Research Writing Exercise:

Daycare

Use the following simulated notes to create a short paper in which you use the researched information and document it properly. Assume that any material that is not in quotation marks is your paraphrase, which means you can change it further if you wish. All material that is in quotes must be used exactly as is. Remember to introduce the speaker (w/ credentials) of all direct quotes.

In 1965 only twenty-five percent of mothers with children under the age of six were employed. By 1986, this figure had risen to fifty-four percent. Presently, only thirty-one percent of children are cared for at their own home by their parents

Editorial Research Reports: Preschool: Too Much Too Soon? "Working Mothers Spur Need for Preschools, Day Care." 5 Feb. 1988, page 50.

From 1954 to 1984, the cost of raising a child to age eighteen tripled to a total of over 140,000 dollars. One year of child raising takes twenty-nine percent of the average family's budget.

Brophy, Beth. "Children Under Stress." page 48. U.S. News and World Report, 27 Oct. 1986.

According to representative George Miller, chairman of the Select Committee on Children, Youth, and Families, seventy-five to ninety percent of family day care facilities are unlicensed or unregistered.

 

"Children Under Stress." U.S. News and World Report, 27 Oct. 1986, page 48, Beth Brophy, Beth.

An ideal ratio is three or fewer children for each adult. Only three states require that ratio, and Idaho allows one caregiver to watch up to twelve children.

Pat Wingert and Barbara Kantrowitz. "The Day Care Generation." page 46, Newsweek, Winter/Spring 1990.

Many workers are teenagers who are merely looking for a temporary job until they can find something better.

"What's Best for the Child?" The Progressive, Dorothy Conniff, page 13, Nov. 1988.

According to Marcy Whitebook, director of the National Child Care Staffing Study,

Turnover among childcare workers is second only to parking lot and gas-station attendants. To give you an idea of how bad it is, during our study, we had tiny children coming up to our researchers and asking them, "Are you my teacher?"

 

Wingert, Pat and Kantrowitz, Barbara, page 46, "The Day Care Generation." Newsweek, Winter/Spring 1990.

*Babysitters provide about seventy-five percent of all child care outside the home.

Beth Brophy. page 48. "Children Under Stress." U.S. News and World Report, 27 Oct. 1986.

Parents may go through three or more different locations in the first year as the try to find a place for their infant.

Dorothy Conniff, "What's Best for the Child?" The Progressive, page 13, Nov. 1988.

If a child does not receive satisfactory answers, he will grow frustrated. Soon he will stop asking questions and may even stop thinking them up.

Conniff, Dorothy. page 13, "What's Best for the Child?" The Progressive, Nov. 1988.

Children cannot fight off diseases as well as adults until they are two years old.

"Where's Mommy? The Great Debate Over The Effects of Day Care." The New York Magazine. 13 April 1987. Betty Holcomb,page 22.

Deborah Fallowa, author of A Mother's Work, points out, "Even so-called quality time-- the special time parents devote to their children-- cannot compensate for a lack of quality time."

Brophy, Beth. U.S. News and World Report, 27 Oct. 1986, page 48, "Children Under Stress."

Pediatric specialist, Dr. T. Berry Brazelton, argues that evenings are the worst part of the day for "quality time" because that is when children should have the least stimulation.

"The Myth of Quality Time." Stephen Fried. Sept. 1987, The Philadelphia Magazine., page 122.

According to Diane E. Papalia and Sally Wendkos Olds, authors of A Child's World, "The best [day care] is happy and wholesome and enhances children's development."

 

Fried, Stephen. page 122."The Myth of Quality Time." The Philadelphia Magazine. Sept. 1987.

One study showed children in day care were six to nine months ahead of children raised at home by mothers or babysitters. This was only a temporary advantage however, since most of these differences disappeared by age five.

Holcomb, Betty. "Where's Mommy? page 22. The Great Debate Over The Effects of Day Care." The New York Magazine. 13 April 1987.

One parent should try to work a part-time job so he or she can spend time with the infant.

Wingert, Pat and Barbara Kantrowitz. page 46 ."The Day Care Generation." Newsweek, Winter/Spring 1990.

The infant will still develop emotionally and socially as he forms a relationship with the babysitter, but this bond will not detract from his relationship with his mother.

Holcomb, Betty. page 22."Where's Mommy? The Great Debate Over The Effects of Day Care." The New York Magazine. 13 April 1987.

There should be a small group of children, with three children or fewer per adult.

Papalia, Diane E. and Sally Wendkos Olds. page 42. A Child's Infancy Through Adolescence. USA: McGraw-HIll Book Company, 1986.

Workers should have a background in related subjects, such as child psychology, development, or education.

Papalia, Diane E. and Sally Wendkos Olds. A Child's Infancy Through Adolescence. page 42, USA: McGraw Hill Book Company, 1986.