Children in low-quality childcare have less advanced language development that progresses at a slower rate than the language development of children in high-quality care.

This new research examines how the quality of childcare affects the development of specific language components.

Researchers collected data from three childcare sites and evaluated each on quality indicators known in the field as the "iron triangle" - the number of children per class, the teachers' education levels and the child-to-caregiver ratio. The lowest quality site had a large class size, less teacher education and a significantly higher child-to-caregiver ratio - one caregiver per eight children; the ratios in the other sites were one to two and one to three.

"Language is a critical aspect of school readiness and pre-literacy skills," said lead author Lynne Vernon-Feagans, the William C. Friday distinguished professor of Child and Family Studies in UNC's School of Education and a faculty fellow at FPG. "Research shows that early vocabulary and language skills are related to later standardized reading test scores."

In every measurement used, children in higher-quality childcare significantly outperformed those receiving the lowest quality care. And the quality made a greater difference over time, as children in higher-quality care acquired key markers more rapidly than the children in lowest quality care. This was especially true for vocabulary; children in higher-quality care used twice as many words by age 3 as those in the lowest quality care.