what is the importance of child education

High-quality early child care and education: The gift that lasts a lifetime

Subscribe to the center for universal education bulletin, andres s. bustamante , andres s. bustamante assistant professor of education - university of california, irvine eric dearing , eric dearing professor, applied developmental & educational psychology - boston college henrik daae zachrisson , henrik daae zachrisson professor, department of special needs education - university of oslo deborah lowe vandell , and deborah lowe vandell professor, school of education - university of california, irvine kathy hirsh-pasek kathy hirsh-pasek senior fellow - global economy and development , center for universal education.

November 4, 2021

Debate continues on Biden’s “ Build Back Better” social infrastructure bill offering a historic expansion of child care and universal preschool. Early childhood education is a socially popular endeavor with strong bipartisan support and impressive evidence for meaningful impacts in the short and long term . Economic research examining the return on investment for early education suggests tremendous value ranging from $4 to $13 in return for every $1 spent from impacts on educational attainment, employment, health, truancy, and criminality.

Much of the data used in these projections come from classic “gold standard” interventions like the Abecedarian and Perry preschool studies. These were highly resourced projects that provided high-quality early education experiences to families from under-resourced communities. Can the findings from these studies be generalized to large-scale modern programs with children from a range of economic backgrounds? This is what is proposed in the new infrastructure bill as a universal pre-K model.

A new study published in Child Development strongly suggests that sustained high-quality early education can have long-lasting impacts. Using the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development study of early child care and youth development as its base, this research followed 814 subjects of the original sample until the young adults were 26 years of age. These young adults had attended a variety of child care and preschool settings that varied widely in their quality of care. As this was a study of development of everyday children in everyday environments, it included families from low-, middle-, and high-income backgrounds in several locations around the country with access to high, middling, or lower quality of care when they were in early childhood. Remarkably, children from low-income backgrounds who had access to 24 months or more of high-quality early childhood education in their first five years were more likely to graduate from college and had higher salaries at age 26. In fact, the outcomes for these young adults who experienced sustained high-quality care were statistically indistinguishable from their higher-income peers.

Community-based early care and education, delivered at scale, can provide lasting impacts, and may serve as a catalyst for children’s success later in life—particularly for those from less resourced environments. Importantly, high quality was necessary for achieving these long-term outcomes. Recent findings from a study by University of Virginia Professor Bob Pianta and his colleagues make a similar point. High-quality early child care increases children’s readiness for school and narrows the so-called achievement gap by half. This means access to early education is not enough. Warm, safe, supporting environments that are rich with language and conversations, and offer many opportunities to play and engage in hands-on exploration are key. Sustained access is also critical in predicting long-term outcomes. Higher salary and college graduation rates were only evident for children who had two or more years of high-quality care.

The data are clear. Early childhood programs that are sustained and high quality can have long-lasting impacts on children, preparing them for formal schooling and beyond with the added factor that early education paves the way for parents to be in the workforce.

The data are clear. Early childhood programs that are sustained and high quality can have long-lasting impacts on children, preparing them for formal schooling and beyond with the added factor that early education paves the way for parents to be in the workforce. This is a win-win-win for society. But access alone and custodial care will not sow the benefits provided by high-quality early care programs.

As we continue the debate, let us keep the science of early learning clearly in mind. We need high-quality early childhood care to set children on trajectories that will enable them (and society) to thrive. The new research suggests that this goal is within our grasp and that it is scalable within everyday contexts.

Early childhood care and education

The period from birth to eight years old is one of remarkable brain development for children and represents a crucial window of opportunity for education. UNESCO believes early childhood care and education (ECCE) that is truly inclusive is much more than just preparation for primary school. It can be the foundation for emotional wellbeing and learning throughout life and one of the best investments a country can make as it promotes holistic development, gender equality and social cohesion.

What you need to know about early childhood care and education

Promising practices on early childhood care and education.

Explore UNESCO's global compendium of impactful public policies, innovative programmes and field-tested innovations in early childhood care and education. These practices were shared during and following the World Conference on Early Childhood Care and Education organized by UNESCO in 2022 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, to invigorate global commitments to ECCE from countries.

Global Report on early childhood care and education

Understanding teachers through data

Bouba and Zaza teach life skills

This series of motivational books and short animated films for children is a resource for teaching life skills and tackles a range of themes from sexual abuse to protecting the planet. The project is developed by Michel Lafon Education, UNESCO and the Association for the Development of Education in Africa for educators, parents, and the community and designed to form a bridge between school, family, and the local environment. The project focuses on educating children across Africa as part of a global response to COVID-19 and includes animated learning videos, interactive e-books, activity workshops, colouring e-sheets, and learning games available in several languages.

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are on track to reach their #SDG4 benchmarks on early childhood education

could be achieved if countries had fee-setting regulations in place

is spent on pre-primary education globally

guarantee zero years of free and compulsory pre-primary education

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Principles of Child Development and Learning and Implications That Inform Practice

A teacher observing young children who are exploring a map in a classroom.

NAEYC’s guidelines and recommendations for developmentally appropriate practice are based on the following nine principles and their implications for early childhood education professional practice. These principles reflect an extensive research base that is only partially referenced here. 13 Because these principles are interrelated, this linear list does not fully represent their overall complexity.

Development and learning are dynamic processes that reflect the complex interplay between a child’s biological characteristics and the environment, each shaping the other as well as future patterns of growth.

Advances in neuroscience over the last two decades have provided new insights regarding the processes of early brain development and their long-term implications for development and learning. The findings provide robust evidence supporting the importance of high-quality early learning experiences for young children for promoting children’s lifelong success.

Neural connections in the brain—which are the basis for all thought, communication, and learning—are established most rapidly in early childhood. 14 The processes of forming new neural connections and pruning the neural connections that are not used continue throughout a person’s lifespan but are most consequential in the first three years. 15 When adults are sensitive and respond to an infant’s babble, cry, or gesture, they directly support the development of neural connections that lay the foundation for children’s communication and social skills, including self-regulation. These “serve and return” interactions shape the brain’s architecture. 16 They also help educators and others “tune in” to the infant and better respond to the infant’s wants and needs.

The interplay of biology and environment, present at birth, continues through the preschool years and primary grades (kindergarten through grade 3). This has particular implications for children who experience adversity. In infancy, for example, a persistent lack of responsive care results in the infant experiencing chronic stress that may negatively impact brain development and may delay or impair the development of essential systems and abilities, including thinking, learning, and memory, as well as the immune system and the ability to cope with stress. 17 Living in persistent poverty can also generate chronic stress that negatively affects the development of brain areas associated with cognitive and self-regulatory functions. 18

No group is monolithic, and data specific to communities provides a deeper understanding of children’s experiences and outcomes. It is important to recognize that although children of all races and ethnicities experience poverty and other adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), Black and Latino/a children, as well as children in refugee and immigrant families, children in some Asian-American families, and children in Native American families, have been found to be more likely to experience ACEs than White non-Latino/a and other Asian-American populations of children, 19 reflecting a history of systemic inequities. 20 Moreover, racism itself must be recognized not only for its immediate and obvious impacts on children, but also for its long-term negative impacts, in which the repetitive trauma created by racism can predispose individuals to chronic disease. 21 It should be noted that these stressors and trauma affect adults as well as children, including family members and early childhood educators themselves, who, despite their skills and importance, often earn wages that place them into poverty.

Some children appear to be more susceptible than others to the effects of environmental influence—both positive and negative—reflecting individual differences at play. For children facing adverse circumstances, including trauma, the buffering effects of caring, consistent relationships—with family and other community members but also in high-quality early childhood programs—are also important to note. 22 This emerging science emphasizes the critical importance of early childhood educators in providing consistent, responsive, sensitive care and education to promote children’s development and learning across the full birth-through-8 age span. The negative impacts of chronic stress and other adverse experiences can be overcome. High-quality early childhood education contributes substantially to children’s resilience and healthy development.

All domains of child development—physical development, cognitive development, social and emotional development, and linguistic development (including bilingual or multilingual development), as well as approaches to learning—are important; each domain both supports and is supported by the others.

Early childhood educators are responsible for fostering children’s development and learning in all these domains as well as in general learning competencies and executive functioning, which include attention, working memory, self-regulation, reasoning, problem solving, and approaches to learning. There is considerable overlap and interaction across these domains and competencies. For example, sound nutrition, physical activity, and sufficient sleep all promote children’s abilities to engage in social interactions that, in turn, stimulate cognitive growth. Children who experience predictable, responsive relationships and responsive interactions with adults also tend to demonstrate improved general learning competencies and executive functioning. 23

Changes in one domain often impact other areas and highlight each area’s importance. For example, as children begin to crawl or walk, they gain new possibilities for exploring the world. This mobility in turn affects both their cognitive development and their ability to satisfy their curiosity, underscoring the importance of adaptations for children with disabilities that limit their mobility. Likewise, language development influences a child’s ability to participate in social interaction with adults and other children; such interactions, in turn, support further language development as well as further social, emotional, and cognitive development. Science is clear that children can learn multiple languages as easily as one, given adequate exposure and practice, and this process brings cognitive advantages. 24 In groups in which children speak different home languages, educators may not be able to speak each language, but they can value and support maintaining all languages. 25

A growing body of work demonstrates relationships between social, emotional, executive function, and cognitive competencies 26 as well as the importance of movement and physical activity. 27 These areas of learning are mutually reinforcing and all are critical in educating young children across birth through age 8. Intentional teaching strategies, including, and particularly, play (both self-directed and guided), address each domain. Kindergartens and grades 1-3 tend to be considered elementary or primary education, and, as such, may have increasingly prioritized cognitive learning at the expense of physical, social, emotional, and linguistic development. But integrating cognitive, emotional, social, interpersonal skills and self-regulatory competencies better prepares children for more challenging academic content and learning experiences. 28 In brief, the knowledge base documents the importance of a comprehensive curriculum and the interrelatedness of the developmental domains for all young children’s well-being and success.

