and very welcome. Day care fulfils a very real need for these people in our society which has managed to separate families into nuclear units and deprived them of the support of the extended family. Day care for these people enables them to pursue a livelihood or studies to lead to a livelihood and clearly in this context day care serves the parent or parents involved. There are other situations however, in which day care is perceived as being of consumate value to the child involved. There is a growing body of psychologists, neurologists and educators who believe that the first three years of life constitute the most crucial stage of development, in that all later learning depends upon the cognitive and social gains made by the infant. It therefore follows that exponents of this philosophy would have us believe that the infant/toddler must be in the most advantageous environment at his disposal, and that for some infants and toddlers an impoverished, unstimulating home is not the most ideal environment.