The Benefits of Early Childhood Socialization in Child Care Settings

Choosing the right child care is one of the most important decisions parents can make for their child’s early development. High-quality child care settings offer more than just supervision; they provide an environment where children can learn critical social skills, explore their creativity, and build a foundation for future success.  

Why Send Your Child to Child Care?

Children need to spend time around others to learn and practice key aspects of socialization. Child care settings provide children with an opportunity to meet and interact with their peers and adults, helping them develop various skills needed to succeed in school and life.

Increase communication and language. 

Children in child care settings spend their days talking with and listening to their peers. These daily interactions expose children to new words and teach them how to pronounce them. Children learn new ways to say or do something in order to accomplish a specific task. For example, saying “please” instead of just grabbing a toy, or asking someone to stop when they don’t like what they’re doing.

Improve teamwork and cooperation. 

Being around others can teach young children the advantages of teamwork. Clean-up time goes faster when everyone puts toys away. Developing collaborative skills at an early age will help children transition into an elementary setting where group work and collaboration are common.

Understand sharing. 

Sharing is one of the toughest concepts for children to grasp. For developing brains, sharing can be a difficult concept to understand. Child care settings encourage sharing on a daily basis. Teachers use games, lessons, songs, and books to help children develop the skill of taking turns.

Gain emotional intelligence. 

Being in a diverse group setting with different personalities, child care settings show children the range of emotions we all go through on a daily basis. This type of environment can help teach children how to control their own emotions by observing how their peers handle specific situations. It can also help children learn empathy and how to make their friends feel better when something doesn’t seem to be going their way.       

Social skills are a fundamental aspect of life, and the earlier children learn these skills, the better. Research indicates that children who master sharing, listening, and cooperating by age five are more likely to succeed in school and in their future relationships.

Finding the right child care will help support your child's development, and Arizona Child Care Resource & Referral (CCR&R) is here to guide you through this important decision. By connecting with CCR&R, you can access resources and support to find high-quality child care that will help your child thrive. Learn more and start your search for the best care for your child today!

Resources:    
https://www.firstthingsfirst.org/early-childhood-matters/brain-development/?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiA0PuuBhBsEiwAS7fsNamiVraNMwqlJWlEH7rRVcQddja62rh6WkhSj57EMMYCDApVycbyaBoC0QYQAvD_BwE
https://www.all4kids.org/news/blog/social-connection-on-child-development/
https://www.himama.com/blog/socialization-benefits-of-early-childhood-education/