Play promotes joyful learning that fosters self-regulation, language, cognitive and social competencies as well as content knowledge across disciplines. Play is essential for all children, birth through age 8.

Play (e.g., self-directed, guided, solitary, parallel, social, cooperative, onlooker, object, fantasy, physical, constructive, and games with rules) is the central teaching practice that facilitates young children’s development and learning. Play develops young children’s symbolic and imaginative thinking, peer relationships, language (English and/or additional languages), physical development, and problem-solving skills. All young children need daily, sustained opportunities for play, both indoors and outdoors. Play helps children develop large-motor and fine-motor physical competence, explore and make sense of their world, interact with others, express and control their emotions, develop symbolic and problem-solving abilities, and practice emerging skills. Consistently, studies find clear links between play and foundational capacities such as working memory, self-regulation, oral language abilities, social skills, and success in school. 29

Indeed, play embodies the characteristics of effective development and learning described in principles 4 and 5—active, meaningful engagement driven by children’s choices. Researchers studying the pedagogy of play have identified three key components: choice (the children’s decisions to engage in play, as well as decisions about its direction and its continuation), wonder (children’s continued engagement as they explore, gather information, test hypotheses, and make meaning), and delight (the joy and laughter associated with the pleasure of the activity, making discoveries, and achieving new things). 30 Play also typically involves social interaction with peers and/or adults.

Although adults can be play partners (for example, playing peekaboo with an infant) or play facilitators (by making a suggestion to extend the activity in a certain way), the more that the adult directs an activity or interaction, the less likely it will be perceived as play by the child. When planning learning environments and activities, educators may find it helpful to consider a continuum ranging from children’s self-directed play to direct instruction. 31 Neither end of the continuum is effective by itself in creating a high-quality early childhood program. Effective, developmentally-appropriate practice does not mean simply letting children play in the absence of a planned learning environment, nor does it mean predominantly offering direct instruction. In the middle of the continuum is guided play. Educators create learning environments that reflect children’s interests; they provide sustained time and opportunities for children to engage in self-directed play (individually and in small groups). Educators also strategically make comments and suggestions and ask questions to help move children toward a learning goal, even as children continue to lead the activity. 32

Guided play gives educators opportunities to use children’s interests and creations to introduce new vocabulary and concepts, model complex language, and provide children with multiple opportunities to use words in context in children’s home languages as well as in English. These meaningful and engaging experiences help children—including those in kindergarten and the primary grades—build knowledge and vocabulary across subject areas and in purposeful contexts (which is more effective than memorization of word lists). 33

Despite evidence that supports the value of play, not all children are afforded the opportunity to play, a reality which disproportionately affects Black and Latino/a children. 34 Play is often viewed as being at odds with the demands of formal schooling, especially for children growing up in under-resourced communities. 35 In fact, the highly didactic, highly controlling curriculum found in many kindergarten and primary grades, with its narrow focus on test-focused skill development, is unlikely to be engaging or meaningful for children; it is also unlikely to build the broad knowledge and vocabulary needed for reading comprehension in later grades. Instead, the lesson children are likely to learn is that they are not valued thinkers or successful learners in school. For example, studies suggest that students who are taught math primarily through memorization and rote learning are more than a year behind those who have been taught by relating math concepts to their existing knowledge and reflecting on their own understanding. 36

Even if not called play, cross-curricular and collaborative approaches such as project-based learning, inquiry learning, or making and tinkering share characteristics of playful learning. 37 Giving children autonomy and agency in how they approach problems, make hypotheses, and explore potential solutions with others promotes deeper learning and improves executive functioning. 38 In sum, self-directed play, guided play, and playful learning, skillfully supported by early childhood educators, build academic language, deepen conceptual development, and support reflective and intentional approaches to learning—all of which add up to effective strategies for long-term success.

Although general progressions of development and learning can be identified, variations due to cultural contexts, experiences, and individual differences must also be considered.

A pervasive characteristic of development is that children’s functioning, including their play, becomes increasingly complex—in language, cognition, social interaction, physical movement, problem solving, and virtually every other aspect. Increased organization and memory capacity of the developing brain make it possible for children to combine simple routines into more complex strategies with age. 39 Despite these predictable changes in all domains, the ways that these changes are demonstrated and the meanings attached to them will vary in different cultural and linguistic contexts. For example, in some cultures, children may be encouraged to satisfy their growing curiosity by moving independently to explore the environment; in other cultures, children may be socialized to seek answers to queries within structured activities created for them by adults. 40 In addition, all children learn language through their social interactions, but there are important distinctions in the process for monolingual, bilingual, and multilingual children. 41 Rather than assuming that the process typical of monolingual children is the norm against which others ought to be judged, it is important for educators to recognize the differences as variations in strengths (rather than deficits) and to support them appropriately. 42

Development and learning also occur at varying rates from child to child and at uneven rates across different areas for each child. Children’s demonstrated abilities and skills are often fluid and may vary from day to day based on individual or contextual factors. For example, because children are still developing the ability to direct their attention, a distraction in the environment may result in a child successfully completing a puzzle one day but not the next. In addition, some regression in observed skills is common before new developments are fully achieved. 43 For all of these reasons, the notion of “stages” of development has limited utility; a more helpful concept may be to think of waves of development that allow for considerable overlap without rigid boundaries. 44

Children are active learners from birth, constantly taking in and organizing information to create meaning through their relationships, their interactions with their environment, and their overall experiences.

Even as infants, children are capable of highly complex thinking. 45 Using information they gather through their interactions with people and things as well as their observations of the world around them, they quickly create sophisticated theories to build their conceptual understanding. They recognize patterns and make predictions that they then apply to new situations. Infants appear particularly attuned to adults as sources of information, underscoring the importance of consistent, responsive caregiving to support the formation of relationships. 46 Cultural variations can be seen in these interactions, with implications for later development and learning. For example, in some cultures, children are socialized to quietly observe members of the adult community and to learn by pitching in (often through mimicking the adults’ behaviors). 47 In other cultures, adults make a point of getting a child’s attention to encourage one-on-one interactions. Children socialized to learn through observing may quietly watch others without asking for help, while those socialized to expect direct interaction may find it difficult to maintain focus without frequent adult engagement.

Throughout the early childhood years, young children continue to construct knowledge and make meaning through their interactions with adults and peers, through active exploration and play, and through their observations of people and things in the world around them. Educators recognize the importance of their role in creating a rich, play-based learning environment that encourages the development of knowledge (including vocabulary) and skills across all domains. Educators understand that children’s current abilities are largely the result of the experiences—the opportunities to learn—that children have had. As such, children with disabilities (or with the potential for a disability) have capacity to learn; they need educators who do not label them or isolate them from their peers and who are prepared to work with them and their families to develop that potential.

In addition to learning language and concepts about the physical phenomena in the world around them, children learn powerful lessons about social dynamics as they observe the interactions that educators have with them and other children as well as peer interactions. Well before age 5, most young children have rudimentary definitions of their own and others’ social identities that can include awareness of and biases regarding gender and race. 48

Early childhood educators need to understand the importance of creating a learning environment that helps children develop social identities which do not privilege one group over another. They must also be aware of the potential for implicit bias that may prejudice their interactions with children of various social identities. 49 Educators must also recognize that their nonverbal signals may influence children’s attitudes toward their peers. For example, one recent study found that children will think a child who receives more positive nonverbal signals from a teacher is perceived as a “better” or “smarter” reader than a child who receives more negative nonverbal signals, regardless of that child’s actual reading performance. 50

Children’s motivation to learn is increased when their learning environment fosters their sense of belonging, purpose, and agency. Curricula and teaching methods build on each child’s assets by connecting their experiences in the school or learning environment to their home and community settings.

This principle is drawn from the influential report How People Learn II and is supported by a growing body of research that affirms principles espoused more than 100 years ago by John Dewey. 51 The sense of belonging requires both physical and psychological safety. Seeing connections with home and community can be a powerful signal for children’s establishing psychological safety; conversely, when there are few signs of connection for children, their psychological safety is jeopardized. It is important for children to see people who look like them across levels of authority, to hear and see their home language in the learning environment, and to have learning experiences that are both culturally and linguistically affirming and responsive. 52

Equally important is encouraging each child’s sense of agency. Opportunities for agency—that is, the ability to make and act upon choices about what activities one will engage in and how those activities will proceed—must be widely available for all children, not limited as a reward after completing other tasks or only offered to high-achieving students. Ultimately, motivation is a personal decision based on the learner’s determination of meaningfulness, interest, and engagement. 53 Educators can promote children’s agency and help them feel motivated by engaging them in challenging yet achievable tasks that build on their interests and that they recognize as meaningful and purposeful to their lives. Studies have found that some children are denied opportunities to exercise agency because they are mistakenly deemed unable to do so. 54 For educators, supporting a child’s agency can be especially challenging when they do not speak the same language as the child or are not able to understand a child’s attempts to express solutions or preferences. In these cases, nonverbal cues and/or technology-assistive tools may be helpful as the educator also works to address the communication barrier.

