Children who attend formal childcare centres show better language development, finds a study published in the journal Early Child Development and Care.
Researchers from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health examined data from 19,919 children and found a direct correlation between language acquisition and nursery school attendance in children aged 1 to 3: the children who attended formal daycare centres were less likely to be "late talkers" than those who were looked after at home or in a less structured environment, reports ScienceDaily.
Three-year-olds who attended formal nursery school full-time enjoyed more benefits than those who only attended part-time.
No correlation was found in the language skills of one-year-olds, suggesting that the language benefits of formal childcare begin to develop somewhere between the ages of one and one-and-a-half.
About 12 percent of all children show delayed language development. In roughly half of these cases, the problems clear up before they begin school. In the remaining cases, however, the delay can cause lasting academic and social difficulties.