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How Early Childhood Education benefits Young Children Patricia Hampton May 31, 2020

Early childhood education plays an important role in children’s lives, who does not want to have their children to succeed and be able to live a safe nurturing life. When children attend early education centers they are supported in several different important developmental areas. Often children enter school with undetected developmental delays which could have been tested for if the children went to an early childhood education center. Early childhood education centers provide a safe spot for children when there is abuse happening at home and staffs at these centers are trained to spot these issues and support these children with a variety of skills. Research suggest that early childhood education is an important factor in children’s lives because it is beneficial to the child’s social-emotional development as well as development in all areas, can help children with developmental delays, and can help prevent child abuse and neglect. Children in early childhood education centers are exposed to several different learning opportunities that help them develop in all areas to form the person they will become. When children receive education early on, they are more likely to succeed in school and have more of an advantage over children who did not attend. Children in early childhood education centers can gain social-emotional understanding though the help of teachers to prepare them for further education, “Children who have trusting relationships with their teachers are, on average, more willing to ask questions, solve problems, try new tasks, and express their thinking than their peers without such relationship”(Ho, J 2018). Children who can gain the social-emotional understanding demonstrate and continue to develop important behaviors and skills. These children are usually always in a positive mood, listen and follow directions, have relationships with caregivers and peers. When children attend an early childhood education centers, they are more willing to participate in school activities due to the development of social-emotional skills. There are four main developmental areas children develop while at an early childhood education

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centers these include: physical, social-emotional, language and literacy, and cognitive skills. Each of these skills are important to the success of these children’s lives. When children attend an early childhood education center the teachers are there to support the children in several different developmental areas. When children are supported in physical ways which include fine motor and gross motor skills, they are supported by “Teachers help children learn these skills by offering different physical activities and equipment” (NAEYC. 2). There are several different ways children can practice these skills by simple movement of their bodies. Children can enhance their social-emotional development in the early childhood education by being able to play and learn what a positive way to interact with other children. According to Jeannie Ho, in the article Promoting Young Children’s Social and Emotional Health, “Teachers can intentionally teach and enhance these skills using evidence-based strategies to teach, model, and reinforce positive behaviors.” When teachers can help children develop and learn new skills based off day to day activities and modeling the behavior themselves, it can be beneficial to the teacher, child and the rest of the class’s development. A child’s language and literacy development starts when they are first born, to their first word and so on. These skills can be learned though reading to your children and communicating with them in several different ways such as talking, reading and listening. In an early childhood educational setting these skills are all connected to help children grow new skills in life. Cognitive skills are a children’s thinking skills which can affect the way they approach learning. Cognitive skills can expand a child’s view, “As young children explore, ask questions, and create, they improve their thinking skills. Reflecting on and using information lets your children understand the world around him” (NAEYC. 2 ). When children are allowed to explore in an early childhood education center they are supported and provided a variety of activities to expand their learning

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on. These developmental areas are some of the reason’s children should attend early childhood education centers. When people hear the words preschool or childcare, they often think of babysitting. Research suggests that infants and toddlers do best in a home based childcare facility for the first three years of their lives. These children can have less stressful experiences, become sick less often and can have less behavior issues compared to children in high quality care such as early childhood education. (Matthrews,D.2017) When children are in a home based childcare facility, there are less teachers in ratio to serve to the children and this can cause the caregiver to become impatient and not interested in doing their job. There are negatives about early childcare education such as less one on one, learning to early, separation anxiety, little social opportunities, and ineffectiveness of learning. Children and teacher ratios do not allow one on one with children and yes their attention is divided but children can still get the individual time they need with the teachers during the time they are attending. “Some preschools, it’s claimed, force kids to learn too early”(Ourkids.net), If you find the right fit for your children it can benefit them instead of having a negative impact their love for learning. Some children more than others have social anxiety, this usually passes as the children become used to the teachers and build positive relationships within their center, “Some may need more personal attention and may not be ready to attend school. For others, though, the anxiety quickly recedes (after the first week or two), and they go on to thrive in preschool” (Ourkids.net). Children retain so much information when they are in school early on including learning how to spell their name(literacy), well others claim “Whatever advantages preschool kids have over those without preschool education, it’s claimed, normally disappear after grade 2”(Ourkids.net). There are always positives and negatives but for early childhood education is full of positive experiences for children.

