How to Choose a Preschool or Daycare

What questions to ask when choosing a child care center and what to do if you can't afford he highest quality child care option

Sep 22, 2022

One of the most stressful and challenging tasks as a parent is finding and choosing child care for your young child. Whether it is a full-time daycare for your 6-week-old or a three-hour preschool for your 4-year-old, many parents struggle with this decision. We all want a place where our child feels safe and accepted, while also promoting their development and teaching them important social-emotional skills. Yet, how do we evaluate potential options and weigh all of the factors that go into this important decision?

Research suggests that parents might be justified in obsessing over this decision since the quality of a preschool or daycare really does matter. Longitudinal research (research that tracks the development of children across many years) finds that children in high-quality child care showed increased IQ, better academic skills, and more advanced language at 4 ½ years old when compared to children in low-quality child care (see graph below). Children in higher quality child care were also more cooperative, less aggressive, and had more positive interactions with other children than children in lower quality care. Higher quality child care has even been associated with higher IQ, better school performance, and less behavioral problems at age 15 and better grades and plans to attend more competitive colleges at age 18.

Source: The NICHD Early Child Care study

What If You Can’t Afford the Most High-Quality Child Care Option (Or It is Not Available to You For Any Reason)?

Before discussing how to evaluate the quality of a daycare or preschool, it is important to emphasize that parents should not worry if they cannot afford and/or do not have access to the highest quality child care. Research finds that the family factors (such as the quality of the parent-child interaction and a family environment that supports learning) have TWO to THREE times the impact on child development when compared to child care quality. In particular, the following factors have been found to have a greater impact on child development than the quality of the child care:

Mother-child interactions: Children show better outcomes when their mothers are responsive, sensitive, attentive, and encouraging during interactions (unfortunately this research focused only on mother-child interactions so the role of father-child interactions is less clear). Maternal sensitivity by itself has a larger impact on child development than child care quality. This finding suggests that if sending your child to preschool/daycare improves your interaction with them when they are home, then this might be the right decision for your family.
Home Environment: Families with routines and structure, books, and access to stimulating experiences are more likely to have children with better social and cognitive outcomes. This finding suggests that if the child care you choose allows you to afford to provide these stimulating experiences, then this might be the right decision for your family.
Parental stress/mental health of parents: Research finds that higher levels of parent stress and more mental health concerns in parents are associated with more emotional and behavioral problems in children around age four. Again, this finding suggests that if sending your child to daycare/preschool improves your stress level, then this might be the right choice for your family.

You can also provide a high-quality education for your preschool child by integrating learning activities into your daily routines. In particular, research finds that parents who engage in “unconstrained learning activities” more often with their children are more likely to have children with enhanced language and math skills. Unconstrained activities teach more abstract skills such as problem-solving and critical thinking and children learn them through a variety of experiences rather than direct teaching. Unconstrained activities can be as simple as reading to your child or having conversations with your child about various concepts. Unconstrained learning can be contrasted with “constrained learning,” which is teaching a specific concrete skill that children can master. Examples of constrained learning activities can include teaching your child the letters of the alphabet, counting to ten, or teaching your child the state capitals. Her are some ideas to integrate unconstrained learning into your daily life:

Building a block tower together
Taking turns making up stories while in the car
Asking your child to summarize a book after you read it
Talking together about how they would solve a problem with a friend
Playing a rhyming game while they take a bath
Playing a board game that involves strategy
Making educated guesses about what will happen in a book or real life

TRANSLATION: Child care quality matters but what you do at home is more important than anything related to your child care choices. A loving and supportive family that supports unconstrained learning and emotional development is more important for your child’s development than the quality of child care. If the child care that you choose helps you to be a less stressed or more present parent or to have the financial resources to provide stimulating experiences for your child, then this arrangement might be the best for your family.

Questions To Ask When Choosing Child Care

What is the adult-to-child ratio?

When evaluating child care options, parents should first assess whether the child care center has enough adults to adequately care for and interact with the children. Child care centers often refer to this as the “adult-to-child ratio” (meaning how many children are there per adult caregivers in the center). Research finds that that child care centers with fewer children per adult are associated with children showing more advanced cognitive development (see here and here) and improved language. This advantage may occur because children are more likely to get more attention, interaction, and exposure to language when more adults are present.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends 1 adult for every 3 children for children under 12 months, 1 adult for every 4 children for children 13 months to 35 months, 1 adult for every 7 children for 3-year-olds, and 1 adult for every 8 children for 4-year-olds and 5-year-olds. Research also suggests that the adult-to-child ratio is particularly important for children under 36 months.

How many children are in a classroom or group?

In addition to asking about the adult-to-child ratio, parents may also want to ask about how many children are typically in each classroom or group (and whether they have regulations for maximum group size). Adequate adult-to-child ratio may not necessarily mean adequate group sizes in child care settings. For example, imagine that your infant was in a daycare classroom with 20 children and 5 adults. You might be happy with the adult-to-child ratio but your child may still not be getting adequate individualized attention due to the number of children present and caregivers not having the chance to understand the unique needs of each child.