As noted earlier regarding brain development, children’s feelings of safety and security are essential for the development of higher-order thinking skills, so fostering that sense of belonging is essentially a brain-building activity. Beginning in infancy, educators who follow children’s lead in noticing their interests and responding with an appropriate action and conversation (including noting when interest wanes) are helping children develop self-confidence and an understanding that their actions make a difference. Educators can involve children in choosing or creating learning experiences that are meaningful to them, helping them establish and achieve challenging goals, and reflecting on their experiences and their learning. Educators can also intentionally build bridges between children’s interests and the subject matter knowledge that will serve as the foundation for learning in later grades.

Children learn in an integrated fashion that cuts across academic disciplines or subject areas. Because the foundations of subject area knowledge are established in early childhood, educators need subject-area knowledge, an understanding of the learning progressions within each subject area, and pedagogical knowledge about teaching each subject area’s content effectively.

Based on their knowledge of what is meaningful and engaging to each child, educators design the learning environment and its activities to promote subject area knowledge across all content areas as well as across all domains of development. Educators use their knowledge of learning progressions for different subjects, their understanding of common conceptions and misconceptions at different points on the progressions, and their pedagogical knowledge about each subject area to develop learning activities that offer challenging but achievable goals for children that are also meaningful and engaging. These activities will look very different for infants and toddlers than for second- and third-graders and from one community of learners to another, given variations in culture and context. Across all levels and settings, educators can help children observe and, over time, reflect about phenomena in the world around them, gain vocabulary, and build their conceptual understanding of the content of subjects across all disciplines.

Recognizing the value of the academic disciplines, an interdisciplinary approach that considers multiple areas together is typically more meaningful than teaching content areas separately. This requires going beyond superficial connections. It means “making rich connections among domain and subject areas, but allowing each to retain its core conceptual, procedural, and epistemological structures.” 55 It is, therefore, important that educators have a good understanding of the core structures (concepts and language) for all the academic subject areas so that they can communicate them in appropriate ways to children.

Educators shape children’s conceptual development through their use of language. For example, labeling objects helps young children form conceptual categories; statements conveyed as generic descriptions about a category are especially salient to young children and, once learned, can be resistant to change. 56 It is also important for educators to monitor their language for potential bias. For example, educators who frequently refer to “boys” and “girls” rather than “children” emphasize binary gender distinctions that exclude some children. Educators can also encourage children’s continued exploration and discovery through the words they use. For example, when given an object, children are more likely to engage in creative explorations of that object when they are provided with more open-ended guidance versus when they are given specific information about what the object was designed to do.

From infancy through age 8, proactively building children’s conceptual and factual knowledge, including academic vocabulary, is essential because knowledge is the primary driver of comprehension. The more children (and adults) know, the better their listening comprehension and, later, reading comprehension. By building knowledge of the world in early childhood, educators are laying the foundation that is critical for all future learning. 57 All subject matter can be taught in ways that are meaningful and engaging for each child. 58 The notion that young children are not ready for academic subject matter is a misunderstanding of developmentally appropriate practice.

Development and learning advance when children are challenged to achieve at a level just beyond their current mastery and when they have many opportunities to reflect on and practice newly acquired skills.

Human beings, especially young children, are motivated to understand or do what is just beyond their current understanding or mastery. Drawing upon the strengths and resources each child and family brings, early childhood educators create a rich learning environment that stimulates that motivation and helps to extend each child’s current skills, abilities, and interests. They make use of strategies to promote children’s undertaking and mastering of new and progressively more advanced challenges. They also recognize the potential for implicit bias to lead to lowered expectations, especially for children of color, 59 and actively work to avoid such bias.

Educators contribute significantly to the child’s development by providing the support or assistance that allows the child to succeed at a task that is just beyond their current level of skill or understanding. This includes emotional support as well as strategies such as pointing out salient details or providing other cues that can help children make connections to previous knowledge and experiences. 60 As children make this stretch to a new level in a supportive context, they can go on to use the skill independently and in a variety of contexts, laying the foundation for the next challenge. Provision of such support, or scaffolding, is a key feature of effective teaching. Pairing children can be an effective way to support peer learning in which children with different abilities can scaffold each other. 61

Children need to feel successful in new tasks a significant proportion of the time to promote their motivation and persistence. 62 Confronted by repeated failure, most children will simply stop trying. Repeated opportunities to practice and consolidate new skills and concepts are also essential for children to reach the threshold of mastery at which they can go on to use this knowledge or skill, applying it in new situations. Play (especially in intentionally designed environments with carefully selected materials) provides young children with opportunities to engage in this type of practice.

Educators foster learning for a group of children by setting challenging, achievable goals for each child, building on the combined funds of knowledge and cultural assets of the children in the group. Providing the right amount and type of scaffolding requires general knowledge of child development and learning, including familiarity with the paths and sequences that children are known to follow in specific skills, concepts, and abilities. Also essential is deep knowledge of each child, based on what the teacher has learned from close observation and from the family about the individual child’s interests, skills, and abilities and about practices of importance to the family. Both sets of knowledge are critical to matching curriculum and teaching experiences to each child’s emerging competencies in ways that are challenging but not frustrating.

Encouraging children to reflect on their experiences and learning and to revisit concepts over time is also an important strategy for educators. The curriculum should provide both breadth and depth with multiple opportunities to revisit concepts and experiences, rather than rapidly progressing through a wide but shallow set of experiences. Picture books and other learning materials that depict communities and situations relevant to children’s lives can be useful starting points for such reflection. Group projects with documentation, including photos, videos, child artwork and representations, child dictations, and/or children’s writing, are also important tools for encouraging reflection and for revisiting concepts over time. 63

Tiered intervention approaches can be helpful in identifying children who might benefit from additional instruction or support. 64 These approaches, often in collaboration with early childhood special educators and early interventionists, are most effective when they are implemented in a way that is continuous, flexible, dynamic, and focused on the range of critical skills and proficiencies children need to develop and to enable their full participation in the classroom/group community.

Used responsibly and intentionally, technology and interactive media can be valuable tools for supporting children’s development and learning.

Young children live in a digital era in which technology and interactive media are pervasive. Given rapid changes in the types and uses of new media, the knowledge base of their effects on children’s development and learning continues to grow and shift. Emerging evidence suggests a number of cautions, including concerns about negative associations between excessive screen time and childhood obesity as well as negative impacts on toddlers’ performance on measures of fine motor, communication, and social skills. 65 There is no evidence that development is enhanced when children younger than age 2 independently use devices with screen media. 66 Keeping these cautions in mind, technology and interactive media can help to support developmentally appropriate practice. For example, technology and interactive media can facilitate communication between families, children, and teachers. It can also support learning, comprehension, and communication across language differences and provide adaptations that support inclusion of children with disabilities. The use of digital media can facilitate reflection through documentation and formative assessment by children, educators, and families. The use of media can also provide isolated children (for example, children with health problems that prevent them from participating in group settings or those with less well-developed social skills) with opportunities to engage effectively with peers. 67

Effective uses of technology and media by children are active, hands-on, engaging, and empowering; give children control; provide adaptive scaffolds to help each child progress in skills development at their individual pace; and are used as one of many options to support children’s learning. Technology and interactive media should expand children’s access to new content and new skills; they should not replace opportunities for real, hands-on experiences. 68 When truly integrated, uses of technology and media become normal and transparent—the child or the educator is focused on the activity or exploration itself, not the technology. Readers are encouraged to review the NAEYC/Fred Rogers Center position statement on the use of technology for more information on this topic.

View the full list of endnotes.

Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP) Position Statement

How to Explain the Importance of Education to a Child

By: Author Dr. Patrick Capriola

Posted on Published: January 21, 2019

Explaining the importance of education to a child is not as easy as it may seem. Kids often lack the life experience to grasp the importance of education to their lives and future, which makes it harder for them to understand and for you to explain.

How do you explain the importance of education to a child? The best way to explain the importance of education to a child is to model the desired behavior, expose them to resources that communicate the importance of education, develop an atmosphere of learning in the home, talk to them about why education is important, give them opportunities to show what they have learned.

When used together, each of the above strategies works in tandem to send a consistent message about the importance of education to the child.

Children learn most not by hearing, but by seeing and experiencing. It helps when the message is thoughtfully repeated.

As the adult, you set the tone to make sure they know they are expected to make something of themselves and that education will be the vehicle to get them there. Your actions and expectations are your best tools.

Your words will reinforce those efforts.

Importance of Education for Children

Education is important to children because education helps children learn how to think critically, it enhances their creativity and imagination, it will expose them to new ideas, and it helps the child find the path to a career that they wish to pursue as an adult.

Make sure you know these reasons and know why you believe they are important.

Over time you are going to be repeating yourself a lot so consistency will give you more credibility as you continue to share your message with your child.

Know that this is a long term goal and probably not something your child will fully understand even after a few discussions with them.

Consequently, instead of pushing for understanding right away, it will be better to expose them to an environment that values learning so they experience its importance for themselves.

Then you can begin a conversation with them that they will be able to connect to through the meaning they have constructed.

Here are some strategies to create that environment and communicate education’s importance:

Model the Desired Behavior

As the parent, you are the child’s greatest teacher and role model. Kids know when their parents really value something because they see them doing it frequently.

So, when you want to explain to a child why education is important the first thing you should do is make sure they see you modeling the behavior.

This will make a conversation much easier to have later because they will see you putting in the time and effort to improve yourself.

There are many ways you can show them how much you care about your own intellectual growth.

Perhaps you spend one hour every night at home with devices off while everyone is reading in the living room together.

Maybe you set weekly library trips with them where they can see you reading and picking out books while they read their own.

