The Conversation, April 9, 2026
Excerpt: "Families with kids juggling full-time work may have been alarmed by media reporting this week, suggesting “too much” time in early childhood education and care could harm their child’s development.
Data from a major Australian study, the First Five Years project, was released by the Department of Education last December. It tracked 274,000 Australian children and linked their experiences of early childhood education to their development in the first year of school.
The report found those who spent 40 hours or more a week in care were slightly more likely to be “developmentally vulnerable”, compared to the national average. But the data also showed that kids who attend formal care – which includes childcare and preschool – had notably better outcomes compared to those who didn’t attend at all."
