Children at Home and in Day Care Published July 1st 1994 by
Routledge – 288 pages Psychologists have always been interested
in how children's development is related to their early
experience. From their first studies of "maternal deprivation"
to their latest investigations of "within-family variance,"
psychologists have probed the effects of children's early lives.
While researchers have been tracking down answers to questions
about early experience, however, the questions have kept one
step ahead of them. In the beginning, it seemed enough to ask
about the mother's influence on the child. Later, it was found
necessary to include the father, and still later, siblings. But
even as psychologists broadened their search to include the
entire family, the ecology of early childhood shifted to include
those outside the family -- in nursery school and day care, with
nannies and peers. Today, in this society, even the youngest
children live in complex worlds of home and beyond. Taking a
look at the complex worlds of c