Early Childhood Care, Development, and Education in Asia

Early childhood care refers to physical care: health, nutrition, safety, and general well-being. Care also denotes an element of a warm relationship. Development is a much broader concept and covers children's holistic development, including the physical, social, emotional, moral, and cognitive development of young children. Early childhood education, in a narrow way, originally referred to preschool education or, more specifically, kindergartens. These three concepts used to be, and in some instances continue to be, considered as independent of one another. But with better understanding of brain development and how children learn, these three are now viewed as interrelated and integrated.

Early childhood care is usually provided by parents, grandparents, and members of the extended family. When the extended family lives together, multiple parenting occurs; that is, other members of the household help look after the children. Care by older siblings, with infants on their hips, is a common sight in poor developing Asian countries. It is also not uncommon for neighbors in the same village to keep an eye on one another's children.

Informal day care is an alternative care arrangement when relatives are not available for working mothers and involves care of a small group of young children by usually another mother in the same neighborhood. It is a private arrangement between parentsand care providers. Parents with infants seek out family day care as mothers return to work after maternity leave. This arrangement is preferred because of the home environment and the small number of children being cared for. Some parents have daily arrangements, while others may leave the children over the week and take them home during the weekends. Yet others may just visit the children at the family day care and have them come home when they are ready for kindergarten or school.

One of the concerns about family day care is that sometimes children develop closer relationships with care providers than with their natural parents. On returning home to their parents, difficulties may arise between children and parents, such as clinging behavior, rejecting behavior, temper tantrums, parents' inability to manage the children, and parent-child conflict. Poor parent-child relations may lead to frustration, guilt, and also child abuse.

The other problem with family day care is that unless such services are registered and monitored, the quality of care is questionable. Although there are cases of warm and loving care providers, the lack of supervision and quality control leaves young children vulnerable and open to abuse. There are few, if any, attempts to regulate family day care in Asia. In an attempt to encourage quality caregiving, Singapore is introducing training of family care providers so that other components of children's development can be addressed.

Crèches and child care centers were set up to meet the needs of working mothers, usually under the auspices of the social welfare or health authorities, women's affairs departments, or the local communities. [Page 378]Child care centers are still perceived to be more custodial in nature, focusing on the safekeeping of children, meals, health, hygiene, and some play activities. Care may be divided into crèches for infants to below 3 years of age or child care centers for children from 3 years old through kindergarten. Some centers accept children from 2 months to 6 years old.

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