Importance of Early Childhood Education

Children when very young right up till when they turn 6, are still at a stage where their brains are developing, taking in all that they see and hear, storing it as memories as they age. They say the best time to teach a kid how to either sing, dance, become well versed with text or play an instrument - is when they're little.

They have the ability to soak up whatever you offer them because their brains are like sponges, eager to percolate itself with information and knowledge. I remember watching a documentary where mothers were encouraged to speak to their babies while they were in their wombs, because babies understand what you are saying.

It may seem quite nonsensical to think that babies comprehend words without being fully developed, but towards the end of those nine long months, babies do understand voice modulation, tones and outside sounds and noises.

It is important to be in an environment that is serene and pleasant, because babies can be influenced by outside forces. Great ways to help stimulate your baby's intellect well before they are out of a mother's womb.

or when they're young (below age 8), is to constantly read to them, make them listen to classical music or those that have cognitive depth and of course speak to them like they can understand you.

Encouraging a child to take up something at a young age would make them advance further than other kids who are left to develop on their own without education or learning brought forward at an earlier stage.

A lot of preschool and daycare centers are using educational approaches when it comes to young kids, because it helps to broaden their spectrum of thinking, with a sought plan that is working its way into their older selves to be a little above those who aren't subjected to early education.

So now that we have come to understand what is the importance of early childhood education, we take a look at how different areas of the brain are worked on when a child is exposed to early learning. There are five important factors that make up a child's development, namely SPICE.

Social
This part of one's development focuses on forming connections with others, being able to bond and interact with them well into one's old age.

Physical
The main area taken into consideration here, are one's gross motor skills and fine motor skills.

Intellectual
Trying to understand the workings of the world by large, by forming one's own individual perspective.

Creative
Developing areas that require one's talent like writing, singing, playing an instrument, dance and so on, which is where one brings out that part of themselves to be good at something.

Emotional
Feeling a range of emotions and understanding how each one is associated with a certain event or reaction. Developing this self-awareness is what this part of the development is all about.

There are major stages that one has to see through right from when they are born to when they come of age, where they can then think for themselves and move out into the world, taking in and changing information as it is received. Initially when a child is born, they depend on hand signals and the tone of one's voice to be able to communicate with an adult.

The stage further develops into the use of the child's imagination, where memory and symbols then come into being, while one is then put through a process of learning a language. Thinking then comes to the fore and is thought of as egocentric, non-logical and non-reversible at this stage.

Intelligence then further increases as one ages, where mathematical interpretations and the use of objects and complex symbols are then used. Here thinking then advances to being reversible, operational and less egocentric.

Abstract ways of thinking where symbols that coincide with abstract ideas, is when the individual has to interpret and change his ways of thinking to a higher level, which is a stage not many people complete.

Once the stages are fulfilled individually, along the way one's social and emotional development areas are further taken up a notch where relationships are formed and emotions are come to terms with, and can be now controlled and understood in how to react and show emotions towards the source.

The importance of early childhood education is now something people are familiarizing themselves with, being a complete ball of logic that has seen results when tried and tested. It is a fast catching on concept that people are coming to understand, which will benefit not only parents but the children themselves as they age.