Investing in Early Childhood Development

We have to try to standardise Early Childhood Development so that all children grow up with equal opportunities.

In 2017 /2018 4.6 million children were living in poverty. With the Covid-19 Pandemic this number will grow significantly.

This means we have an urgent need to increase the coverage of quality education programmes.?Included in these would be:

1. Health

2. Nutrition

?3. Security and safety

4. Responsive caregiving?

5. Early learning

All of these topics are of utmost importance to enable children to develop into healthy and productive adults. The above subjects will help children develop creativity, intellect and will help their wellbeing.

Research programmes have advanced substantially with new neuro-scientific evidence linking early adversity and nurturing care with brain development and function throughout the life course. Poverty and adverse childhood experiences have long-term physiological and epigenetic effects on brain development and cognition influencing the following:

1. Educational attainment?

2. Health Biomarkers?

3. Reductions in violence, depressive symptoms and social inhibition.

These findings provide a strong economic justification for investment in early childhood especially in children younger than 3 years old. As the brain develops most rapidly in the first 2 - 3 years of life. The first year is the time that our neutrons start to form sensory pathways to learn language and social-emotional abilities.?

We need to build strong foundations for children to establish their lifelong behaviour. As it is the experiences that a child has that mould and shape their development, we need to ensure that these are positive learning experiences for them.

Risk Factors?

We need to have more education for first time parents especially those living in poverty.? It is proven that if a child has a poorer life course they have a poorer development outcome.?They also have poor learning outcomes, behaviour outcomes as well as health outcomes. So we need to intervene early to make sure that children have access to these protective measures so that they have nurturing care, adequate nutrition, access to health care, and security and safety in the home.

All children need?

1. Nutrition for brain stimulation?

2. Stimulation to help them learn?

3. Security, safety and nurture for their stability and protection.

Nurturing care during early childhood reduces the detrimental effects of low socioeconomic status on brain development.

Toxic Stress?

This occurs when children are subject to frequent or prolonged adversity. This can be in the form of physical or emotional abuse, severe neglect, exposure to violence, or being in a home where there is substance abuse or mental illness. Reports show extensive evidence of the destructive impact of Toxic Stress shows that many adult diseases should be viewed as developmental disorders that begin early in life. Too much or too little cortisol; too much or too little inflammatory response) due to stress can lead to a chronic “wear and tear” effect on multiple organ systems, including the brain.

Society could be greatly changed by alleviating Toxic Stress in Childhood.

In Summary The foundations of a healthy and thriving population could be changed by:

1) Stable, caring and nurturing relationships which provide young children with consistent, nurturing, and protective interactions with adults to enhance their learning and help them develop adaptive capacities that promote well-regulated stress-response systems.

2) Safe and supportive home where children are allowed to explore and learn without fear or harm.

3) Good nutrition providing a healthy lifestyle If we want to create a positive, stable, financially viable society it is imperative that we start with our children from the earliest age.