What is early childhood education

What is early childhood development?

Early childhood education is the branch of academia that involves teaching children from birth to approximately eight years old. The focus is largely on preparing students for a lifetime of learning, which involves the development of their  according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

“At these early levels, educators are trying to encourage learning through natural context,” says Donna Elder, Ed.D, Interim Dean of National University’s Sanford College of Education. “You want children to explore the world through conversations, reading, play, and other ways that they would naturally learn from in a family environment. You ultimately want to create a space where children have a lot of opportunities to talk with each other and experience new things.”

Important topics in the field include learning and brain development, peer cooperation and collaboration, early cognition, and emerging literacy.

 Healthy development in the early years (particularly birth to three) provides the building blocks for educational achievement, economic productivity, responsible citizenship, lifelong health, strong communities, and successful parenting of the next generation. What can we do during this incredibly important period to ensure that children have a strong foundation for future development? The Center on the Developing Child created this Guide to Early Childhood Development (ECD) to help parents, caregivers, practitioners, and policymakers understand the importance of early childhood development and learn how to support children and families during this critical stage.