Why Investments in Early Childhood Work
The data show that the greatest challenges facing
our country – from school dropout rates, to crime to rising health-care
costs, to the necessity of competing in the global marketplace – can
only be met by focusing on the development of all our children,
beginning at birth.
To the Ounce of Prevention Fund, the "achievement
gap" is not a metaphor. It is a social outcome that we can see and
measure. Research shows that the achievement gap appears long before
children reach kindergarten – in fact is can become evident as early as
age nine months. And at-risk children who don't receive a high-quality
early childhood education are:
- 25% more likely to drop out of school
- 40% more likely to become a teen parent
- 50% more likely to be placed in special education
- 60% more likely to never attend college
- 70% more likely to be arrested for a violent crime
Early childhood programs are the most
cost-effective way to ensure the healthy development of children in
poverty and offer the greatest returns to society.
Early Brain Development
Language and Literacy in Early ChildhoodHow
parents and caregivers speak to kids significantly affects I.Q.,
literacy, and academic success later in life, according to University of
Kansas child psychologists Betty Hart and Todd Risley. Their study
found that the number of words and encouragements and the breadth of
vocabulary heard by a child during the first three years of life can
dramatically affect language development and I.Q. Hart and Risley made
close observations of 42 one- and two-year olds and their families for
more than two years. From those observations, the researchers estimated
children in professional families hear approximately 11 million words
per year; while children in working class families hear approximately 6
million, and children in families receiving public assistance hear
approximately 3 million words annually.
From Neurons to Neighborhoods Young
children who lack at least one loving and consistent caregiver in the
earliest years may suffer severe and long-lasting development problems.
This landmark study of scientific brain research shows environmental
stress, even among infants and toddlers, can interfere with the proper
development of neural connections inside the brain essential to a
child's proper social and emotional development. This report recommends
that early childhood programs balance their focus on literacy and
numerical skills with comparable attention to the emotional and social
development of all children.
Joint AttentionJoint attention
refers to the shared focus that conversational partners – an infant and
her caregiver – have on an object and topic. Infants and young children
whose parents engage in more joint attention have larger vocabularies
than children whose parents engage in less joint attention. High-quality
child care environments, where caregivers practice joint attention and
are responsive to the cues of infants and toddlers, have been shown to
be tied to higher rates of language acquisition.
Secure Attachment and Continuity of CareAttachment
-– the security, confidence, and trust that infants and toddlers have
with the adults responsible for their care -– is the framework within
which babies develop their growing ability to regulate emotions and
behavior. Babies thrive when they are securely attached to their mother,
father, or primary caregiver who knows and responds consistently and
reliably to their unique personalities. Infants and toddlers who are not
securely attached are likely to become preschoolers unable to control
their behaviors and kindergartners who have difficulty engaging in the
process of learning. Recognizing the importance of secure attachment,
the Ounce of Prevention Fund implements a continuity of care model at
Educare.
This model minimizes the disruptions that children experience by
keeping infants and toddlers with the same classroom team of teachers
until they transition to preschool.
Early Childhood Program Outcomes
The Abecedarian ProjectThe
Abecedarian Project demonstrated that young children who receive
high-quality early education from infancy to age five do better in
reading and math and are more likely to stay in school longer, graduate
from high school, and attend a four-year college. Children who
participated in the early intervention program posted higher cognitive
test scores and tended to wait longer to have their first child.
Conducted by Dr. Craig Ramey, one of the nation's leading early
childhood researchers, this was the first study to track participants in
an early learning program from infancy to age 21. Based in North
Carolina, this study tracked 111 low-income African-American families.
Half of participants were randomly assigned to receive full-time early
learning intervention services starting at infancy; the other received
no educational services.
High/Scope Perry PreschoolBy age
40, adults who participated as 3- and 4-year-olds in quality preschool
were more likely to have graduated from high school, held a job, made
higher earnings, and committed fewer crimes than those who didn't
attend, according to this seminal study. In 1962, researchers began
following 123 high-risk 3- and 4-year-olds and their families in
Ypsilanti, Michigan. Nearly 60 of those children were randomly assigned
to a high-quality early learning program; the rest received no
preschool.
Chicago Parent-Child CentersThis
study demonstrates that young children who receive high-quality early
education do better in school academically, are less likely to drop out
of high school, be arrested, repeat grades, or be placed in special
education services. In addition to the increased earnings capacity by
those who participated in the program, the study found that society
saves more than $7 for every $1 invested in preschool. Conducted by Dr.
Arthur Reynolds of the University of Wisconsin, the study followed 989
students enrolled in 20 Chicago Parent-Child Centers beginning at age
three and a comparison group of 550 other eligible children who did not
participate in the program until the children reached eighth grade.
Early Head Start Research and Evaluation ProjectChildren
enrolled in Early Head Start performed better on measures of cognition,
social-emotional, and language functioning than their peers who were
not enrolled, according to this landmark study of the federal Early Head
Start program. The study also found that children who participated in
Early Head Start (from birth to age three) and later programs (from age 3
to 5) had the most positive outcomes. More than 3,000 children and
families at 17 sites were randomly assigned to receive Early Head Start
services or to be in a control group in 1996 for this Administration for
Children and Families study.
Home VisitingIn evidence-based
home visiting programs, trained parent coaches provide child-development
and parenting information to help young parents create safe,
stimulating home environments; model positive and language-rich
relationships; and connect families to medical, dental, mental-health,
and other supports. Research studies have shown that home visiting
programs increase children's literacy and high school graduation rates,
as well as how much parents read to their children. In addition, such
programs increase positive birth outcomes for children, improve the
likelihood that families have access to a doctor, and decrease rates of
child abuse and neglect.
DoulaThe primary focus of the
doula is to support the parent-child relationship. This focus enables an
early and strong parent-child attachment to be the foundation for the
child's health and development and eventual success in school. Research
demonstrates the link between doulas and higher rates of breastfeeding,
decreased rates of Cesarean section deliveries, decreased length of
labor, improved mother-child interactions, and decreased evidence of
maternal depression.
Economic return on investment
Economics of Human PotentialInvesting
in quality early learning programs is the most efficient way to affect
school and life success and to reduce social expenditures later,
according to research by Prof. James Heckman, a Nobel laureate in
economics from the University of Chicago. Returns are greatest for the
most at-risk children. For that population in particular, quality early
learning programs can result in reduced costs later on special
education, remedial classes, and even incarceration. Heckman's research
also shows early interventions for disadvantaged children "raise the
quality of the workforce, enhance the productivity of schools and reduce
crime, teenage pregnancy, and welfare dependency. They raise earnings
and promote social attachment." Heckman contends, "The real question is
how to use available funds wisely. The best evidence supports the policy
prescription: Invest in the very young."
Early Childhood Development on a Large ScaleArthur
J. Rolnick of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis writes that,
"Careful academic research demonstrates that tax dollars spent on early
childhood development provide extraordinary returns compared with
investments in the public, and even private, sector. The potential
return from a focused, high-quality early childhood development program
is as high as 16 percent per year. Some of these benefits are private
gains for the children involved in the form of higher wages later in
life. But the broader economy also benefits because individuals who
participate in high-quality early childhood development programs have
greater skills than they otherwise would, and they're able to contribute
productively to their local economies."
Reference:
http://www.ounceofprevention.org/about/why-early-childhood-investments-work.php?src=homepage
