2.0 More About Early Child Development/ Readiness to Learn

The first six years of life lay the foundation for many of the knowledge bases and skills required for successful school adjustment and later adult competence. The readiness. or developmental status of a child when he or she makes the transition from home to school is the result of a complex web of interactions between the child's genetic endowment and the environment around the child.

Readiness to learn within a child can be defined in terms of five domains: physical well-being and motor development; emotional health and a positive approach to new experiences; social knowledge and competence; language skills; and general knowledge and cognitive skills. These components go well beyond the traditional idea that only cognitive and language skills are needed to have a successful start in school.

Physical well-being and motor development is more than considering the presence or absence of major disease or a chronic condition. It encompasses having adequate energy levels and the ability to resist infection. Children who miss a great deal of school due to illness in the early years may not learn the basics as they should. Motor development can be seen as the mastery of gross motor skills such as running or climbing, which facilitate a child's integration into games and recess activities, and fine motor skills such as being able to hold a pencil and turn the pages of a book.

*A child's emotional maturity includes the ability to defer immediate gratification (for example, not to chat with her neighbour), to persist in repetitive exercises that may be boring, and not to cry at every failure. Self-confidence, a healthy curiosity, an eagerness to try new experiences, and some ability to reflect before acting, are also important assets for a child starting school .

*Social knowledge or social development includes all the skills we learn to be able to effectively interact with others. Knowledge of acceptable behaviour, respect for others, the ability to control one's actions, to cooperate with others and to communicate in acceptable ways help the young child to integrate into the classroom and become part of the group.

*Two aspects of language skills are important at school entry - understanding what others say and communicating verbally in a way that is understood by others.

*Finally, general knowledge is important, as are cognitive skills such as the ability to organize, analyze, remember and recite specific information.

As a child grows up, his or her development progresses through sequential stages for each of the domains, starting back at day one when the child is conceived. Each stage builds on the previous one in terms of the abilities learned. The domains are not mutually exclusive, development in one domain affects development in the others.

Along with these building blocks of development, in the early years there are specific times, or windows of opportunity, when a child is developmentally ready to develop more advanced skills given the appropriate environmental stimulation from parents and siblings, child care providers, other adults, or peers. These windows of opportunity, or critical periods, are the foundation for later development and appear to have two stages. These windows of opportunity, or critical periods, are the foundation for later development and appear to have two stages. The first stage involves an age range when a child is optimally ready to benefit from specific experience which is followed by a time period during which the child's readiness to benefit from specific experience wanes. If these most teachable moments are missed, a child may have difficulty learning a particular skill later and development of other skills may be impeded. These windows of opportunity occur for important areas of neural and skill development but not for processes that depend on the unique experiences of an individual, such as memory of specific events. Understanding these time periods can give support for the use of early enrichment interventions.

One example of a window of opportunity is the beginning of emotional control. Development of this skill begins between birth and age 2; the child is assisted in this by a comforting adult who consistently helps her learn to calm herself down when distressed. Having some control of one's emotions during failure or frustration can smooth the adjustment to school experiences. Development of social competence with peers provides another example of a window. This begins at about age 3, when a child shows a spontaneous interest in playing with other children; the window extends to about age 6 or 7. Children who have not developed the social skills needed for positive interaction with peers by early elementary school have been observed to consistently behave in ways that lead to rejection by peers. A last example is the ability to represent something by a symbol. This is an important prerequisite for later reading, writing and numerical skills. Around 18 months of age, a child begins to switch from dealing only with concrete objects and actions to using substitute objects in pretend play. A box may become a car and the child makes the noise for it. The window for this development of symbolic thought begins at about 18 months of age and wanes at about age 5. A child's environment plays a key role in his development. A child needs protection from harm and neglect, supportive relationships, opportunities and hope, and a strong community in which to grow up. [Our Promise to Children] The physical and social context around the child provide the framework within which the child grows. Physical environments include the child's home, neighbourhood, child care, school or other community facility. The adults and other children around her make up the child's social environment. The contextual aspects of the social environment include family structure (one or two parents, one or several siblings, presence of extended family), age of parents, family income and the family's culture. The context outside the home is also important: for example, the ratio of child care providers to children or availability of specific health services. Safe living and play spaces, access to stimulating play materials and books, and time available from adults and older siblings are examples of characteristics of the child's context.

Perhaps the most important aspect of the child's environment is the quality and type of his interaction with others - especially with the significant adults and children in his life. An early secure, trusting attachment between the child and her parents and, later, other caregivers, enhances the development of emotional maturity, self-confidence and the willingness to try new experiences. Early close relationships with adults who provide guidance, and positive experiences with peers, help children to develop the social skills they need to function in the classroom and on the playground. Exposure to language used by adults and other children, and being encouraged to use language, are key to the development of the child's vocabulary and ability to understand others. A child's general knowledge and cognitive skills grow when he has positive experiences as he interacts with his physical and social environment. Lastly, encouragement from adults and older children and the opportunity to experiment and play allow the child to develop fine and large motor skills such as drawing, cutting, climbing and running.

Research on resilience has shown that the presence of one caring adult can help a child overcome many risk factors in his life and facilitate appropriate development. The expectations and resultant encouragement and feed back from the significant others in a child's life, especially if occurring at a window of opportunity in the child's development, provide the impetus for the child to progress. It's much more fun to try those first two steps or that first word if Mommy or Daddy or your caregiver is there to clap and "oo" and "ah"!

Much has happened in a child's life before he starts school. All aspects of the child's development have progressed as a result of the child's interaction with the environment around him. In cases where that development is not progressing as it should, and particularly where effects are cumulative, there are windows of opportunity for intervention in the very early years if the situation is accurately assessed and appropriate programs are available to help. Although it may be difficult to make large changes in the contextual aspects of a child's environment, improving the child's interactions with others can have significant impacts on their development. Even if the windows are missed, children are amazingly resilient and can be helped later. Interventions to overcome lack of development of skills or abilities can be successful when a child is past the prime "teachable moments", but at a cost. The deficiency must be identified, the longer that takes the greater the cost to the individual in terms of loss of self-esteem and self- confidence, and the greater the dollar cost for well-resourced programs. The school is often the site for such remedial programs.

The research on early childhood education has shown conclusively that well-planned, well-implemented programs can enable all young children to learn well. Such programs must be based on well-developed principles of child development and use well-established program models and pedagogy.

Go back to Introduction for more.

See also:

* Children are Born Learning (Article)

* What Does Research Say about Early Childhood Education? (Review)

* Early Years are Learning Years (Internet Links)

* School Readiness and Children's Developmental Status (ERIC Digest)

* Young Children's Social Development: A Checklist (ERIC Digest)

*  Enriching preschool Experiences (Research Summary, National Forum on Health)

* Towards Common Goals and Vocabulary (Report, National Education Goals Panel, US)

* Social Indicators Launchpad (Internet Links, Canadian Council on Social Development)

* The Progress of Canada's Children: Highlights (Summary, Canadian Council on Social Development)

* Fostering Resilience in Children (ERIC Digest)