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

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.