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Early childhood education centers can help prevent child abuse and neglect for children in their care. Early childcare providers and teachers can help prevent abuse and neglect by first spotting the signs of abuse. Providers are trained in child abuse and neglect when they first start working and have annual refresher training yearly which gives the employee an understanding of child abuse, policies, way to preventing abuse, identification of abuse and mandated reporting. (NAEYC 1). There are several different types of abuse such as physical abuse, physical neglect, sexual abuse and emotional maltreatment according to the article Supporting Victims of Child Abuse. Physical abuse indicators are unexplained bruises, unexplained burns and broken bones, behavioral indicators are self –destructive children, withdrawn, or aggressive, uncomfortable physical contact, arrives at school early or stays late, runaway children, moves uncomfortably or wears clothes inappropriate to cover the bodies bruises.(Bear,T. 1992) When children are abused, they need support from people around them to help them build those trusting relationships and be able to enjoy day to day activities. Children who have been abused at home or in general can have trouble focusing at an educational setting, these children have not had their needs met by their family and end up being neglected. Teachers can help children have their needs met at school and help support these children in a variety of ways, “The classroom teacher has the opportunity to provide an environment where the child can begin to succeed an recognize that he or she is capable and valued” (Bear, T. 1992). Early Childhood Education centers can help these children receive the support they need and be able to tell their story. Children in care have a chance at receiving a safe, nurturing environment that they may not receive at home due to the many forms of abuse they might be receiving. Early childhood education centers provide a safe spot when there is abuse happening at home and these centers have trained staff that can spot issues and support these children though

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developing a safe nurturing relationship. There are the pros and cons to everything in life and Early childhood education can have them also. There have been reports of child abuse and neglect in early childhood education centers but that does not happen in every center. When looking for a center there are key things to look for such as accreditation and licensing “ When children with lower quality home environments and high quality child care were compared to children with lower quality home and child care environments, fewer behavior problems (a risk factor for child abuse and neglect) were noted among the former group” (Fortson, B. 2016). Early childhood education programs can help parents get the parenting help they need to also prevent the abuse and neglect from happening. When parents have poor parenting skills or are having issues at home, they have more issues providing a safe nurturing place for the child at home and can result in the abuse or neglect of the child. According to the Preventing Child Abuse and Neglect: A Technical Package (2016), “providing parents and caregivers with support and teach behavior management and positive parenting skills to build strong and safe families that protect children from violence and its long-term consequences” when families and providers work together and provide family school nights, providing quality care and directly involve the child can prevent abuse and neglect from happening. When some children enter school they have a high change of having an unknown developmental delay, these delays could have been spotted in an early childhood education center with screening. According to the research by Bricker, D. for Why Screening Matters, children who could benefit from early intervention are not identified till after they attend school which happens 70%of the time. There are several laws and organizations that protect and serve children with disabilities such as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) “which requires states to identify, locate and evaluate all children with disabilities who are in need of

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early intervention or special education services” (Bricker, D. 2009). When children receive the early intervention they need, they have a higher chance of succeeding further in their life than they would without the proper intervention. Early childhood education providers base several of their learning activities/play based activities on developmental skills that the children should be able to do at their age. These activities can help early childhood teachers spot developmental delays and test them later on though screening. Screening such as the Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ) help parents and teachers screen children while at home and in the center by answering questions about the child. There are several risk factors that children can suffer from that can cause developmental delays such as poverty, drug abuse and neglect. Children as young as 2 months till 60 months can be tested for delays though the ASQ system which is used by some Early Childhood Education centers. According to the ASQ-3 Users Guide by Bricker D., “Many children are served by child care programs, and in many instances, child care programs may have enough contact with children to accurately complete the questionnaire.” Providers are able to assess these children and communicate with parents if there are any areas of concerns dealing with development. The providers can also provide the parents with activities for the families to do at home with the child also to help the developmental area that is a concern. Some of these activities are daily activities we can involve children in such as “more or less” while cooking a meal. Early childhood education centers are a great resource for children when it comes to spotting developmental delay due to the providers having the resources to test the children and being able to provide parents with resources such as activities to do with their children and places where they can go to get the early intervention help the child needs.

