Early childhood education is the formal teaching and care of
young childrenFor the video game rating with a similar age group see ESRBEarly childhood is a stage in human development. It generally includes toddlerhood and some time afterwards. Play age is an unspecific designation approximately within the scope of early childhood.-Education:Infants and toddlers experience...
by people other than their family or in settings outside of the home. 'Early childhood' is usually defined as before the age of normal schooling - five years in most nations, though the U.S.
National Association for the Education of Young ChildrenThe National Association for the Education of Young Children is the largest nonprofit association in the United States representing early childhood education teachers, paraeducators, center directors, trainers, college educators, families of young children, policy makers, and advocates...
(NAEYC) instead defines 'early childhood' as before the age of eight.
Background
A child's needs during early childhood are different from those of older schoolchildren, because early childhood sees the greatest growth and development, when the brain develops most rapidly, almost at its fullest. It is a period when walking, talking, self-esteem, vision of the world and moral foundations are established. The early years of life are critical to the development of intelligence, personality and social behaviour. Research on brain development attests to the importance of key mental, physical and social capabilities. If these fundamental capabilities are not well established from the start, and especially if neurological damage occurs, a child's learning potential could be adversely affected. As such, education in early childhood must have its own specific practices and issues.
For programming purposes, it has been decided to extend the concept of early childhood to about 8 years of age. This age range provides the opportunity to reinforce the view of the development as a continuum. It will facilitate the interaction between the pre and initial school years. The concept of basic education calls for the inclusion of early childhood and the key "survival" grades, that is, the first two or three grades of primary education.
Early childhood education often focuses on children learning through play.
According to
UNESCO ECCE (Early Childhood Care and Education) Unit, Early childhood is defined as the period from birth to 8 years old. A time of remarkable brain development, these years lay the foundation for subsequent learning.
The terms
preschool educationPreschool education is the provision of learning to children before the commencement of statutory and obligatory education, usually between the ages of zero and three or five, depending on the jurisdiction....
and
kindergartenA kindergarten is a preschool educational institution for children. The term was created by Friedrich Fröbel for the play and activity institute that he created in 1837 in Bad Blankenburg as a social experience for children for their transition from home to school...
emphasize education around the ages of 3–6 years. The terms "early childhood learning," "early care," and "early education" are comparable with
early childhood education. The terms
day careChild care or day care is care of a child during the day by a person other than the child's legal guardians, typically performed by someone outside the child's immediate family...
and child care do not embrace the educational aspects. Many childcare centers are now using more educational approaches. They are creating curricula and incorporating it into their daily routines to foster greater educational learning. The distinction between childcare centers being for care and kindergartens being for education, for example, has all but disappeared in countries that require staff in different early childhood facilities to have a teaching qualification. The
ChildForum early childhood education national organisation highlights that while this can uplift the overall quality of children's learning a primary purpose of all early childhood programmes is nevertheless to provide a high standard of care and nurturance due to the young age and emotional and physical needs of children. However, it is necessary to distinguish between nurturance and locomotive learning. One implies the development of vestigial implements of characterized babies, the other refers to hand-eye co-ordination.
Researchers in the field and early childhood educators both view the parents as an integral part of the early childhood education process. Often educators refer to parents as the child's first and best teacher. Early childhood education takes many forms depending on the beliefs of the educator or parent.
Much of the first two years of life are spent in the creation of a child's first "sense of self" or the building of a first identity. This is a crucial part of children's makeup—how they first see themselves, how they think they should function, how they expect others to function in relation to them. For this reason, early care must ensure that in addition to employing carefully selected and trained caretakers, program policy must emphasize links with family, home
cultureCulture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
, and home
languageLanguage may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
, meaning caregivers must uniquely care for each child using Developmentally Appropriate Practice, Individually Appropriate Practice and Culturally Appropriate Practice. Care should support families rather than be a substitute for them (
see a review of research on the role of parents and families in early education)
If a young child doesn't receive sufficient nurturing,
nutritionNutrition is the provision, to cells and organisms, of the materials necessary to support life. Many common health problems can be prevented or alleviated with a healthy diet....
,
parentA parent is a caretaker of the offspring in their own species. In humans, a parent is of a child . Children can have one or more parents, but they must have two biological parents. Biological parents consist of the male who sired the child and the female who gave birth to the child...
al/caregiver interaction, and
stimulusIn physiology, a stimulus is a detectable change in the internal or external environment. The ability of an organism or organ to respond to external stimuli is called sensitivity....
during this crucial period, the child may be left with a developmental deficit that hampers his or her success in preschool,
kindergartenA kindergarten is a preschool educational institution for children. The term was created by Friedrich Fröbel for the play and activity institute that he created in 1837 in Bad Blankenburg as a social experience for children for their transition from home to school...
, and beyond.
Worst-case scenarios such as those found in Russian and Romanian
orphanageAn orphanage is a residential institution devoted to the care of orphans – children whose parents are deceased or otherwise unable or unwilling to care for them...
s demonstrate how the lack of proper social interaction and development of attachment affect the developing child. Children must receive
attentionAttention is the cognitive process of paying attention to one aspect of the environment while ignoring others. Attention is one of the most intensely studied topics within psychology and cognitive neuroscience....
and
affectionAffection or fondness is a "disposition or rare state of mind or body" that is often associated with a feeling or type of love. It has given rise to a number of branches of philosophy and psychology concerning: emotion ; disease; influence; state of being ; and state of mind...
to develop in a healthy manner. While in developed nations today such scenarios are fortunately rare there is a danger of a false belief that more hours of formal education for the very young child = greater benefits for the young child than a balance between formal education and time spent with family. A systematic review of the international evidence suggests that the benefits of early childhood education come from the experience itself of participation and that more than 2.5 hours a day does not greatly add to child development outcomes especially if this means the young child is missing out on other experiences and family contact
Developmental domains
There are five different developmental domains of children which all relate to each other. They are easily referred to as the SPICE of life:
- Social - Refers mostly to the ability to form attachments, play with others, co-operation and sharing, and being able to create lasting relationships with others.
