| The children born this year will be eleven in 2015, the age of primary school completion in most countries. These children are the generation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs); the children for whom the international community has pledged that they will all be able to complete primary schooling by 2015. Early Child Development is the first and essential step toward achieving primary school completion.
Early childhood is the most rapid period of development in a human life. Although individual children develop at their own pace, all children progress through an identifiable sequence of physical, cognitive, and emotional growth and change. The Early Child Development approach is based on the proven fact that young children respond best when caregivers use specific techniques designed to encourage and stimulate progress to the next level of development.
The ultimate goal of Early Child Development (ECD) programs is to improve young children’s capacity to develop and learn. A child who is ready for school has a combination of positive characteristics: he or she is socially and emotionally healthy, confident, and friendly; has good peer relationships; tackles challenging tasks and persists with them; has good language skills and communicates well; and listens to instructions and is attentive. The positive effects ECD programs have can change the development trajectory of children by the time they enter school. A child who is ready for school has less chances of repeating a grade, being placed in special education, or being a school drop-out.
ECD interventions include educating and supporting parents, delivering services to children, developing capacities of caregivers and teachers, and using mass communications to enhance parents and caregiver's knowledge and practices. Programs for children can be center or home-based, formal or non-formal, and can include parent education.
To learn more about the early development stages:
To learn more about why its important to invest in ECD go to Why Invest in ECD
To learn more about ECD program designs go to Program Designs
Related Links
- From Neurons to Neighborhoods: the Science of Early Childhood Development 2000 National Research Council and Institute of Medicine Committee on Integrating the Science of Early Childhood Development. Jack P. Shonkoff and Deborah A. Phillips, eds. Board on Children, Youth and Families, Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education. Washington, D.C. : National Academy Press.
- Polices to Foster Human Capital. 1999 Heckman, J., presented at the Aaron Wildavsky Forum, University of California, Berkeley, June 1999.
- Investing in Our Children 1998 RAND publication summarizes what we know and don't know about the costs and benefits of early childhood interventions.
- Carnegie Task Force on Meeting the Needs of Young Children. Starting Points. 1994 New York, NY: Carnegie Corporation, 1994.
- Reversing the Real Brain Drain: Early Years Study. Hon. Margaret Norrie McCain & J. Fraser Mustard. This study is also available in Portuguese.
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