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Early childhood education providers are able to provide the support parents need when testing and seeking help for developmental delays with young children. When testing for developmental delays, children do not develop all at the same time which can make assessing children a negative idea in early childhood settings. According to the McCormick, K, “ Very young children learn and grow at remarkable and unpredictable rates that are unmatched during other age periods”, with this information, Early childhood educators need to use the appropriate assessment devices to get accurate results over a period of time and use these to help parents to receive any intervention needed. While development screening for delays might have some downfalls similar to the one mentioned above, it is still an important part of a child development to help them achieve their full potential. According to an article by Nelson, F. one and seven children will experience a developmental delay or behavioral problem and fewer than 50% of these children are identified before starting school. These examples lead to the conclusion that assessing children for developmental delays outweighs the negatives for the better of the child. Though research it is beneficial for children to attend an early childhood educational center because it is beneficial to the children’s development in several different areas, can help parent get their child the intervention they might need and help put a stop to child abuse and neglect that occurs in their home. There are several different areas of development that children learn and experience in early childhood education centers that help them learn and become sociallyemotional for kindergarten. Having children assessed for developmental delays can help the teacher help the parent access early intervention needed for the child to achieve their full potential. These children who have their delays identified early are able to receive services they might not have in elementary education due to these delays not being noticed. Children suffer from abuse and neglect at home and when children are able to come to school, they are able to be

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supported and provided a nurturing, trusting relationships with the teachers and form bonds with children their age. The teachers are able to spot the signs of abuse with proper training and can provide the proper support that these children need in the classroom. Children can learn from a variety of people outside of the educational setting though activities at home which can lead to spotting a delay. Training for abuse and neglect is available for everyone which means everyone can keep an eye out for children and protect them from abuse and neglect they might be receiving behind closed door, we all can make a difference.

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References Bear, T. (1992). Supporting Victims of Child Abuse. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/dec92/vol50/num04/SupportingVictims-of-Child-Abuse.aspx Bricker, D. (2019, June 6). Why Screening Matters. Retrieved from https://agesandstages.com/about-asq/why-screening-matters/ Fortson B, Klevens J, Merrick M, Gilbert L, Alexander S. (2016). Preventing Child Abuse and Neglect: A Technical Package for Policy, Norm, and Programmatic Activities. Atlanta, GA: National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Ho, J. (2018, March). Promoting Young Children’s Social and Emotional Health. https://www.naeyc.org/resources/pubs/yc/mar2018/promoting-social-and-emotional-health Kendall, R., & Karageorge, K. (2008). The Role of Professional Child Care Providers in Preventing and Responding to Child Abuse and Neglect. Retrieved from https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/usermanuals/childcare/. McCormick, K. (2007, December). Promoting Positive Outcomes for Children with Disabilities: Recommendations for Curriculum, Assessment, and Program Evaluation. Retrieved from https://www.naeyc.org/sites/default/files/globallyshared/downloads/PDFs/resources/position-statements/PSCHAB98.PDF Mincemoyer, C. C. (2016). Early Intervention (EI): Helping children to develop to their full potential. Retrieved from http://bkc-odmedia.vmhost.psu.edu/documents/TIPS1711.pdf

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(1)National Association for the Education of Young Children. Prevention of Child Abuse in Early Childhood Programs and the Responsibilities of Early Childhood Professionals to Prevent Child Abuse. (1996). Retrieved from https://www.naeyc.org/sites/default/files/globallyshared/downloads/PDFs/resources/position-statements/PSCHAB98.PDF (2)National Association for the Education of Young Children. What Do Children Learn in a High-Quality Preschool Program. Retrieved from https://www.naeyc.org/ourwork/families/what-do-children-learn-preschool-program Nelson, F. (2009, February). Achieving the Promise of a Bright Future: Developmental Screening of Infants and Toddlers. Retrieved from https://www.zerotothree.org/resources/71achieving-the-promise-of-a-bright-future-developmental-screening-of-infants-and-toddlers Ourkids.net. (n.d.). Pros and cons of preschool. Retrieved from https://www.ourkids.net/school/preschool-benefits

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