A good start in life is provided by high-quality early childhood education and care. It offers numerous opportunities to learn and grow. Early childhood education and care can assist your child in making new friends, gaining independence, and learning new routines. It also helps them adjust to school.
Both a child's genes and environment have an impact on their brain development. More than a million new neural connections are made every second during the first few years of life, so infants are born prepared to learn. The early years are crucial because a child's environment and interactions with those around them have a significant impact on how their brain develops.
Prior to the development of early language abilities and higher cognitive functions, vision and hearing pathways are established. Between the ages of two and four, a child's vocabulary frequently quadruples. As children grow, these connections become more complex, and they influence brain development to create positive learning behaviors from an early age.
Following to research, children who attend quality preschool programs are more likely to arrive at school with the social, cognitive, and emotional skills required to continue learning. These advantages extend far beyond primary school. Moderate participation in quality early childhood education has been linked to higher levels of educational success, employment, and social skills.
Most children between the ages of three and five want to play with other children their age and can think about the feelings of others on an early level. Children at this age learn how to play with others and may have a "best friend." Children are encouraged to share and play with their peers in early childhood education and care. They learn important interpersonal skills such as empathy and cooperation through these interactions, which will help them get along with others in preschool and beyond.
Children learn to include ideas from others in their play and begin to understand each other's feelings by spending time with their peers. Being egocentric by nature, young children find it difficult to learn skills like empathy, but the good news is that they can pick up a lot from observing and interacting with their peers. Your child can make friends for the rest of their lives with the aid of these social skills they learn in their early years.
Participating in early childhood education and care often represents a child's first prolonged absence from their family. Away from home, being in a new environment can help kids develop their confidence and find their identity. Between the ages of three and five, children develop important self-regulation skills as part of their growing independence. These abilities might include paying attention, cooperating, and switching off. Toddlers may demonstrate self-control, for instance, by waiting to play with a toy or by paying attention to someone speaking to them. Children's confidence and independence, as well as their ability to grow and comprehend who they are as individuals and form friendships, depend on their ability to control their behavior. Important role models for healthy self-regulation are parents, caregivers, and early childhood educators.
Children can learn to adjust to a new routine outside the home by enrolling in early education and care. Routines can aid in a child's emotional and cognitive growth, and knowing what to anticipate makes them feel safe and at ease. Routines can help kids control their expectations of their surroundings and lower problematic behaviors like tantrums. Early childhood teachers and educators will take into account a mix of active/passive, indoor/outdoor, and child-directed/adult-directed activities when creating daily routines. Additionally, schedules are created based on the ages of the children to allow for nap time, take into account any special needs or medical conditions, and account for their attention spans and other requirements associated with their age.
Their transition to primary school is supported by early childhood education. Children are prepared both formally and informally through the participation in a variety of Transition to School activities. Positive school transitions increase a child's likelihood of feeling at ease, unhurried, and motivated to learn. They are better able to establish wholesome relationships with classmates and teachers as a result, and they feel more a part of the school community.