Young children starting nursery or playschool after being at home showed high levels of stress (as measured by the levels of the stress hormone cortisol) in the first weeks after separation from their mothers
Young children starting nursery or playschool after being at home showed high levels of stress (as measured by the levels of the stress hormone cortisol) in the first weeks after separation from their mothers – and are still showing chronic mild to medium stress up to five months afterwards, as reported in the Education Guardian. The research was undertaken in 2004 by Professor Lamb and the report will be published next year, co-authored by Lieselotte Ahnert of the Free University of Berlin. The Guardian article reports “in the study researchers measured cortisol levels in children's saliva at home before childcare began; when their mothers were present with them at nursery; during their first two weeks without their mother; and five months later. Levels of the stress hormone cortisol doubled even in secure youngsters during the first nine days of childcare without their mothers present, compared with their normal level at home. The levels fell but were still significantly higher than for the same infants at home five months later, even though the children (aged between 11 and 20 months when they started nursery) by then appeared to have settled and no longer showed outward signs of distress. “ I can’t think that this is entirely news to mothers – we all know how difficult it is for children AND mothers during this transition time – it is as a stressful for parents this first separation. I can’t see though, how prolonging this separation until the child is older is, if anything, much worse. In my experience children starting school at five, as the first separation from parents, take months longer to settle in class than those who went to nursery first. For very shy children this can cripple their early learning for several months. |