After they check the books out you encourage them to read in the car and in their room for some quiet time. Over time, this will grow into a routine that they enjoy.

You could also have them plan the next project around the house with you. Think and discuss what could go into painting a bedroom or creating a family picture area on the wall.

Include them in the pre-planning process so they see the critical thinking skills needed to create a budget allocation and plan a project’s course to completion, so they learn how math is used in the real world.

Then keep them involved throughout the project so they can see all the steps involved in making an idea become reality.

You could also try learning something completely new together like gardening.

Collaborate with them to decide what plants you want to grow for your home.

Learn about the environment and care they need to thrive. Work together to plant them and care for them. As mistakes are made use them as learning opportunities so you can grow together.

Expose them to Activities and Resources that Communicate the Importance of Education

This strategy may take some time to get right, so be prepared to be patient. Think about what your child’s interests are and what they are good at.

Keep these ideas in mind as you have a conversation with them about some new activities they may want to try.

This conversation may go on for a few sessions as they think it over. That’s OK.

Try having them give you a list of 3-5 things that they want to learn about. After they do, ask yourself which of these choices align with their skills and guide them towards those interests.

This is key to being an aware parent because you don’t want to guide your child into an activity that is completely out of their comfort zone or not in line with their skill set.

Are they creative and love to write about topics that interest them? Help them find out. Perhaps puzzles really interest them. Maybe they enjoy building and so a lego set is the way to go.

Whatever the activity, help them discuss the necessary skills they need to complete these activities so they understand the requirements of the commitment they are making.

This is another key point and one that I practice with my own child. Before we signed her up for piano lessons, we told her that it would require she also practice outside of her lesson 4-5 days a week.

We didn’t even buy the books until she knew for sure it was what she wanted.

Your guidance will be important in helping them make the right choice. If you are unsure, then frame your conversation as an experiment to figure out what they enjoy doing.

Try one thing at a time, but keep an ongoing list of what they like, what they don’t, and where they show potential to be good. Solicit their opinion and consider your judgment as you guide them to a decision.

Long term, your goal here is to get them into a rhythm where they are working on a few things a year that they enjoy.

You could set up a schedule so they spend a certain amount of time on their new hobby.

I’ll give an example of how we do it in our house. Because of budgetary constraints, we can only have one thing going on at a time for each child.

So, from May to September my oldest takes swimming lessons and from October to April, she takes piano lessons.

Each of these activities is associated with brain development, which is why we guided her toward them. For piano, she goes to her lessons once a week and then practices another 4-5 days at home.

For swimming, she goes to her practice twice a week and has a swim meet once a week.

Behind the scenes, we work with her instructors to target potential long-term goals for the season.

Then we include her in the planning process so she can choose from this curated list of choices. Last year she worked on improving her freestyle stroke.

She began by working on her form to make sure she was reaching to the wall each time she brought her arm around. As she got her form down then we had her work on her speed.

Along the way, she built up her confidence in herself and her trust in us and her instructor.

As she works on her craft, we talk to her about how she is doing. We keep her focused on what she is working toward and remind her periodically about her next goal.

She makes gains because she is doing something she likes to do and has a goal in mind that she is working to accomplish.

In addition to these activities, we are careful with the camps that we choose for our kids.

We focus only on camps that have an enriching purpose, usually educational or athletic. We like camps where they can learn robotics, sports, or drama.

We are choosy about our camps because we don’t want our kids to be in a place that is just trying to keep them busy all day.

We want them to be learning something that they like so they develop a deeper love of learning.

For instance, my oldest also likes gymnastics, but since we cannot fit it into the school year, we let her take a week of gymnastics camp during the summer which she loves.

While it can be hard to find quality camps and you may have to drive further, I think it is more than worth it.

My wife still has memories of her and her sister getting dropped off at a summer camp they despised so it’s not something we take lightly in our household!

If you make sure your kids spend a lot of time learning in a fun environment, it will be a lot easier to explain why education is important because they will pick up on its importance through their own intuition.

Not to mention, it could help bridge the gap during the summer months when kids usually aren’t learning.

During this time regression takes place and they have a harder time getting back into a routine for the new school year.

Develop an Atmosphere of Learning

Use your resources and creativity to create an environment in your home where learning is valued and required. Give them expectations for learning that they must meet.

Establish routines so they can meet your expectations, and set up a schedule around those routines.

When they get home every day what do they do? Do they have activities, that could be reduced or eliminated like TV or devices?

Filling that time with the pursuit of their interests and practicing the skills associated with those interests will help them make progress toward their goals.

Progress will be a valued asset in explaining the importance of education.

We require our oldest to practice 15 minutes of piano and 30 minutes of math at least 5 days a week.

We try to do homework on the weekends so it doesn’t get in the way of our weekly routine.

That still leaves her a lot of downtime and ensures she is being challenged as she explores her interests. Kids want to do what’s right.

When you set high expectations for them you are giving them something for which they can reach.

Talk to them About Why Education is Important

what is the importance of child education

Talking to your child is actually not the first thing you should do if you are trying to communicate the importance of education.

If you first model the desired behavior and then expose them to resources that send a message about the importance of education, you will have cultivated their sense of education’s importance so that your conversation with them will be easier for you and more meaningful to them.

When you think the time is right, tell them about your own experiences.

Make connections to your past and current educational pursuits and explain how your dedication and hard work have helped you achieve your goals and find fulfillment.

Authenticity is key here. Be as honest as is appropriate about the struggles along the way.

Kids know when a story is real or when it is watered down for them. Maybe you didn’t pursue a degree right out of high school and so it was much harder to do so later in life with adult responsibilities.

Or maybe you are highly educated and can speak to the sacrifices you made in your earlier years in order to get to where you are now.

The point is to express how important education is to you while modeling that behavior and connecting with your child throughout the process.

This is an opportunity to build a stronger connection with them so they will continue to want to talk to you about other topics in the future.

Be prepared to share a message that you are willing to repeat. These stories will become the ones that you repeat over the years to guide them in the right direction.

In turn, they will become the stories that your kids remember.

When there is another opportunity, have a conversation about the activities and resources you have been exposing them to.

Let’s say you decided to send them to a robotics class. Periodically, check-in with them to see how they are doing. Have short conversations with them about how they like it and how it’s going. Engage with them.

Ask clarifying questions. Later, sit down when the time is right and see if they can explain to you what they have been learning about. As they talk, just listen. Don’t guide them or probe them. Let them express themselves.

Are they building more complicated structures? Do they have a better understanding of which blocks to use and when?

Have they become more patient and more focused? Use their success as a mirror to show them the progress they have made. That can go much further than words that don’t have experiences behind them as support.

As they are speaking you may be able to tell how much they are learning. If they are taking well to the activity this could be a milestone for both of you.

Use their own words to show them that they are learning on their own. Help them develop a belief in themselves.

Show them that they are achieving and growing. Success will generate chances for more success.

Give Them Opportunities to Show What They Learned

Kids love to be recognized by their parents. As they settle into their new routines be sure to check in on them and “catch them doing the right thing”.

Let them know how proud of them you are that they are working on learning something new.

I consistently praise my kids when they make a kind gesture or help out and the same for making progress in an activity or their school work.

Give them the opportunity to explain to you what they are doing, how they are doing it, the mistakes they have made along the way, and what they have learned from those mistakes.

A good education is all about learning from your experiences and getting better as you go.

By giving your child the opportunity to learn from their mistakes and then explaining how they have, you are showing them that it’s OK to experiment and you support their learning.

Over time the child will process their learning and develop a deeper understanding of their new interest.

“The true worth of an experimenter consists in his pursuing not only what he seeks in his experiment, but also what he did not seek.” – Claude Bernard

Limit Device Use

Devices can take away from a child’s ability to learn and to practice delayed gratification. Some apps promote a short attention span which reduces a child’s ability to be successful academically and socially.

Consider that both Steve Jobs and Bill Gates strictly regulated the use of devices in their homes with their kids.

Often in life, it is beneficial to follow those who know the most about a topic, and few knew more than these guys.

Instead of tech, they emphasized reading books. They had home libraries with hundreds of books in them that their kids could ready anytime they wanted to.

Emphasizing a low tech environment in your home could translate into a high imagination environment. Some helpful limits on devices include:

Restrict cell phone until at least age 14
Limit or eliminate device use during the week (including TV)
Restrict use in bedrooms
Set a time well before bed (at least 1 hour before) to turn off devices
Restrict devices at the table or during discussions

Moving Forward

Helping your child understand the importance of education is more challenging than it sounds.

As adults, it seems like common sense, but kids may not see it that way. That’s OK. That’s what they have their parents for.

We have to help them live and breathe the reason so it becomes intuitive.

Develop a plan so that the events in their life are communicating the importance of education to them.

Embed education deep within your family culture. Work with them to pursue their interests so their creative energies are used on something constructive that helps them build their capacity to learn and their appreciation for learning.

Keep them around other kids whose parents are dedicated to promoting education as much as you are.

Most importantly, connect with them and let them know you care about who they will become.

How do you identify your child’s interests?

Observe them when they are being themselves and ask yourself these questions:

What do they spend the most time doing?
What are they willing to work hard at?
What brings out their creativity?
What do they choose to do most of the time?
What keeps them focused?
What do you hear them talking about?

Use the answers to these questions to help identify their interests so you can guide them to constructive hobbies that will cultivate their skillset and ignite their passion.

Then, use the steps in the above article to create a plan that will help them learn and grow as they pursue their new interest.