Research finds that smaller group sizes are associated with higher quality care of children. In addition, some research suggests that group size may be the strongest predictor of high-quality caregiving in child care centers for infants.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends a maximum of 6 students in a group for children under 12 months, 8 students for children 13 months to 35 months, 14 students for 3-year-olds, and 16 students for 4-year-olds.

What is the level of education for teachers/caregivers? Do you have a minimum required education? Do teachers/caregivers have specialized training in child care or child development?

Research suggests that higher levels of education achieved by caregivers/teachers are associated with better developmental outcomes for children, including improved cognitive and language development and enhanced pre-academic skills. Higher levels of education achieved by caregivers/teachers are also associated with higher quality caregiving. In addition, caregivers with specialized training in child care or child development may provide better quality care and a better learning environment.

Research suggests that caregiver education may be particularly important for child care quality in at-home daycares and as children get older (the link between caregiver education and is stronger for 3-year-olds than younger children).

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that caregivers or teachers in early child care have some post-high school training in child development, early childhood education, or a related field.

Does the daycare/preschool provide “positive caregiving”?

Researchers have found that a quality they referred to as “positive caregiving” in caregivers at a daycare or preschool was particularly linked with better outcomes in children. Positive caregiving includes: having a positive attitude, using physical contact and affection, responding to the child, talking frequently to children (asking questions, praising/encouraging the child, teaching, narrating, singing), encouraging development, advancing social behavior, reading, and avoiding negative interactions with children.

In particular, researchers found that the most important factor of “positive caregiving” in predicting cognitive and language development was how much language the caregiver/teacher used (asking questions, responding to the child, and other forms of talking).

So what specific questions should you ask to evaluate the “positive caregiving” in a child care center:

Are caregivers/teachers generally happy and encouraging?
Do caregivers/teachers give positive physical contact?
How often do teachers/caregivers talk to children?
How do teachers/caregivers encourage cognitive, physical, and social-emotional development?
How often do teachers/caregivers read to children?
How do you make sure to avoid negative interactions between teachers/caregivers and children?

The NICHD also has a “Positive Caregiving Checklist” on their website which you can use to evaluate positive caregiving after observing a classroom (see below).

Source: The NICHD Early Child Care study

Is the daycare or preschool focused more on learning through play or direct instruction of academic concepts? How much of the day involves play? Is learning more child-directed or adult-directed?

Research suggests that early childhood education should be primarily play-based Research has found that play-based preschools tend to be associated with better long-term outcomes than preschools focusing on direct instruction of academic skills. Specifically, research finds that children in play-based, child-led preschools show improved behavior and more social responsibility as teenagers and fewer work problems and arrests as adults, when compared to children in preschools involving teacher-led instruction of academic skills.

In addition, research indicates that play-based learning should mostly involve child-led exploration and activities (meaning the child chooses their activity and decides how they engage with the materials). Research finds that children in child-led preschool programs show more academic success by sixth grade than children in teacher-led, academically-directed preschools.

It is also important to note that play-based, child-led learning should also involve a specific curriculum with learning objectives that will be achieved through play. More recent research suggests that teachers should provide “content-rich instruction” through play, meaning they teach children background information and link what they are learning to both familiar and new concepts. Research also suggests that play-based learning should be “cognitively demanding” (meaning that it challenges children to use critical thinking skills, such as asking children to explain their thinking, make educated guesses, or discuss ways to solve a problem).

Why is play-based, child-led learning more effective? First, research suggests that play is more effective than direct instruction at teaching children a range of different skills, including math and executive functioning and that free play is associated with better quality interactions, play skills, and language use in toddlers when compared to structured tasks.

Expert Review

All Parenting Translator newsletters are reviewed by an expert in the field to make sure they are as accurate and as helpful for you as possible. Today’s newsletter was reviewed by Dr. Erin O’Connor. Dr. O’Connor is a Professor in Teaching and Learning at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, and Program Leader for Early Childhood at NYU. She is also Chief of Education at Cooper and co-host of the podcast Parenting Understood. She received her doctorate in Human Development and Psychology from Harvard University and a masters in School Psychology from Columbia University. Her research focuses on development within the context of social interactions. Parenting Understood can be found on Apple Music, Amazon and Spotify and you can follow us @parentingunderstood on insta. For more information on Cooper, which focuses on virtual parent groups, meetings, and assemblies, visit us @your.cooper on Instagram and Cooper (yourcooper.com).

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How to Choose a Preschool or Daycare

What questions to ask when choosing a child care center and what to do if you can't afford he highest quality child care option

What If You Can’t Afford the Most High-Quality Child Care Option (Or It is Not Available to You For Any Reason)?

Questions To Ask When Choosing Child Care

Expert Review

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