Eady or Later Day Care

The British psychoanalyst John Bowlby maintains that separation from the parems during
The sensitive“attachment”period from birth to three may scar a child’s personality and
I premspose to emotional problems in later life．Some people have drawn¹ the conclusion from
Bowlby’s work that children should not be subjected to day care before the age of three because of the parental² separation it entails，and many people do believe this.But there are also arguments against such a strong conclusion． Firstly，anthropologists point out that the insulated love affair between children and parems；found in modem⁴ societies does not usually exist in traditional societies．For example，in some tribal⁵ societies，such as the Ngoni，the father and mother of a child did not rear their infant alone—far from it'．Secondly，common sense tells US that day care would not be so widespread today if parents
care-takers found children had problems with it．Statistical⁶ studies of this kind have not yet been carried out，and even if they were，the results would be certain to be complicated and controversial．Thirdly．in the last decade there have been a number of careful American studies of children in day care，and they have uniformly reported that day care had a neural⁷ or slighfly positive effect on children’S development．But tests that have had to be used to measure this development are not widely enough accepted to settle the issue.
But Bowlby’S analysis raises the possibility that early day care has delayed effects．The possibility that such care might 1cad tO，say，more mental illness or crime 15 or 20 years later Callonly be explored by the use of statistics．Whatever the long—term effects，parents sometimes find the immediate⁸ effects difficult to deal with。．Children under three are likely to protest at leaving their parents and show unhappiness．At the age of three or three and a half almost all children find the transition to nursery easy，and this is undoubtedly⁹ why more and more parents make use of child care at this time．The matter，then，is far from clear-cuff，though experxence and available evidence indicate that earl care is reasonable for lnfants．
词汇：
psychoanalyst n．精神分析学家一心理分析学家 insulate vt．隔绝
rear vt．抚养 predispose引起易感性
care taker n.照顾者，看管人 entail／in。tell／vt．蕴涵
infant n．婴儿 anthropologist³ n．人类学家

练习：
1． Which of the following statements would Bowlby support?
A)Statistical studies should be carried out to assess the positive effect of day car
for children at the age of three or older．
B)Early day care can delay the occurrence of mental illness in children．
C)The first three years of one’s life is extremely important to the later developmentof
personality．
D)Children under three get used to the life at nursery schools more readily than children
over three

2． Which of the following is derivable¹⁰ from Bowlby’S work?
A)Mothers should not send their children to day care centers before the age of three．
B)Day care nurseries have positive effects on a child’S development．
C)A child sent to a day care center before the age of three may have emotional problems
in laterlife．
D)Daycarewouldnotbe SOpopularffithasnoticeablenegativeeffects onachild，Spersonality．

3． It is suggested that modem societies differ from traditional societies in that
A)the parents—child relationship is more exclusive in modem societies．
B)a child more often grows up with his(her brothers or sisters in traditional societies．
C)mother brings up children with the help of her husband in traditional societies．
D)children in modem societies are more likely to develop mental illness in later years

4． Which of the following statements is NOT an argument against Bowlby,s theonr?
A)Many studies show that day care has a positive effect on children’S development．
B)The fact that there are so many nursery schools today shows that day care is safe．
C)The separation of young children from their parents is common in some traditional
societies．
D)Parentsfindtheimmediate effects ofearlyday caredifficultto dealwith．

5 Which of the following best expresses the writer’S attitude towards early day care?
A)Children under three should stay with their parents．
B)Early day care has positive effects on children’s development．
C)The issue is controversial and its settlement calls for the use of statistics．
D)Theeffectsofearlydaycareon children areexaggeratedandparents shouldignoretheissue