- Physical - Development of Fine (small) and Gross (large) Motor Skills.
- Intellectual - The process of making sense of the world around them.
- Creative - The development of special abilities creates noteworthy talents. Music, art, writing, reading, and singing are some ways for creative development to take place.
- Emotional - Development of self-awareness, self-confidence, and coping with feelings as well as understanding them.
Psychosocial developments
- Cognitive Development - According to Jean Piaget
Jean Piaget was a French-speaking Swiss developmental psychologist and philosopher known for his epistemological studies with children. His theory of cognitive development and epistemological view are together called "genetic epistemology"....
, there are four major stages of cognitive development:
- Sensorimotor Stage. This stage occurs between the ages of birth and two years of age.Sensorimotor (infancy): During this stage, which includes six distinct substages, intelligence is demonstrated through motor activity with limited use of symbols, including language; the infant’s knowledge of the world is primarily based on physical interactions and experiences.
- Preoperational Stage. The second stage occurs between the ages of 2 – 7 years. During this stage, intelligence is increasingly demonstrated through the use of symbols; memory and imagination are developed as language use matures; thinking is nonlogical, nonreversible, and egocentric.
- Concrete Operations Stage. Occurring between ages 7 and about 12 years. During this stage—characterized by conservation of number, length, liquid,mass, weight, area, volume—intelligence is increasingly demonstrated through logical and systematic manipulation of symbols relating to concrete objects; thinking is operational, reversible, and less egocentric.
- Formal Operations Stage. The final stage of cognitive development (from age 12 and beyond). During this final stage, intelligence is demonstrated through the logical use of symbols related to abstract concepts; thinking is abstract, hypothetical, and early on, quite egocentric; it is commonly held that the majority of people never complete this stage.
- Emotional Development - Concerning children's increasing awareness and control of their feelings and how they react to these feelings in a given situation.
- Social Development - Concerning the children's identity, their relationships with others, and understanding their place within a social environment
There are many other reformers of education that have contributed to what early childhood education means today. Although Piaget had a great impact on early childhood education, people like John Locke, Horace Mann and Jane Addams contributed a lifetime of work to reform education and learning in this country. The information presented is a starting point for educators to better understand the development of children.
Benefits of early childhood education
Chicago’s publicly-funded Child-Parent Centers have served almost 100,000 3- and 4-year-olds since 1967. Researchers tracked 989 of those children and 550 similar children not in the program for 14 years. The children who did not participate were 70 percent more likely to be arrested for a violent crime by age 18. This program also cut child abuse and neglect. In Ypsilanti, Michigan, 3- and 4-year-olds from low-income families who
were randomly assigned to a group that did not receive preschool who were five times more likely to have become chronic lawbreakers by age 27 than those who were assigned to the High/Scope Educational Research Foundation’s Perry Preschool program.
The first-ever Conference about Early Childhood Care and Education took place in Moscow from 27 to 29 September 2010, jointly organized by
UNESCO and the city of Moscow.
The overarching goals of the
World Conference on Early Childhood Care and Education (WCECCE) are to:
- Reaffirm ECCE as a right of all children and as the basis for development
- Take stock of the progress of Member States towards achieving the EFA Goal 1
- Identify binding constraints toward making the intended equitable expansion of access to quality ECCE services
- Establish, more concretely, benchmarks and targets for the EFA Goal 1 toward 2015 and beyond
- Identify key enablers that should facilitate Member States to reach the established targets
- Promote global exchange of good practices
See also
- Baby video
Baby videos are educational tools which can be used for teaching babies as young as six months, introducing the alphabet, different sights, shapes and colors, numbers and counting. Baby videos can be used for helping babies learn important educational skills, comprehension, introduction to the...
- Charles Eugene Beatty
Charles Eugene Beatty was and American track and field athlete and educator.-Athletics:Born in Detroit, Michigan, Beatty attended Northeastern High School and the Michigan State Normal College...
- Behavioral cusp
A behavioral cusp is any behavior change that brings an organism's behavior into contact with new contingencies that have far-reaching consequences...
- Bright from the Start
Bright from the Start, also known as Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning, was established on July 1, 2004. The main office is located in downtown Marietta, Georgia. The department licenses and monitors daycare centers and all state funded pre-k. Bright from the Start is headed by one...
- Compensatory education
Compensatory education offers supplementary programs or services designed to help children at risk of cognitive impairment and low educational achievement reach their full potential.-Children at risk:...
- Elizabeth Harrison (educator)
Elizabeth Harrison was an American educator. She was the founder and first president of what is today National-Louis University...
- Head Start Program
- Montessori education
- Playwork
Playwork is the work of creating and maintaining spaces for children to play.The theory and practice of playwork recognises that children's play must be 'Freely chosen, personally driven and intrinsically motivated.' Children's playing must not be 'Adulterated' by any adult or external agendas.It...
- Preschool Curriculum
According to UNESCO a preschool curriculum is one that delivers educational content through daily activities, tuition and furthers a child's physical, cognitive and social development...
- David P. Weikart
David P. Weikart was an American psychologist and founder of the HighScope Curriculum, an early childhood education program....
External links