Supporting Development of Children from Families Facing Challenges at Day-care Centers: Reconsideration of “Social Welfare and Early Childhood Care and Education”

Abstract

  The purpose of this paper is to examine measures to support the development of children from families facing challenges, and the implications found in these measures, as well as to find the factors that serve as a foundation when putting them into practice, through interviews with day-care centers that have been engaged in supporting those families. The interviews revealed the following measures for active support of children's development: ensuring that those children attend centers; enhancing one-on-one involvement even in group activities; incorporating experiences that are often lacking in those families into many programs; and avoiding unnecessary stigma caused by “special treatment”. The results also indicated some implications such as guaranteeing children the right to live a full life; encouraging children's development based on attachment; encouraging self-fulfillment on a daily basis; and developing future life skills through programs, all of which suggests a need for policy and organizational infrastructure that makes child and family support a role of day-care centers. Based on the results of our interviews, the potential social welfare functions in childcare were discussed and examined.