Early is defined in the Encarta Dictionary as before the expected or arranged time. In my case early childhood education would be time of learning before adulthood. The things that a child learns in his or her early years are things that will continue to help them along in their future in school and in the real world. The following are research results for early childhood development:
* When a child is introduced to early childhood education, they can enhance many benefits from it. The benefits that a child will encounter when set into an early education program are: they are less likely to be antisocial and repeat a grade, achieve higher levels of achievement, are more likely to graduate from high school, be more prepared to enter school, and have higher IQ’s (CPPP 1999).
* By the age two, the brain has grown about 75 % of its adult’s weight, and by the age five it has reached to 90% (Steinberg 1995).
* In examining the High/Scope Foundation’s Perry Preschool Project research, the benefits gained in these preschool education programs continue forward at least four decades later. These remarkable benefits can be seen in the form of more stable and productive lives than those of their peers, who did not have the same high-quality preschool experiences.
* The renowned Abecedarian Project in Chapel Hill, NC that enrolled poor students in a high quality preschool program that has gone year-round since 1972 found that IQ scores were significantly and positively impacted by this early intervention. This same group of tested students had IQ’s that were equal to the national average as compared to much lower IQ’s for the control group, who did not attend a preschool program. These students maintained their higher than average reading achievement up to age 15…the last time they were tested for this research.
* The Chicago public school system that started high quality preschool programs has seen similar results at 15 different sites. Those students exposed to high quality preschool programs had much higher graduation rates, higher standardized test scores, and better attendance rates.
* Ron Ferguson, of the Minority Student Achievement Network, claims through his research that infants as early as 9 months of age are capable of cognitive development. Ferguson also says that the family environment and exposure to language are the biggest factors in cognitive development, which translates into achievement success in later years.
* And another famous study conducted by Betty Hart and Todd Risley at the University of Kansas found that by the time a child, who, growing up in a poor family by age four, has heard 32 million fewer spoken words than those children of professionals. They also concluded that by as early as age four, it is virtually impossible for these children of poverty to catch up with those children exposed so generously to language because of their social upbringing. Remember this fact…it is not being poor that is the problem with language development and later achievement, but rather the corresponding relationship between a parent’s educational level and their children’s expose to quality language at critical developmental stages of brain growth. There is a direct correlation between the educational level of the parent and the language development of their children. Although there are obvious exceptions to this research, on average, it is accurate to make this assumption. (Dr. Robert Brower 2007)

This research really helps you see the importance of early childhood education; it’s definitely something that children need. God’s house tells us that God is very meticulous and is a God of order and completeness.

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 9th, 2007 at 5:19 am and is filed under Class Comments, Week 07: Research Stats. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.