Why is Education Important and What is the Purpose of Education

“If you can read this, thank a teacher.” It’s a cliche, but it’s true. If it weren’t for education at all levels, you wouldn’t be able to read, write, speak, think critically, make informed decisions, know right from wrong, effectively communicate, or understand how the world works.

Another famous quote that proclaims the importance of education comes from George Orwell, “If people cannot write well, they cannot think well, and if they cannot think well, others will do their thinking for them.”

It goes without saying that an educated population advances a society, but why, exactly, do different subsets of education matter? Does physical education really make a difference, and do we need to be spending precious dollars on arts education? Unequivocally, the answer is yes, but continue reading below to find out why.

Why is Early Childhood Education Important

Before we can understand the importance of early childhood education, we should be on the same page about what age early childhood education refers to. Typically, early childhood education encompasses any education a child receives up until the age of eight, or around third grade.

During these initial years of life, children’s brains are growing and learning at a rapid rate, and learning typically comes very easy to them. The purpose of education at this stage is to build a solid foundation for children to build upon for the rest of their lives.

When looking at pre-school, one of the earliest educational opportunities, a meta-analysis of studies on the benefits of early childhood education found that “7–8 of every 10 preschool children did better than the average child in a control or comparison group” when looking at standard measures of intelligence and academic achievement. This makes sense, given that education in those early years sets children up for success.

Another study followed a group of students who were given early high-quality education and compared them to a control group. Years later, the students who were given a high-quality education performed better than the other students in many areas, both academically and socially. These students:

Scored higher on standardized testing
Had higher attendance rates
Had fewer discipline referrals
Were rated higher by their teachers in terms of behaviors, social interactions, and emotional maturity.

The list of studies showing the importance of early childhood education goes on virtually forever. In addition to the educational advantages students with high-quality early education see, they also often find more pleasure in learning. When parents and teachers instill a love of learning early on, children are more likely to continue to love learning as they go through school.

The better foundation they have from an early age, the more likely students are to find success and not get frustrated. When students struggle due to poor early childhood education, the more likely they are to give up. A solid foundation is protective against falling behind, which is imperative, because once students begin to fall behind, it becomes very hard to catch back up.

In addition to the obvious benefits to each child, multiple studies have also shown that early childhood education programs provide an economic benefit to society as well.

In an article from the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, the authors Arthur J. Rolnick and Rob Grunewald write, “Investment in human capital breeds economic success not only for those being educated, but also for the overall economy.” Later, they add:

“The quality of life for a child and the contributions the child makes to society as an adult can be traced back to the first few years of life. From birth until about 5 years old a child undergoes tremendous growth and change. If this period of life includes support for growth in cognition, language, motor skills, adaptive skills and social-emotional functioning, the child is more likely to succeed in school and later contribute to society.” Arthur J. Rolnick and Rob Grunewald

Early education also teaches kids how to be students. While it’s true that students shouldn’t be stuck in a desk all day and that they do some of their best learning out in the real world, the reality is that much of our formal education takes place inside a classroom. Early childhood education teaches kids how to learn and how to conduct themselves in a classroom.

Why is Bilingual Education Important

Bilingual education is a necessity for some students who speak a language at home that is different from the language spoken at their school. Although it can be a challenge, it turns out these students are at an advantage compared to their peers, and voluntary bilingual education prepares students to enter a global workforce.

According to an article from NPR , people who are bilingual are better at switching from one task to another, potentially due to their learned ability to switch from one language to the other. It seems their brains become wired to be better at these types of tasks that make up executive function, or “the mental processes that enable us to plan, focus attention, remember instructions, and juggle multiple tasks successfully.” ( Harvard )

Understanding a second language often makes it easier to understand your first language as well. In the same NPR article, the author writes about students enrolled in a bilingual education program who showed better performance in reading English than students enrolled in an English-only program.

Jennifer Steele, who observed these students, said “Because the effects are found in reading, not in math or science where there were few differences, she suggests that learning two languages makes students more aware of how language works in general, aka ‘metalinguistic awareness.’”

I personally experienced this benefit when I was in school. Although I am by no means bilingual, I took a second language, French, in middle school and high school, and I often found that the words I knew in French helped me understand and decipher new words in English. I also better understood the complexities of English grammar and verb forms after learning about them in a second language.

Another obvious benefit of bilingual education is increased opportunities in the workforce. An article for the Chicago Tribune reports that there has been increasing demand for bilingual education starting at an early age, partially due to the demand for bilingual employees. Specifically, the article notes that the following industries look for people who speak more than one language: health care, education, customer service, government, finance, information technology, social services, and law enforcement.

Why is Physical Education Important

A good physical education program can set a child up for a lifetime of healthy habits. When I was in elementary school, I can remember asking what the point of gym class was. By the time I was in high school though, I realized that gym class was one of the most important classes I had ever taken.

In my senior year, I took a strength and conditioning class, and it set me up for a lifetime of treating my body well through exercise and proper nutrition. Without that class, I would have been lost the first time I stepped into a gym on my college campus.

Physical education isn’t just important for older children; even at the preschool level, it’s an essential part of the school day. Spend time around any young child, and you’ll realize that they can’t sit still for long. With so much energy and excitement for exploring the world, they need to keep their bodies moving. One study in the Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health found that physical education increased both total physical activity and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity in preschool children.

An article for Livestrong.com also highlighted the importance of gym class because it increases the amount of physical exercise children get, it increases coordination and flexibility, it produces endorphins that elevate kids’ mood, and it provides important opportunities for kids to socialize with each other.

In addition to teaching kids lifelong skills about moving their bodies, gym class benefits the whole child; in a book titled Educating the Student Body , researchers found “a direct correlation between regular participation in physical activity and health in school-age children, suggesting that physical activity provides important benefits directly to the individual child.” Specifically, they found that physical education is associated with academic benefits, better social and emotional well-being, and that it might even be protective against heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

Why is arts and music education important

In a world where education budgets are continually being slashed, arts and music education are tragically often the first to go. For many students, the arts are what gets them to school each day, and without these classes as a creative outlet to look forward to, school can be a major struggle. These classes are a refuge for many students, especially those who don’t excel in a traditional classroom environment.

In addition to being a safe and happy place for students to go during the day, the arts have many other benefits. A study called “SAT Scores of Students Who Study the Arts: What We Can and Cannot Conclude about the Association” for the Journal of Aesthetic Education found that students who take arts courses in high school (including music, theatre, etc.) tend to have higher SAT scores. While standardized test scores aren’t everything, this connection certainly does suggest the arts play an integral part in overall student success.

The Brookings Institution , a nonprofit public policy organization, also found connections between arts education and student success. They conducted a randomized controlled trial to investigate the effect of arts education on students, and found students with more education in the arts had better academic, social, and emotional outcomes than the students with less access to the arts.

In addition to measurable changes like a decrease in disciplinary infractions and an increase in writing scores, they also found that “students who received more arts education experiences are more interested in how other people feel and more likely to want to help people who are treated badly.” In elementary students specifically, they found “increases in arts learning positively and significantly affect students’ school engagement, college aspirations, and their inclinations to draw upon works of art as a means for empathizing with others.”

Why is STEM education important

If you’ve heard anything about education in the last ten years or so, you’ve undoubtedly heard about the push for STEM education, which stands for science, technology, engineering, and math. Schools everywhere seem to be offering more STEM courses, and for good reason.

In a study of pre-service and novice elementary school teachers, 100% agreed that STEM education is important, citing reasons such as:

Providing a foundation for later academics
Making connections to everyday life
Preparing students for jobs
Promoting higher order thinking

The U.S. Department of Education also offers compelling reasons why STEM education is important:

“In an ever-changing, increasingly complex world, it’s more important than ever that our nation’s youth are prepared to bring knowledge and skills to solve problems, make sense of information, and know how to gather and evaluate evidence to make decisions. These are the kinds of skills that students develop in science, technology, engineering and math—disciplines collectively known as STEM. If we want a nation where our future leaders, neighbors, and workers have the ability to understand and solve some of the complex challenges of today and tomorrow, and to meet the demands of the dynamic and evolving workforce, building students’ skills, content knowledge, and fluency in STEM fields is essential.”

If that weren’t enough to convince you, the Smithsonian Science Education Center echoes a similar sentiment,

We must all recognize that we live in an era of constant scientific discovery and technological change, which directly affects our lives and requires our input as citizens. And we must recognize that as our economy increasingly depends on these revolutionary new advances, many new jobs will be created in STEM fields. If we are to stay competitive as a nation, then we need to build a scientifically literate citizenry and a bank of highly skilled, STEM-literate employees.

Education students in STEM subjects gives them the knowledge and skills they need to succeed in our digital world that changes by the day. Students learn skills they’ll use to take on jobs that don’t even exist yet.

Why is College Education Important

The importance of college education is sometimes called into question for many reasons. According to CNBC , more than one in five college graduates work in jobs that don’t require a degree. Statistics like this make people wonder if it’s worth spending years of their lives going into debt only to land a job they could have gotten without a degree.

While there are of course cases where people don’t use their college degree, the research still suggests that overall, earning a college degree is beneficial. A paper titled “Do the Benefits of College Still Outweigh the Costs?” revealed that the benefits do, in fact, outweigh the costs. The authors of the academic paper found the following:

“An analysis of the economic returns to college since the 1970s demonstrates that the benefits of both a bachelor’s degree and an associate’s degree still tend to outweigh the costs, with both degrees earning a return of about 15 percent over the past decade. The return has remained high in spite of rising tuition and falling earnings because the wages of those without a college degree have also been falling, keeping the college wage premium near an all-time high while reducing the opportunity cost of going to school.”

