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Early Childhood Education – A Stepping Stone to Success

Monday 29 November 2021, 5:25AM

By Premium SEO NZ

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There is a crucial timeframe in which what children learn (or do not learn) can have vast repercussions into and for their futures. Between birth and the age of 6, children take in large amounts of information. This is the period where children learn how to walk, talk, and socialise. It is also where they begin to make meaning of the world around them and move from ‘helpless’ towards ‘autonomous’.

It is, therefore, critical that high quality education takes place across this age range. While it is possible for children to learn much simply within their immediate home environments, there is greater benefit if they attend a preschool with educators who are qualified in things like early childhood development. The ‘sweet spot’ is, then, when parental involvement in the growth, development, and general education of a child is combined with a more formalised schooling environment.

The results of this kind of team approach to young children’s education can be significant. In fact, various studies have found that children who have a supportive home environment where things like reading, creative expression, fine and gross motor skills, and personal interests are encouraged tend to succeed far more throughout their schooling careers as well as later in life than their unsupported peers. Similarly, children who are taught by qualified teachers as opposed to someone unqualified, or who have not received any formal education before entering primary school, tend to exhibit far better social, emotional, and cognitive skills and abilities.

Although New Zealand does not have a mandatory early childhood education policy, there are many avenues open for parents to help their children gain access to such education. Parents looking to provide their children with a head start in life would, therefore, do well to supplement their own attempts at educating their young children with education provided by qualified early childhood practitioners.