DOUGLAS COLLEGE
ARCHIVES

   

S| Mad Hatter

Douglas College Newsletter.

  

 

DOUGLAS COLLEGE
CHIVES

 

Tuesday, May 29, 1985

OUT-OF-SCHOOL CARE

After a day of school, most elementary students have three options. They can go to
the home of their parents or guardian; enter a child care facility until someone

else returns home; or go home to an empty house.

Today, many families are forced to have all the adults working during the day, and
young children between the ages of six and 12 are developing what Jake Kuiken calls

the "latch-key syndrome".

"That's where a child has to wear the house key around their neck to get into the
house because no one else is home," Kuiken says. "There are both short term and

long term problems to this."

Young children who look after themselves have been the focus of several studies in
recent years, and a group of psychologists have determined several major flaws with this

approach to 'self-care'.

Children left alone during the day can develop low self-esteem, feel isolated from
society, learn to fear other people, develop a resentment towards their parent, or,

more seriously, be the brunt of child neglect, Kuiken says.

Kuiken coordinates all of the out of school care programs for Calgary. Last year as
a researcher for the Canadian National Day Care Office on School Aged Child Care he
© compiled a report on the different facilities available for children between six and

 

 

1? years.