Unit 3 Assignment: Early Childhood Education

Unit 3 Assignment: Early Childhood Education

Introduction

Early childhood is the time when major development of intelligence, personality and social behavior takes place. According to an estimation, half of all the intellectual development that takes place in an individual's life is established by the age of four (Young & Mundial, 1996). Hence, this period of a person's life needs to paid particular attention to, which can be done by providing quality early education programs. The paper thus focuses on early childhood education and describing the characteristics of high quality early childhood programs, discusses the benefits of early childhood education. The discussion then moves on to focus on the policy initiative No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and analyze it using critical skills.

Discussion

Early childhood education plays a significant role in development of various potentials in a child. There have been a large number of studies documenting the positive effects that intervention at this age brings to the later life of the child (Young & Mundial, 1996). Positive intervention at this age is a chance that need not be wasted since this is the optimal time that can be utilized for influencing the capacity of a child to respond effectively to school and to be successful in various walks of life in the later years. This positive intervention can be provided best in early childhood programs and to maximize the effects of these programs it is essential that the quality of those programs is high.

High quality early childhood education programs have various characteristics that contribute significantly in developing positive aspects in a child at an early stage of their lives. A high quality preschool education must include a warm, responsive, interactive, safe and supportive environment for the children where meaningful learning takes place for the child. Meanwhile, it should also have positive adult/child interaction while appropriate care need also be provided to the child. The program should provide support to parents and consider them to be a part of the child's development (Amory & Carlson, 2008). High-quality early childhood programs are also those that provide developmentally appropriate curricula and allow children to develop cognitive skills through a developmental continuum which means the curriculum is built on the current skills and knowledge of the child in a manner that it helps them acquire new skills and knowledge (Davis, 2010). In short, a good quality early education program should comprise of activities and strategies that encourage social, emotional, physical and cognitive progress.

Such a program that comprises of these characteristics brings various benefits. It leads to many short-term intellectual and educational benefits while there are also many long term benefits that reverberate throughout the lives of the children as well as in the larger society. One of the most documented benefits is the enhancement of the cognitive development of children without causing behavioral and other problems (Karoly et.al. 2005). Other benefits include reduction in later problems such as that of crime rates (Carneiro & Heckman, 2003) and it also benefits in ...