There is also no denying that a large majority of very important jobs require higher education. Everybody would agree they wouldn’t want their surgeon or their child’s teacher to walk onto the job straight out of high school.

The college experience shouldn’t be downplayed, either. Whether it’s to have that buffer zone between being a kid and an adult or to have time to study abroad and have shared experiences before entering the “real world,” many people who have gone to college say the college experience is one of the many things that makes college worthwhile.

A report titled “It’s Not Just the Money: The Benefits of College Education to Individuals and to Society” from the University of Maine echoes this sentiment, noting that the monetary benefit of college is often the most cited because it’s objective and easy to measure.

Subjective benefits like the college experience are hard to study because they can mean different things to different people. The report cites a multitude of benefits college graduates see, including higher likelihood of having health insurance, higher likelihood of having a retirement plan, higher likelihood of good health, lower likelihood of being in prison or jail, higher voting turnout, higher self-reportings of happiness, and higher community involvement.

Many of these statistics are the result of correlations, meaning there is a connection between college and the benefits, but that doesn’t mean that attending college causes these benefits. Nonetheless, there is no denying that college can and does have a positive impact on many people.

Suffice it to say that education matters. Studies have shown that those who are more educated are more likely to live longer , live healthier lives , and are even more likely to help strangers . Investing in various types of education from the time children are young ensures that they have a strong foundation and that the whole person is being educated. The more diverse and well-rounded we can make education for children, the better educated they’ll be.

Pre-K: Decades Worth Of Studies, One Strong Message

Claudio Sanchez

Diverse classrooms are the key to building a better preschool, a new study reports.

Some of the nation's top researchers who've spent their careers studying early childhood education recently got together in Washington with one goal in mind: to cut through the fog of studies and the endless debates over the benefits of preschool.

They came away with one clear, strong message: Kids who attend public preschool programs are better prepared for kindergarten than kids who don't.

The findings come in a report " The Current State of Scientific Knowledge on Pre-Kindergarten Effects ," and the authors include big names from the early childhood world: Deborah Phillips of Georgetown University, Mark W. Lipsey of Vanderbilt, Kenneth Dodge of Duke, Ron Haskins of the Brookings Institution and others.

It lays out the current state of preschool education in the U.S. and what research can tell us about what works and what doesn't.

Among their key findings, drawing from across the research base, are:

We Learned A Lot In 2016 About How Preschool Can Help Kids

While all kids benefit from preschool, poor and disadvantaged kids often make the most gains. "Researchers who study pre-K education often find that children who have had early experiences of economic scarcity and insecurity gain more from these programs than their more advantaged peers."
Children who are dual-language learners "show relatively large benefits from pre-K education" — both in their English-language proficiency and in other academic skills. Dual-language learners are mostly low income, Spanish speaking children, often with underdeveloped pre-literacy and pre-math skills. But, says Phillips, "there's substantial evidence now that, because they're learning two languages at the same time, they have stronger brain circuits that support self regulation." That may explain why preschool can help them make quick progress: "Their capacity to incorporate new information and to switch attention from one task to another, these are the skills they bring."
And yet, the researchers said, that doesn't mean preschool should necessarily be targeted toward poor or disadvantaged kids. "Part of what may render a pre-K classroom advantageous" for a poor student or a child learning English, "is the value of being immersed among a diverse array of classmates."
Not all preschool programs are alike. Features that may lead to success include "a well implemented, evidence-based curriculum" and an emphasis on the quality and continuous training of pre-K teachers. There's still a lot of research that needs to be done, the study concludes, "to generate more complete and reliable evidence on effectiveness factors."

Currently, the federal government, along with 42 states and the District of Columbia, spend about $37 billion a year on early childhood programs, mostly targeting low-income 3- to 5-year-olds.

When it comes to what preschools should teach, the researchers took on a big question in that field, too: Should pre-K focus on the social and emotional development of children or should it concentrate on what researchers call "skills specific curricula," namely numeracy and literacy?

The research clearly says it's not a matter of either/or.

"What we know is that children bring a vast array of experiences, both strengths and weaknesses," Phillips says. "Some children need more support than others. Some bring vast knowledge and skills."

Instruction built on social and emotional skills, rich play, toys, games, art, music and movement complements explicit instruction focused on things like learning to count and matching letters to sounds and words. Both benefit kids' readiness for school. For researchers, the critical questions now are: What should the next generation of pre-K programs look like? What else needs to happen — in preschool and beyond — to ensure a long-term impact? And how do we connect all the dots in a child's educational trajectory beginning with preschool? That's no easy task considering that half of the school-readiness gap between poor and affluent children is already evident by age 2, before most kids ever get to preschool. Another major hurdle is the disconnect between pre-K and elementary education. Rather than building on the skills that kids arrive with, researchers have found lots of redundancy with kindergarten and first-grade teachers repeating a lot of what pre-K teachers do. This results in what researchers call "dead zones" that squander hard-won gains. "On that count we cannot declare victory," says Phillips. "We need to look at the elementary grades as re-charging stations." Pre-K programs today can also do a better job reaching out to low income families dealing with stress and mental health issues. The home, after all, provides either a sturdy or fragile foundation, researchers say. "We know that poverty and adversity compromises the developing brain architecture and circuits," says Phillips. And while even a high-quality program does not inoculate children from adversity and poverty, it can help mitigate those effects. "Absolutely," says Phillips. "That is pre-K education's primary function."

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Ask the Expert: Why is a Preschool Education Important? ‘When Children Attend High-quality Pre-K Programs, They Get a Really Great Boost in Early Skills That Set Them Up for Success in Elementary School,’ Says Assistant Professor Michael Little

This is part of the monthly “Ask the Expert” series in which NC State College of Education faculty answer some of the most commonly asked questions about education.

Early childhood is a critical time when a child’s brain is highly impacted by the contexts and environments that surround them. It is for that reason that NC State College of Education Assistant Professor Michael Little, Ph.D. , says a preschool education is important for all students who are able to attend.

“Oftentimes, when children attend high-quality and effective Pre-K programs, they get a really great boost in early skills that set them up for success in elementary school,” said Little, who studies policies and programs that seek to improve early educational outcomes for students with a focus on connections between preschool and early elementary grades.

Decades of research have demonstrated the benefits of preschool, Little said, including a long-term study of an early model Pre-K program that began in the 1960s. Participants in that study, who are now middle aged, have been followed throughout their lives by researchers who have found that those who attended the preschool program demonstrated beneficial outcomes throughout their lives, including having superior health outcomes and being less likely to be incarcerated than those who did not attend preschool.

Studies on scaled up Pre-K programs, including North Carolina’s state-funded Pre-K program, also show that attendance leads to robust benefits for kids that set them up for success in early elementary school grades, Little said.

Despite these initial benefits, Little said that more can be done to help children sustain the academic gains that they make in preschool. Stronger alignment between preschool and the K-12 school system, specifically in kindergarten through third grade, can help prevent “Pre-K fadeout,” a phenomenon in which the early benefits of preschool can diminish in elementary school.

“This is a really critical challenge because, to deliver on the promise and effectiveness of Pre-K, we need to make sure that we’re sustaining the gains of Pre-K throughout elementary school and beyond,” he said. “That means coordinating and creating an aligned system of early learning that builds upon the gains that kids made in Pre-K and sustains them throughout the early grades. This is often referred to as P-3 alignment.”

Little’s own research has demonstrated that school-based preschool programs, which are located within an elementary school rather than in a separate building, could be a crucial element to improving P-3 alignment. When preschools reside in the same location as K-3 teachers, it can create conditions for educators to better collaborate and share student data in order to break down barriers that often exist between the worlds of Pre-K and K-12 learning.

Making sure that preschool and kindergarten teachers are able to communicate and create stronger transition practices from Pre-K to kindergarten can also help support P-3 alignment, Little said.

In addition to helping children to sustain academic gains, P-3 alignment also has the benefit of helping schools to achieve goals of educational equity, as children who attend state-funded preschool programs are often historically marginalized students or students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

“If the effects of Pre-K simply fade away once they enter elementary school, we’re not delivering on the promise of preschool as an equity achieving policy intervention. For us to close achievement gaps and really deliver on the promises of Pre-K, we need to ensure through P-3 alignment that the benefits of Pre-K are sustained,” Little said.

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Top 10 Reasons Why Is Education Important

Updated: June 19, 2024

Published: April 15, 2020

Top-10-Reasons-Why-Is-Education-Important

Most of us have grown up being taught the importance of education. But why is education important? Through your frustrating school years, you may have thought that it was a waste of time, or was just something that you needed to do in order to get a job. Truth be told, however, education goes so much beyond just getting a job and making your parents happy. In fact, it’s one of the most powerful tools out there.

What Is Education?

Education means studying in order to obtain a deeper knowledge and understanding of a variety of subjects to be applied to daily life. Education is not limited to just knowledge from books, but can also be obtained through practical experiences outside of the classroom.

Top 10 Reasons: Why Is Education Important?

There are many different understandings and definitions of what education is, but one thing can be universally agreed upon, which is the importance of education — and here’s why.

1. Provides Stability

Education provides stability in life, and it’s something that no one can ever take away from you. By being well-educated and holding a college degree , you increase your chances for better career opportunities and open up new doors for yourself.

2. Provides Financial Security

On top of stability, education also provides financial security, especially in today’s society. A good education tends to lead to a higher paying job, as well as provide you with the skills needed to get there.

