Early Childhood School Essay Example for Free

early on Childhood School EssayEducation To Be More was published last August. It was the report of the rising Zealand Governments Early Childhood divvy up and Education Working Group. The report argued for enhanced equity of access and erupt funding for kidcare and early childishness education institutions. Unquestionably, thats a real need but since parents dont usu altogethery send children to pre-schools until the age of terce, are we missing out on the some important years of all?B A 13-year study of early childhood development at Harvard University has shown that, by the age of three, most children deliver the potential to understand about 1000 words most of the language they willing go for in ordinary conversation for the rest of their lives. Furthermore, research has shown that while every child is born with a natural curiosity, it can be suppressed dramatically during the second and third years of life.Researchers claim that the merciful personality is for med during the showtime two years of life, and during the first three years children learn the primary skills they will use in all their later tuition both at home and at school. Once over the age of three, children continue to expand on existing knowledge of the world. C It is mostly acknowledged that young people from deplorableer socio-economic backgrounds tend to do less well in our education system. Thats notice not just in New Zealand, but also in Australia, Britain and America.In an attempt to worst that educational under-achievement, a nationwide programme called Headstart was launched in the United States in 1965. A lot of funds was poured into it. It took children into pre-school institutions at the age of three and was supposed to help the children of poorer families succeed in school. Despite substantial funding, results have been disappointing. It is thought that there are two explanations for this. First, the programme began too late. Many children who entered it at the age of three were already behind their peers in language and measurable intelligence.Second, the parents were not involved. At the end of each day, Headstart children returned to the similar disadvantaged home environment. D As a result of the growing research evidence of the importance of the first three years of a childs life and the disappointing results from Headstart, a pilot programme was launched in Missouri in the US that focused on parents as the childs first teachers. The Missouri programme was predicated on research showing that on the job(p) with the family, rather than bypassing the parents, is the most effective way of helping children get out to the best possible start in life.The four-year pilot study included 380 families who were about to have their first child and who represented a cross-section of socio-economic status, age and family configurations. They included single-parent and two-parent families, families in which both parents worked, and fami lies with either the get or father at home. The programme involved trained parenteducators visiting the parents home and functional with the parent, or parents, and the child.Information on child development, and guidance on things to look for and expect as the child grows were provided, plus guidance in fostering the childs intellectual, language, social and motor-skill development. Periodic check-ups of the childs educational and sensory development (hearing and vision) were make to detect possible handicaps that interfere with growth and development. Medical problems were referred to professionals. Parent-educators made personal visits to homes and monthly group meetings were held with new(prenominal) new parents to share experience and discuss topics of interest.Parent resource centimeres, Located in school buildings, offered learning materials for families and facilitators for child care. E At the age of three, the children who had been involved in the Missouri programme we re evaluated alongside a cross-section of children selected from the same range of socio-economic backgrounds and Family situations, and also a random sample of children that age. The results were phenomenal. By the age of three, the children in the programme were significantly more advanced in language development than their peers, had made greater strides in problem solving and other intellectual skills, and were Further along insocial development.In fact, the fairish child on the programme was performing at the level of the top 15 to 20 per cent of their peers in such things as auditory comprehension, verbal ability and language ability. Most important of all, the tralatitious measures of risk, such as parents age and education, or whether they were a single parent, bore little or no relationship to the measures of achievement and language development. Children in the programme performed equally well regardless of scio-economic disadvantages.Child handle was virtually eliminat ed. The one factor that was found to affect the childs development was family stress leading to a poor quality of parent-child interaction. That interaction was not necessarily bad in poorer families. F These research findings are exciting. at that place is growing evidence in New Zealand that children from poorer socio-economic backgrounds are arriving at school less well highly-developed and that our school system tends to perpetuate that disadvantage. The initiative outlined above could break that cycle of disadvantage.The concept of working with parents in their homes, or at their place of work, contrasts quite markedly with the report of the Early Childhood Care and Education Working Group. Their focus is on getting children and mothers access to childcare and institutionalised early childhood education. Education from the age of three to five is undoubtedly vital, but without a similar Focus on parent education and on the vital importance of the first three years, some eviden ce indicates that it will not be enough to overcome educational inequity.