The study also showed that the care and education that childminders provided two-year-olds had a positive effect on their language and their behaviour at the age of three. As well as childminders having a positive effect group based settings such as nurseries and playgroups were also shown to be having a significant positive effect.
The study also showed that toddlers benefited from spending up to 35hours per week in a nursery or with a childminder if children began spending more than 35 hours it began to have a negative effect on their development.
The Study of Early Education and Development is funded by the Department For Education. The research carried out is said to be the biggest longitudinal study of early education. The National Centre for Social Research conducted the research in collaboration with the University of Oxford, Action for Children and Frontier Economics.