Early childhood is an incredibly important developmental stage that impacts the rest of the child’s life. What a child learns at this age will most likely dictate the kind of person they grow into. Young children are very impressionable, and any object, event, person or place they are exposed to will affect their growth and understanding somehow. Thus, it is imperative to ensure that your child is in a perfect nurturing environment to help them grow and develop in a holistic, supportive and positive manner.
Often, due to a parent’s busy schedule, whether with work or younger siblings to look after, a growing child can be neglected, which could impact their development. This is why an early childhood education centre offers the perfect solution to providing your child with all the essentials – attention, interaction, fun, information, care and safety in a reliable and supportive environment.
Listed below are some ways that these centres are known to offer the atmosphere required so that your child can learn healthily and other children of the same age, giving them a headstart in their development, based on their needs.
Disclaimer: Early childhood refers to ages from birth until eight years old.
Physical
Physical interaction with nature, people, sounds, animals etc., play such an important role in how children begin to perceive and process the world around them. These centres provide children with a safe environment to explore and let their curiosity run free. This also encourages the development of motor and fine motor skills.
Social
At this age, social interaction is incredibly important too. It does slightly overlap with physical development, but social development comes into play when children interact with each other, their parents, and their caretakers/ teachers. A back-and-forth conversation can help them build their social skills and understand social situations and improve interaction and communication.
Emotional
There isn’t a very fine line between social, emotional and behavioural development, but they can be nurtured through different means. Emotional development has to do with learning to express their emotions healthily, creating awareness and learning empathy, usually through books and stories.
Cognitive
This aspect involves boosting creativity, intellect and healthy learning methods and focuses mostly on offering information for children to process, such as colours, numbers, words, and other essential intellectual milestones, but actively, as that is considered the best form of education.
Behavioural
Finally, behavioural development involves understanding right from wrong, building their morals and values, and just putting children on the path to becoming responsible and productive citizens in a community.
ECE also has numerous societal benefits. It is important to engage all the five senses – sight, smell, taste, touch and sound- for children to develop holistically. An early childhood education centre provides all of this and more. Research has shown that the more children enrolled in Pre-K, the fewer adults in prison later in life. Education has been strongly linked to keeping adolescents and young adults out of prison. Apart from this, the most obvious benefit would be pioneering change and saving the planet from its many ailments.
Therefore, consider enrolling your child in an early childhood education centre, as it could not only benefit your child’s development but also help them grow into a responsible and integral part of future societies.
