Long daycare may place children at higher risk of falling behind in learning, according to a new Australian National University study.



Maths, literacy and overall academic achievement levels could suffer for pre-schoolers who spend more than 21 hours a week in daycare, the study found.



One of the authors, Nicholas Biddle, said in an interview with the Australian that while daycare could have positive effects, too much could have an adverse impact on children once they went to school.

“Each child is different but we tended to find a negative association from 21 hours or more. Clearly some families need such care, but we need to make sure that those who do need it have ­access to quality care,” he said.



The researchers studied 3,500 children aged four and five who were not attending school full-time. Of this number, 14% were attending daycare for more than 20 hours a week.