3. Needed For Equality

In order for the entire world to really become equal, it needs to start with education. If everyone was provided with the same opportunities to education , then there would be less gaps between social classes. Everyone would be able to have an equal chance at higher paying jobs — not just those that are already well-off.

4. Allows For Self-Dependency

The importance of education is evident when it comes to being self-dependent. If we are we educated, then it’s something that belongs to us, and only us, allowing us to rely on no one else other than ourselves. It can allow you to not only be financially independent, but also to make your own choices.

5. Make Your Dreams Come True

If you can dream it, you can achieve it. An education is the most powerful weapon you can possibly have, and with it, you can make all of your dreams come true. There are of course certain exceptions, depending on what you’re aiming for, but generally an education will take you as far as you’re willing to go.

6. A Safer World

Education is something that’s not only needed on a personal level, but also on a global level, as it’s something that keeps our world safe and makes it a more peaceful place. Education tends to teach people the difference between right and wrong, and can help people stay out of risky situations.

7. Confidence

Being self-confident is a major part of being successful in life. And what better way to gain that confidence than with an education? Your level of education is often considered a way to prove your knowledge, and it can give you the confidence to express your opinions and speak your mind.

8. A Part Of Society

In today’s society, having an education is considered a vital part of being accepted by those around you. Having an education is believed to make you a useful part of society, and can make you feel like a contributing member as well.

9. Economic Growth On A National Level

An educated society is crucial for economic growth. We need people to continue to learn and research in order to constantly stay innovative. Countries with higher literacy rates also tend to be in better economic situations. With a more educated population, more employment opportunities are opened.

10. Can Protect You

Education can protect you more than you know, not only on a financial level, but it can help prevent you from being taken advantage of by knowing how to read and write, such as knowing not to sign any bogus documents.

Photo by Pixabay from Pexels

Education is important for children.

Children are the future of our world, making education crucial for them. Their knowledge is what’s going to keep our world alive and flourishing.

At Childhood

During the childhood development stages, the importance of education is stronger than ever. It’s a time for children to learn social and mental skills that will be crucial for their growth and success in the future. Education at childhood also offers a chance for self-discovery and to learn about their unique interests.

The importance of education in our lives goes far beyond what we can read in a textbook. Education also provides childhood with knowledge such as how to produce artwork and make music. Education allows us to analyze what’s in front of us, and even learn from our mistakes.

Goal Building

By learning from a young age, children are given the chance to start building goals for themselves. Education means having the logic to set your mind to something and achieve it.

Importance Of Education In Society

For a modern society, education is of utmost importance. There are so many influences coming from all directions, and education can help us decipher what we should take as true, and what we should take with a grain of salt. Education can mold people into functional members of society with the right kinds of values.

Productivity

Education is needed for a productive society. Our population only continues to increase, and in turn, so do our needs. We need a strong and efficient workforce of educated people to provide us with the services we need for everyday life.

The Impact Education Has On The World

With education, people can become better citizens, knowing right from wrong, allowing for a better society where laws are followed. An educated nation knows about the importance of voting, doing so with the knowledge not blindly, but also having an understanding of what their party truly stands for. Education can also help people get jobs, which is what a nation thrives on.

Inspiring Quotes On What Education Truly Is

Why is education important, and what is it exactly? While every person has a different understanding of its true meaning, here are some of the most inspiring quotes by some legendary people.

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” — Nelson Mandela
“Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.” — Malcolm X
“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” — Benjamin Franklin
“Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.” — John Dewey

What Are Some Other Reasons Why Education Is Important?

There are endless reasons why education is so important, especially since it also has endless connotations and meanings.

Mind And Body

Our mind and bodies are connected more than we know. With a powerful, well-educated mind, so too are our bodies.

Education helps us understand how to best take care of ourselves, boosting our confidence and overall well-being. Studies have shown that each additional year of education can add up to 1.7 years to our lifespan at the age of 35.

The importance of education also extends to personal growth. By constantly learning, asking questions, and seeking knowledge, we can achieve things we never imagined before. Education helps us get to know ourselves better, whether through books, courses, or professional consultations.

Photo by Burst from Pexels

Worldwide value.

Education is the best way to ensure a positive global perspective. Without proper education, it is difficult to understand what is considered appropriate and how to behave.

Education brings us closer to the goal of world peace by teaching us about our place in the world and our responsibilities to humanity. It instills values far beyond the classroom, encompassing lessons learned at home and through interactions with others. These teachings are essential aspects of what education entails, guiding our behavior and understanding of the world.

Sharpens Your Thinking

Education is essential for sharp and clear thinking. It keeps you informed about the world, making you aware of current events and the people around you. Education helps you understand your strengths and weaknesses, guiding you to focus on the right areas.

It enhances logical reasoning, enabling you to argue effectively with accurate facts and work through situations logically. Education keeps you focused and on track, knowing the right path for you.

It also promotes innovation and creativity, allowing your mind to reach its full potential. Education develops basic life skills and street smarts, teaching us how to best conduct ourselves daily.

Education can be the most freeing and empowering thing in the world. It enables you to live life to the fullest by gaining a vast amount of knowledge about the world. Education ensures continual learning from various sources, whether through people, newspapers, experiences, research, or traditional classes.

It breaks barriers, empowering people globally and offering equal opportunities for all socio-economic backgrounds. University of the People, a tuition-free, online university, exemplifies this by providing accessible higher education to everyone.

Education allows you to become the best version of yourself, discovering your interests, strengths, and place in the world, making you feel complete and self-aware.

Education In The Modern World

Education today is more important than ever before, and has reached new heights with new understandings of what it truly entails. Ask yourself “Why is education important?” and it will surely not be the same as anyone else’s answer.

While in modern society, holding a college degree is considered to be highly beneficial for a successful career and to be socially accepted, it is not the only means of education. Education is all around us in everything that we do, so use it wisely!

FAQ Section

What are the primary goals of education.

The primary goals of education are to impart knowledge, develop critical thinking, and foster personal and social growth. It aims to prepare individuals for the workforce, promote civic responsibility, and encourage lifelong learning.

How does education influence future opportunities?

Education enhances future opportunities by increasing employability, boosting earning potential, and providing a foundation for personal and professional growth. It opens doors to higher-paying jobs and further educational pursuits.

How does education vary across different countries?

Education varies globally in structure, quality, and accessibility due to differences in economic development, cultural values, and government policies. Some countries focus on standardized testing, while others emphasize holistic or experiential learning.

What is the role of technology in education?

Technology enhances education by providing access to online learning, digital resources, and interactive tools. It supports personalized learning, enables innovative teaching methods, and makes education more accessible and engaging.

How does education contribute to personal growth?

Education promotes personal growth by expanding knowledge, improving cognitive abilities, and fostering critical thinking. It helps develop self-awareness, emotional intelligence, and effective communication skills.

How does education address societal issues like discrimination?

Education combats discrimination by promoting inclusivity and awareness. It teaches about diversity, tolerance, and human rights, helping to break down prejudices and empower marginalized communities.

What are the economic benefits of investing in education?

Investing in education leads to higher productivity, increased innovation, and a more skilled workforce. It reduces poverty, boosts economic growth, and lowers reliance on social welfare programs.

Can education foster innovation and entrepreneurship?

Yes, education fosters innovation and entrepreneurship by encouraging creative thinking and problem-solving. It provides the skills and knowledge necessary for developing new ideas and launching successful businesses.

What role do educators play in shaping the educational experience?

Educators shape the educational experience by creating engaging learning environments, guiding students, and adapting teaching methods to meet diverse needs. They mentor and inspire students to achieve their full potential.

In this article

At UoPeople, our blog writers are thinkers, researchers, and experts dedicated to curating articles relevant to our mission: making higher education accessible to everyone. Read More

Importance of Education for Children

Education is one of the most important things that children can receive. It opens doors for them and helps them to grow into responsible adults. A good education can help children to develop their talents and abilities, and it can also give them the opportunity to make a better life for themselves. Education is an investment in the future, and it is one of the best gifts that parents can give to their children. As a parent, you have high hopes for your children and their future. You want them to be happy and successful in whatever they choose to do. A big part of that is making sure they get a good education. There are many benefits and importance of education for children to getting an education. We have covered the topic below in several subs for your facilitation.

Importance of Education

It opens doors to opportunities that would otherwise be unavailable, and it sets the foundation for success in life. A well-educated person is more likely to get a good job, earn a higher salary, and enjoy a better standard of living than someone who doesn’t have a degree. As we go through life, we are constantly faced with choices and decisions to make. A good education will teach you how to think critically about these choices and make the best decision for yourself and for the community around you.

Lastly, education provides opportunities for personal growth and development. As we learn new things, we grow as individuals and expand our horizons. We become more aware of the world around us and learn new ways of looking at things.

Importance of Child Education

There is no denying the importance of education. It is an essential part of our lives, and it shapes our future. Education helps us to develop our skills and knowledge so that we can be successful in life. One of the most important things that education does is provide children with the foundation they need to succeed in life. A good education teaches children how to think critically, solve problems, and make informed decisions. These are essential skills that they will use throughout their lives. In addition to teaching children essential life skills, education also provides them with knowledge about the world around them. They learn about different cultures, history, and science. This knowledge gives them a better understanding of the world and helps them to become well-rounded individuals. Investing in child education is one of the best things you can do for your child’s future success. It will set them up for a lifetime of success and help them to reach their full potential.

How Education is Important

Most people believe that education is a good thing. But why? Is it the process of learning facts and figures? Is it the opportunity to meet new people and make friends? Or is there something more fundamental at play?

