While many parents send their children to child care out of necessity, there are benefits for the children as well. Children attending daycare get extra child socialization skills that children with stay-at-home parents may not receive. Children in daycare learn appropriate social behavior and develop social skills that include sharing, playing well with others and learn social development. Learning socialization skills is one of the strongest benefits for children in daycare, and one of the only ways that many toddlers and preschoolers receive socialization outside of their home environment.
By playing in both solitary and group play, children will learn to take turns, develop their compromise and communication skills, learn problem-solving skills and develop friendships with their peers. Daycare centers are a natural classroom for children to learn these child socialization skills. Teachers can lead small groups or large groups in activities to teach children how to share, solve conflicts and approach new peers. It’s good for children to learn how to be social at a young age as this will carry on into their teen and adult years.
Since many young toddlers are shy around new people, daycare centers are a great way to teach them how to meet and interact with a variety of people. Not only will the children learn how to interact with his or her peers, they will learn to listen to authoritative figures that aren’t their parents. Child socialization should involve interacting with adults and teachers, as well as their peers. Another important aspect of learning to interact with others is learning to play with children that are both younger and older than themselves. This skill will help them throughout their childhood, since school settings are multi-age.