Childcare Center Attendance During the Covid-19 Pandemic: Boosting Cognitive and Language Development

Marigen Narea, Pamela Soto-Ramírez, Alejandra Abufhele

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic underscored the significance of early childhood education and care (ECEC) for children's development. We investigated the impact of attendance at ECEC programs following a closure period due to the pandemic. We used linear regression with a lagged dependent variable to examine assessments of children's cognitive and receptive language based on a sample of Chilean children (N = 809; age = 41.3 months in 2021). Results show that children who attended center-based care for more than 20 h a week demonstrated higher cognitive and receptive language levels than those who did not attend (3.2 and 2.9 points higher, respectively). Furthermore, our results highlight the importance of the intensity of attendance at ECEC programs for children's development.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1395-1408
Number of pages14
JournalChild Development
Volume96
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Jul 2025

Keywords

  • Chile
  • attendance
  • childcare
  • cognitive development
  • language development

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