Healthy development in the early years is essential for a child's educational attainment, economic productivity, responsible citizenship, lifelong health, strong communities, and successful parenting of the next generation. Social development is how children learn to develop relationships and cooperate with family, friends and teachers. Emotional development is how children learn to express, understand, and manage their own emotions, as well as how to respond to the emotions of others. A critical factor in child development is that children receive nutritious care.
Nourishing care ensures that a child's environment is focused on their needs, health, nutrition, safety, emotional support, and social interaction. In the first years of life, more than a million neural connections are formed per second, a rhythm that never repeats itself. The quality of a child's early experiences makes a fundamental difference as their brain develops, providing strong or weak foundations for lifelong learning, health, and behavior. Specialists from other disciplines may be called to evaluate a child's development and school or daycare visits may also be part of the process.
Studies have found that participation in quality early childhood education and care settings has been positively related to child outcomes such as improved language development, literacy and numeracy, school readiness, and social skills. At the Children's Studies Center, a developmental assessment includes a thorough examination of the child's medical and developmental history beginning with information about the mother's pregnancy. Everything a child learns during the first few years of his life will have a lasting effect on him. It is important to create a language-rich environment for a child using colors, shapes, and numbers as well as developing the child's emotional vocabulary that includes various human emotions and promotes the child's emotional intelligence and interpersonal skills in their preschool years.
The care they receive enables children to learn and realize their full potential with an ever-increasing influence from the world outside the family. This categorization can help professionals ensure that all areas of the child's development are observed and supported thus promoting their entire development. Child development is strongly influenced by genetic factors (genes transmitted from parents) and events during prenatal life. When an early developmental delay is not detected children should wait to receive the help they need to perform well in social and educational settings.
Clearly when children have access to quality early childhood environments and experiences they can lay the foundation for positive trajectories later in life.
