reflections

In 2001, the US Department of Education, Academy of the Sciences, and the Foundation for Child Development conducted a study on early childhood development. Several interesting, scientific ideas and trends on childhood development emerged from the study. The questions surrounding this research were: how important is the early life of a child? What early years are most important? Why are later years not more important? In order to better plan education policy, discussing these questions is necessary.

If we had a tool that would improve our children's performance in school and social settings, lower the crime rate, lower teenage pregnancy, and save taxpayers' money, who wouldn't want to use it? Preschool is that tool, but few people pay attention to or care about preschool's potential benefits. For many parents, preschool is a valuable asset, providing their children with social play, fun, and an experience within a school-like setting. Children in preschool learn social skills like respect for authority, listening, and sharing; they also benefit from interaction with peers, which results in improved language and relational skills. Unfortunately, many parents simply cannot afford the expensive cost of private preschools, and there are few other options. Children are valuable as the future of the country, but the government has largely ignored them. Whether at the federal or state level, the government needs to create a free preschool available to all families.

Morrison, George S. Fundamentals of Early Childhood Education. 7th ed. Texas: University of North Texas, 2008. Print.

Children’s development, including their brain development, and the differences, both physically and emotionally that, children go through when transitioning into kindergarten. Reviews of different forms have evidence concluding that these programs have short, medium, and long-term benefits that suggest the effects are often greater for more disadvantaged children. “Some of the evidence from model research has produced exciting results in terms of improving educational attainment and earnings and reducing welfare dependency and crime.” (Currie, 2001). “To the point where cost-benefit analysis of these programs suggests they would eventually pay for themselves in terms of cost-savings to the government if it produced even a quarter of the long-term gains of model programs.” (Currie, 2001). This is one of the reasons the government has been pouring an abundance of money into these programs, in fact, Obama just recently announced a one billion dollar investment in early childhood education. “Obama said that less than one-third of 4-year-olds enrolled in preschool and blamed the high cost of these programs for essentially shutting off access to poorer infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. “ (Obama announces $1 billion investment, 2015, p. 1). “He said studies repeatedly show that children who are educated early in life are more likely to

After reading in depth about how important education is this semester, it seems that the more children who participate in high quality early education programs and are exposed to academics early in life, are more encouraged to be involved and to participate in activities that will help them grow into nurturing adults with successful careers in the future. Who would be behind this success? Teachers. When working with children at any age it is best for the student if the teacher really loves what they do...

...e and important introduction to the notion of schooling. Children are intellectually stimulated though play and play-like activates, rather than formal instruction. When a child listens to poetry and songs, they are learning to grasp phonics. The play that takes place with water, sand, and containers form the groundwork for understanding basic math concepts. Matching, sequencing, and one on one communication are all actives that are done over and over in preschool settings, and help children prepare to learn academics. Watching other children pursue a challenging tasks is also helpful. Children not see use parents as role models but also other children. They are often more inclined to do something another child is doing, then what an adult shows them. The presence of other children and a wide variety of material are big advantages of leaning academics in preschool.

The modern early childhood curriculum refers to the experiences gathered throughout a child’s infancy and beyond. It incorporates everyday interactions with family members within a wide spectrum of environments. Such interactions can be spontaneous or structured however, it is important that they are established within a supportive, safe and nurturing setting in order for the child to flourish in terms of their mental and physical ability ( O’Hagen,and Smith (1998). We refer to such a curriculum as Child centered as equal emphasis must be made on the child’s learning through out infancy as it is within a formal education setting.

McDevitt, T. M., & Ormrod, J. E. (2010). Child development and education. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill.

Who we are is directly related to our environment that we are nurtured around. Our development is essential to who we are as adults and will be the very fabric connected to how, what and why we act and think the way we do. I’ve decided to talk about early childhood development, which plays the most crucial part in the foundation of who we will be. At this stage we are sponges soaking up this new world we are now apart of. I will discuss physical development, cognitive development and psychosocial development pertains to early childhood development.

The Campbell Child and Family Center (CCFC)is a high-quality early childhood education program in Durango, Colorado. The CCFC uses the Creative Curriculum for Early Childhood, which incorporates Jean Piaget’s work on cognitive development to establish developmentally appropriate learning programs for preschool children. I observed N for approximately 20 hours at the CCFC where he has been a student since November 2012. N is almost four years old and lives with his mom, dad, and older brother. N attends the Lightning Bugs structured preschool program with 14 other students. The adult-child ratio of the Lightning Bugs room is 1:8.