Photo from Hanscom Air Force Base - AF.mil
Modern families prefer to think that early childhood education is important and believe that mental development should start from a young age. However, a lot of parents think that kids should have a childhood and enjoy simple things but not train their brain. Nowadays, numerous organizations offer programs focused on kids' development. There are various physical, motor, emotional, social, language and cognitive development tasks that help kids' brain to develop faster and adapt to social life in a much effective way. What is the right opinion? Does early childhood care have more benefits than disadvantages? Keep reading the article and find out what experts say.
Positive Effects of Pre-Kindergarten Programs on Child's Development
There are a lot of families where parents work hard, leaving their 3-year-old children with nannies or grandparents who look after them. Experts say that even at the age of 2 it's vital to attend a childcare facility. Such programs should be attended a few times a week for a couple of hours.
Let's talk about the value of early childhood education on real examples. A recent study has shown that children enrolled in such programs are well-behaved and have higher IQ scores than their peers who are looked after by babysitters or relatives. Early education programs allow children to get used to social life quicker, develop communicative skills, and learn languages which are all very important for brain and memory development. Of course, such programs are invented in accordance with kids' age and aimed to prepare them for schools and social life.
For a lot of children, attending schools can become very stressful. Feeling uncomfortable around peers, listening to someone else rather than parents, not getting what they want and behaving a certain way causes a lot of stress for children and prevents them from being open to the world, people and knowledge. This is why early education programs prepare kids for school by helping them to get comfortable around their peers, trust their teachers and get used to spending time in a different environment rather than home only.
The study shows that pre-school programs prove to be especially beneficial in adolescence. They help young people prepare to successfully graduate from high school and go to college. Those teenagers who passed pre-kindergarten programs, tend to show better results in college, manage their time and know what career they want to get in the future. Luckily, with a professional writing services and other student assisting companies, teenagers can combine study, work, and travel. Also, those teenagers who have been educated from a young age, tend to have fewer behavioral problems especially in the age between 12-16 years old.
Let's review all the benefits of early childhood programs again to understand how important it's to provide kids with sufficient knowledge and develop their skills before kindergarten and school:
- improves cognitive thinking
- allows learning native and foreign languages much faster
- helps to socialize without feeling stressed
- boost children learning later in life
Not only do kids have advantages from these programs but so do their parents:
- helps parents to balance between work and responsibilities for their kids
- parents can trust professionals and get assisted by educating their kids from a young age
- early education programs allow parents to spend quality time with their kids not wasting time teaching them how to behave in public places, how to communicate with their peers and other aspects of the discipline
Educational researchers link early education to the development of socio-emotional skills and cognitive skills. Over the last few years, early education programs have improved a lot and now follow new practices and principles for use in the classroom. Such programs include studying with the help of books, videos, and activities that build on the upbringing and mental development that parents can give to their children at home. By enrolling children in an early learning program, parents are helping their children learn how to be disciplined, be independent, control their emotions and communicate with people outside their families.
All over the world, governments should provide finances and resources to give access to high-quality child care and education, helping parents to take care of their children in the best way possible. Such a way of bringing up children will certainly benefit them and their parents' live in the future. The whole point of inventing and providing such early educational programs is to give children a chance to be happy, satisfied, emotionally-balanced and successful in life.
As an educator of young
As an educator of young children, and of early childhood educators, for many decades, I appreciate your comments. However, I found the "not waste time" comment regarding parents a very poor choice of words. As a parent whose child attended fine schools from age three, who had regular play group activities before then and continued, it was not a waste of time for me to provide family guidance and responsive parenting in terms of interactions with others. This is particularly true in terms of culture and values. We don't rely solely on "professionals" for this.