Research Shows A Foundation In Early Childhood Education Leads To Future School Success

By Author: Amanda Bernard
Total Articles: 17
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Many children are enrolled in child care settings or facilities from the time they are infants to the time they enter elementary school. Of course, choosing a day care program in which your child will be loved and cared for is of utmost importance. But it is also important to select a child care provider who will partner with your family to ensure your child's healthy development throughout his or her early years. Investing in the right early education program can help your child’s cognitive, social, intellectual and emotional development.

Proof Positive
There have been many studies that point to a correlation between early education and future success in school. Here are the recently reported results of these studies:

Early Head Start Program – An evaluation of some 3,000 infants and toddlers has found Early Head Start children did modestly but significantly better on measures of cognitive language, and social-emotional development, and their parents scored significantly better than control-group parents on measures of parenting ...
... behavior and knowledge of infant-toddler development.
Even Start Family Literacy Program – Evaluations of the Even Start program showed participants improved their basic school readiness skills including recognition of colors, shapes, and sizes.
Caroline Abecedarian Project - This full-time child care program focused on game-like educational activities to foster young children’s cognitive, motor and social development. This is the first such study to find program benefits throughout participants' schooling on their intellectual performance and academic achievement. Other findings include more participants being in school at age 21 (40% vs. 20%), more attending a 4-year college (35% vs. 14%), and a higher average age at birth of first child (19.1 vs. 17.7).
FACES – In this study of 3,200 children and families who entered 40 Head Start programs, results showed that Head Start children improved their vocabulary, writing skills and social skills more than expected on these measures for children their age and continued to have better literacy and mathematics skills during their kindergarten year. Parents were found to be very satisfied with Head Start, more so than for other federal programs. Head Start classrooms received high-quality ratings by trained outside observers, and most Head Start teachers were found to have the requisite teaching qualifications.
Chicago-Parent Centers – This study examined 1,539 20-year-olds, two-thirds of whom attended this comprehensive, part-day preschool program at ages 3 and 4. Program participants achieved a higher rate of high school completion (50% vs. 39%) and lower rate of juvenile arrests (17% vs. 25%).

Invest in Your Child's Early Education
Based upon this encouraging research, early childhood education and child care activities play a leading role in the future of your child. Ensuring that your child’s day care experience includes games and activities that stimulate the senses and enhance cognitive, social, intellectual and emotional development can have lasting benefits.

Resource: Recent Evidence on Preschool Programs, http://www.ericdigests.org/2002-2/preschool.htm