Why invest in the Early Years?

It is between the ages of 0-6 that a child goes through the most intensive cognitive, linguistic, social, emotional and motor development of their life. A child moves from a helpless baby to an independent being, whilst undergoing rapid brain development.  In the process, language is absorbed (in many cases two or three), mobility is perfected (from rolling to sitting to standing to walking to running) and a child starts to learn their place in the world.  All of this is done unconsciously - a child is driven to achieve all that they do by an innate drive for independence.  They literally absorb their environment.  

 The Early Years provide children with the opportunity for the greatest capacity for learning in their lifetime.  The experiences of these years shape the child’s brain as well as their capacity to learn.  The early years provide the ideal time, in which to invest.  This investment will maximize the future well-being of children, as it sets the foundation for life-long learning, behaviour and health. 

 The Early Years’ experiences likewise provide the opportunities for children to learn to get on with others, whilst learning how to respond to daily stresses and challenges.

 Now, more than ever, children deserve and need this investment to be made.  Parents need support, encouragement and flexibility to enable them to provide the best possible home environment for their children.  Early Years’ providers need to all work together in order to optimize this vital stage of each and every child’s life.  

 Understanding that investment in The Early Years benefits everybody in society goes a huge way to sorting out many problems that will otherwise potentially surface later on.  

 “If help and salvation are to come, they can only come from the children, for the children are the makers of men.”

 Maria Montessori

Photo credit @yanphotobook