Day care wars
There’s a good article in Stuff today on day-care. The reporters describe the anti-daycare research of Dr Aric Signman being pushed by Family First, but also the reaction of the scientific community to that research. As usual, no-one links to sources, so as a public service
- Professor Dorothy Bishop’s commentary in the Guardian
- Ben Goldacre’s article in Bad Science
- Dr Sigman’s own disclaimer about the results (“I selected studies that were generally negative precisely because most biologists and policy makers are unaware of the existence of these studies”)
[Update: The Herald now also has a story, and it is also good. On the other hand, their bogus poll for today asks “Is daycare harmful for young children?” They could at least stick to questions where majority opinion would be relevant.]
Thomas Lumley (@tslumley) is Professor of Biostatistics at the University of Auckland. His research interests include semiparametric models, survey sampling, statistical computing, foundations of statistics, and whatever methodological problems his medical collaborators come up with. He also blogs at Biased and Inefficient See all posts by Thomas Lumley »