THE IMPORTANCE OF EARLY CHILD LEARNING

Zuzu Kids Early Learning Framework Supports Lifelong Learning

Enrolling your child at Zuzu Kids gifts them much more than a magical child care experience. Zuzu Kids has the Early Learning framework to create a strong foundation for learning today and for success later in life. Nearly 90% of brain growth takes place between ages 1—5, when over one million new neural connections are formed every second. These are the connections that build the foundation of a person’s brain architecture—a foundation upon which all later learning, behaviour, and health depend. This has been shown in over 150 reputable scientific studies, and is the reason why we’ve developed our Early Learning framework.

“Research has shown that the early years in a child’s life – when the human brain is forming – represents a critically important window of opportunity to develop a child’s full potential and shape key academic, social, and cognitive skills that determine a child’s success in school and life.”

“Now, today, some children are enrolled in excellent programs. Some children are enrolled in mediocre programs. And some are wasting away their most formative years in bad programs….That’s why I’m issuing a challenge to our states: Develop a cutting-edge plan to raise the quality of your early learning programs; show us how you’ll work to ensure that children are better prepared for success by the time they enter kindergarten.”

— Former US President Barack Obama

Source: Starting Strong IV: Monitoring Quality in Early Childhood Education and Care – OECD (2015b), OECD Publishing, Paris

Brain Development between ages 1—5 is the most critical time

Some of the most dramatic physical changes that occur between ages 1—5 are in the brain. During these years, children undergo a period of rapid neural growth called synaptic blooming. The formation of thousands of new connections takes place, and a child’s brain overproduces synapses as it rapidly develops. The more experiences a child has during these ages, and the more they learn, the more of these neural connections take hold. This is followed by a gradual period of selective pruning, where all the extra synapses created in the early years that have not found connections are eliminated.

Since synaptic blooming takes place between ages 1—5, it’s an important time to ensure children are learning. There are four key areas of brain development during synaptic blooming, called sensitive periods, and they include expansions in the areas of Language, Numbers, Peer Social Skills, and Emotional Control, which make up each section of the framework for our curriculum.

Children benefit immensely just from being exposed to these subjects, and the amount and quality of experiences that they receive during these sensitive periods sets the foundation for learning that a child builds upon for the rest of their lives.

Language

Language learning starts at birth, as a child’s brain creates the highest number of synapses for language development in their lives between 0 and 5. Quality early learning during this time expands their foundations in reading, writing, comprehension, and articulation. When children are exposed to different tones, sounds, word combinations, vocabulary, and other languages (even different voices speaking the same familiar words), they develop a greater foundation for language and comprehension capabilities.

The foundational reading and writing skills that develop from birth to age five have a clear and consistently strong relationship with later conventional literacy skills. Children’s early phonological awareness—that is, their ability to distinguish among sounds within auditory language—can also predict later literacy achievement.

In general, skilled reading in elementary school and beyond is shaped by early literacy experiences long before a child encounters formal reading instruction. Providing children strong literacy education in the early years leads to better academic outcomes and reading success later in life. The involvement in rich language and literacy experiences creates tremendous opportunities for children.

Numbers and Math Language

Peer and Social Skills

Between ages 2—4, children benefit greatly from cooperative group and peer play activities. Examples of these include relay races, treasure hunts, puzzles, building block activities, or making up a dance. While developing social competence, as well as learning how to read emotions, make friends, cooperate, and negotiate, can be challenging at any age, social exercises and activities can help kids learn and develop these skills early on. Teamwork, collaboration, and perspective-taking in the early years help build confidence, capabilities, and skills that children carry with them throughout their lives.

Emotional Control & Emotional Intelligence

Emotional control and Intelligence begin at a very young age, and different emotions emerge at different times. Nurturing connections is important as children learn to understand, manage, and navigate through big feelings like anger, joy, excitement, fear, frustration, and affection. Children also learn to perceive, process, and predict these emotions in others. Evidence suggests that, in the first six months, infants can experience and respond to distress by adopting self-soothing behaviour. Other studies have found that toddlers who develop self-regulation skills in infancy are able to avoid or approach situations depending on their emotional impact.

Arts in early childhood can have social and emotional benefits. Children learn to channel their feelings in productive and creative ways with the right curriculum encouraging self-expression. When kids are actively involved in creative, dramatic and musical arts, they are provided with an outlet to harness and project their emotions in positive, communicative and creative ways. Children also learn to recognize how their peers communicate these emotions in various forms.