When Are Children in Child Care Too Long?

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In recent weeks ExchangeEveryDay readers have been challenged twice to "Sound Off" on questions about the length of time children are in child care arrangements. The first invitation involved a nursery school operator in Indonesia who was asking if she should expand her program offering infants and toddlers four days of morning services to a fifth day (ExchangeEveryDay, May 4, 2005).

The second came when we reported long-time child care critic Jay Belksy's interpretations of the NICHD Study of Early Care where he claimed that children who participated in child care in later years were aggressive to a level requiring therapy (ExchangeEveryDay, May 16, 2005). Over 120 readers responded by expressing their views on these two items in the Sound Off section of the Exchange web site (www.ChildCareExchange.com). Here are a few examples of their views:

Ken Weslake, SPD, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
In an ideal world the children would be happy ...