These studies show that quality early childhood education and development programs can play a key role in reducing risky health behaviors and preventing or delaying the onset of chronic diseases in adulthood. Early childhood development and education are key determinants of future health and well-being. The growing ability of children to self-regulate their emotions is also evident in this period (more fully discussed later in this chapter). Children increasingly understand their own feelings and learn better ways to describe their experiences and express their thoughts and feelings.
They understand better the consequences of their actions and their focus on concern for others increases. They are very observant, willing to play cooperatively and work as a team, and can resolve some conflicts without seeking adult intervention (CDC, 201). Children also come to understand that they can affect the perception of others' emotions by changing their affective manifestations (Aloise-Young, 199).Children who are unable to regulate themselves have emotional difficulties that may interfere with their learning.
As with younger children, important adults in a child's life can help the child learn to self-regulate
(Tomlinson, 201).A child's early years are critical to their physical, emotional, behavioral, and cognitive development. From birth to age 8, children go through rapid stages of development and growth. They learn to talk, crawl, walk, play, learn and behave. Because this development is so essential to a child's health and well-being, professionals devote their careers to researching, monitoring, and helping children and their families. Education is the Key to Afterlife Outcomes.
Success in education at age 16 clearly predicts occupational, economic, health and welfare outcomes and future social mobility. Parents and other adults, such as grandparents and child care providers, play an important role in children's development. As a parent, you are the most important teacher in your child's life. You also know your child better.
Learning more about how children grow and develop is one way to build on what you already know and get new ideas on how to support your child's learning and well-being. Children's brains are built, moment by moment, as they interact with their environment. 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. A closer analysis of growth parameters indicated that those who were obese in their mid-30s were on that trajectory by age 5, indicating the need to emphasize healthy nutrition and regular physical activity starting in early childhood. Alvarado says that one of the biggest challenges educators face is finding the right balance between working one-on-one with children and managing the larger group as a whole.
Children socialized to learn through observation can calmly observe others without asking for help, while those socialized who expect direct interaction may have difficulty maintaining concentration without frequent adult participation. The quality of the classroom language environment is a lever for lasting improvements in children's language and literacy development, and it is important to adapt speech in the classroom to match the developmental stage of children's language acquisition. Celebrate young children and their families with hands-on activities that encourage movement and healthy lifestyles through music, food, and art. Taken together, research documenting the association between attachment security and the development of cognitive and linguistic competence, as well as the stronger academic performance of children with secure attachment, highlights the multiple ways in which supportive relationships contribute to learning. Social experiences provide emotional security and support that enable learning and can also contribute to language development, numeracy skills, problem solving, and other cognitive and learning skills that are critical to school readiness and academic achievement. Early identification and treatment of mathematical anxiety can prevent children with high potential from avoiding mathematics and mathematics courses (Ramirez et al.).
An important example of an implicit theory that is already being developed since childhood is the “theory of mind”, which refers to the conceptual framework that people use to reason about the mental lives of others and of themselves. Failure to recognize to what extent they are interpreting information in terms of their secular theories can lead to educational strategies that oversimplify material for children. Building on the discussion in Chapter 3 of the Biology of Chronic Stress and Adversity, the following sections more broadly describe some of the contributing circumstances and consequences for young children, including stressors associated with economic adversity; social cushioning of stress; and the relationship between stress, learning and mental health.
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