Early childhood education key to success

Kids’ brains develop fast and need stimulation to be healthy. Nurturing early experiences have been shown to significantly improve the wiring of their brains, determining intelligence and behavior. The lack of development makes it much harder to adjust to school later.

Poor kids fall behind in their language skills before they turn 3, says Rutgers professor Steve Barnett, director of the National Institute for Early Education Research. “We can see differences emerging already in the first year,” he says.

Even in the womb, a baby is affected by a mother’s stress. Brain development is hurt by malnutrition, smoking, drugs or alcohol. After birth, babies learn based on the number of words they hear, and the type — whether angry or supportive.

A parent distracted by a television — even just in the background — means less talk time and can hurt a baby’s language development. The average child in a welfare home hears only about 600 words an hour, while a child in a college-educated, white-collar home hears 2,100, researchers found.

Good early childhood programs pay for themselves. What they do best is change behavior. Success in life depends at least as much on character skills, such as self-confidence and the ability to get along with peers, as it does on reading and math skills, experts say. And that develops very early on.

http://www.nj.com/njvoices/index.ssf/2011/11/early_childhood_education_key.html