Early Childhood Education Research Paper

Early Childhood Education Programs Early childhood education programs provide parents with an opportunity, the opportunity to give their child a head start in social, cognitive, and motor development. This head start can prepare a child for kindergarten and the future grade levels. According to the National Academy Press (2000) children come into the world eager to learn; the first five years of life are a time of enormous growth of linguistic, conceptual, social, emotional, and motor competence. This essay will address questions that support early childhood education programs, such as discussing the trend, research, and analysis which supports the programs.
The Trend The National Academy Press lists three trends that focus public attention
Care and education cannot be thought of as separate entities in dealing with young children (Eager to learn: Educating Our Preschoolers, 2000). For a child’s development to satisfactory, the care should provide quality cognitive stimulation, rich language environments, and the facilitation of social, emotional, and motor development. These qualities are sufficient for a child’s development and the earlier a child develops these characteristic the better it will be for a child’s learning process. Research also says adequate education for young children can occur only in the context of good physical care and of warm affective relationships (Eager to learn: Educating Our Preschoolers, 2000). Moreover, research suggests that secure attachment improves social and intellectual competence and the ability to exploit learning opportunities (Eager to learn: Educating Our Preschoolers, 2000). Learning is not about absorbing facts, but using new information and relating it to what children already know; also known as fostering prior knowledge. To accomplish all of these suggestions, children should be placed in a setting that supports the needed development.
What Is Available? According to research, the United States are behind when it comes to early childhood education. President Obama put forth a plan to invest $75 billion dollars on early childhood education (Herman, Post, & O'Halloran, 2013). The numbers below, provided
The Education Week Research Center (2015) analyzed American Community Survey data to identify patterns in the school enrollment of young children. Nationally, most, but not all children ages 3 to 6 are enrolled in school. Participating in a preschool program is highly influenced by many factors, but so does the state where a child lives. The majority of those children are participating in either preschool (35 percent) or kindergarten (18 percent) programs, with smaller percentages enrolled in the early elementary grades. Thirty-seven percent of children in this age range are not in school (Early-Childhood Education in the U.S.: An Analysis,