Some of the key reasons why education is so important are. By the end, you should have a better understanding of its value and how it can benefit your life. One of the most obvious benefits of education is that it helps you gain knowledge. We’re talking about useful skills and factual information that can help you in your everyday life. For example, let’s say you want to start cooking at home to save money on eating out. With a little bit of instruction, you can learn how to cook healthy meals quickly and easily. Or maybe you want to start running to get in shape but don’t know where to begin. Again, a few lessons from an experienced coach can set you on the right path and help avoid any costly mistakes. In both cases, taking the time to learn from those with experience will pay off dividends down the road. Whether it’s picking up a new hobby or developing a new skill for your job, education allows you to achieve things you never thought possible.

Reasons Why Education is Important

There are many reasons why education is important. Here are ten of the most important:

1. Education gives us the ability to read, write and communicate. This is perhaps the most important reason why education is so important. Without being able to read, write and communicate, we would be unable to interact with others or understand the world around us.

Employers are often looking for candidates with the right qualifications, and if you have them, you are more likely to be considered for the position. Furthermore, as you advance in your career, having a good education will make it easier for you to get promoted.

3. Education helps us develop critical thinking skills. In order to make sound decisions, we need to be able to think critically about the information that we are presented with.

5. Education helps us understand ourselves and others. As we learn about different subjects, we also learn more about ourselves and the people around us. We can develop a greater understanding and appreciation for diversity through education.

6. A Good Education Can Help You Earn More Money In general, people with higher levels of education tend to earn more money than those without degrees. This is because employers are willing to pay more for employees who have the skills and knowledge that come with a good education. If you want to increase your earning potential, getting a quality education is one of the best things you can do.

8. Education builds character. Through our educational experiences, we have the opportunity to develop positive character traits such as responsibility, self-discipline, honesty and integrity. These qualities are essential for success in life.

9. Education prepares us for work and career success. In order to be successful in today’s competitive workforce, it is necessary to have a good education. Most jobs now require at least some college experience

Why is Education Important to Society?

Education is the process of acquiring knowledge in any form, whether it be through formal or informal means. It is one of the most important aspects of our lives, as it shapes who we are and how we view the world around us. It helps us develop our skills and abilities so that we can contribute to society in a positive way. There are many reasons why education is important to society. One of the most important ones is that it helps us develop as individuals. We learn new things and gain new perspectives that can help us make better decisions in life. Education also allows us to build successful careers, which in turn benefits society as a whole.

Another reason why education is so important is that it helps reduce crime rates. Studies have shown that people who have access to quality education are less likely to engage in criminal activity than those who do not have access to such opportunities. This is because education provides people with the tools they need to lead successful and productive lives.

Importance of Education for children

It is important for children to get an education so that they can be successful in life. Education will help them develop critical thinking skills, learn how to solve problems, and gain knowledge about the world around them. Additionally, education will prepare children for the workforce and enable them to pursue their dreams.

Sherry Lane

Meet Sherry Lane, a proud holder of a PhD in Educational Psychology with a concentration in Montessori Methods. At EduEdify.com, I dive deep into Montessori Education, Teaching-Learning, and Child-Kid paradigms. My advanced studies, combined with years of research, position me to provide authoritative insights. Let's explore the many facets of education, ensuring every child receives the best instruction tailored to their needs.

8 Things to Remember about Child Development

Content in this guide, step 1: why is early childhood important.

: Brain Hero
: The Science of ECD (Video)
: The Science of ECD (Text)

Step 2: How Does Early Child Development Happen?

: 3 Core Concepts in Early Development
You Are Here: 8 Things to Remember about Child Development
: InBrief: The Science of Resilience

Step 3: What Can We Do to Support Child Development?

: From Best Practices to Breakthrough Impacts
: 3 Principles to Improve Outcomes

Building on a well-established knowledge base more than half a century in the making, recent advanc es in the science of early childhood development and its underlying biology provide a deeper understanding that can inform and improve existing policy and practice, as well as help generate new ways of thinking about solutions. In this important list, featured in the From Best Practices to Breakthrough Impacts report, the Center on the Developing Child sets the record straight about some aspects of early child development.

Even infants and young children are affected adversely when significant stresses threaten their family and caregiving environments.

Adverse fetal and early childhood experiences can lead to physical and chemical disruptions in the brain that can last a lifetime. The biological changes associated with these experiences can affect multiple organ systems and increase the risk not only for impairments in future learning capacity and behavior, but also for poor physical and mental health outcomes.

Number 1: Even infants and young children are affected adversely when significant stresses threaten their family and caregiving relationships.

Development is a highly interactive process, and life outcomes are not determined solely by genes.

The environment in which one develops before and soon after birth provides powerful experiences that chemically modify certain genes in ways that then define how much and when they are expressed. Thus, while genetic factors exert potent influences on human development, environmental factors have the ability to alter family inheritance. For example, children are born with the capacity to learn to control impulses, focus attention, and retain information in memory, but their experiences as early as the first year of life lay a foundation for how well these and other executive function skills develop.

While attachments to their parents are primary, young children can also benefit significantly from relationships with other responsive caregivers both within and outside the family.

Close relationships with other nurturing and reliably available adults do not interfere with the strength of a young child’s primary relationship with his or her parents. In fact, multiple caregivers can promote young children’s social and emotional development. That said, frequent disruptions in care and high staff turnover and poor-quality interactions in early childhood program settings can undermine children’s ability to establish secure expectations about whether and how their needs will be met.

Number 3: While attachments to their parents are primary, young children can also benefit significantly from relationships with other responsive caregivers both within and outside the family.

A great deal of brain architecture is shaped during the first three years after birth, but the window of opportunity for its development does not close on a child’s third birthday.

Far from it! Basic aspects of brain function, such as the ability to see and hear effectively, do depend critically on very early experiences as do some aspects of emotional development. And, while the regions of the brain dedicated to higher-order functions—which involve most social, emotional, and cognitive capacities, including multiple aspects of executive functioning —are also affected powerfully by early influences, they continue to develop well into adolescence and early adulthood. So, although the basic principle that “earlier is better than later” generally applies, the window of opportunity for most domains of development remains open far beyond age 3, and we remain capable of learning ways to “work around” earlier impacts well into the adult years.

Number 4: A great deal of brain architecture is shaped during the first three years after birth, but the window of opportunity for its development does not close on a child’s third birthday.

Severe neglect appears to be at least as great a threat to health and development as physical abuse—possibly even greater.

When compared with children who have been victimized by overt physical maltreatment, young children who experienced prolonged periods of neglect exhibit more serious cognitive impairments, attention problems, language deficits, academic difficulties, withdrawn behavior, and problems with peer interaction as they get older. This suggests that sustained disruption of serve and return interactions in early relationships may be more damaging to the developing architecture of the brain than physical trauma, yet it often receives less attention.

Young children who have been exposed to adversity or violence do not invariably develop stress-related disorders or grow up to be violent adults.

Although children who have these experiences clearly are at greater risk for adverse impacts on brain development and later problems with aggression, they are not doomed to poor outcomes. Indeed, they can be helped substantially if reliable and nurturing relationships with supportive caregivers are established as soon as possible and appropriate treatments are provided as needed.

Number 6: Young children who have been exposed to adversity or violence do not invariably develop stress-related disorders or grow up to be violent adults.

Simply removing a child from a dangerous environment will not automatically reverse the negative impacts of that experience.

There is no doubt that children in harm’s way should be removed from dangerous situations immediately. Similarly, children experiencing severe neglect should be provided with responsive caregiving as soon as possible. That said, children who have been traumatized need to be in environments that restore their sense of safety, control, and predictability, and they typically require therapeutic, supportive care to facilitate their recovery.

Resilience requires relationships, not rugged individualism.

The capacity to adapt and thrive despite adversity develops through the interaction of supportive relationships, biological systems, and gene expression. Despite the widespread yet erroneous belief that people need only draw upon some heroic strength of character, science now tells us that it is the reliable presence of at least one supportive relationship and multiple opportunities for developing effective coping skills that are the essential building blocks for strengthening the capacity to do well in the face of significant adversity.

Suggested citation: Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University (2016). 8 Things to Remember about Child Development. Retrieved from www.developingchild.harvard.edu.

Why Early Childhood Education is Important?

Children's brains grow remarkably between the ages of one and eight, which makes this a critical window of time for schooling. Early childhood health, safety, and education improve a child's chances of reaching adulthood's full developmental potential and engaging fully in social, cultural, and economic life.

Numerous studies and pieces of data have come together to bolster this assertion. First, research in neuroscience has demonstrated that early experiences may either provide a strong or weak foundation for a child's subsequent learning, development, and behaviour. This means that the environment has an impact on the structure of the brain. Second, research has shown that programming for children and adolescents provides higher economic returns on investment than those for adults and adolescents.

What is Early Childhood Education?

Teaching young children is officially referred to as early childhood education. More precisely, it refers to structured and unstructured educational initiatives that support children's development and growth during their preschool years (birth to age five). Early Childhood Education (ECE) includes a broad range of activities aimed at supporting young children's social and cognitive development prior to kindergarten entry. While some programs prioritise preparing students academically for school, others take a "whole child" approach that stresses mental and emotional health.

Importance of Early Education for a Child's Development:

Giving children the tools they need to grow into lifelong learners is the goal of early childhood education (ECE). These tools include social, emotional, and cognitive development techniques. The following are the most crucial abilities for young students to acquire:

Language and Literacy: The development of literacy abilities is predicated on language. A child's enthusiasm for books and reading improves when they learn to speak.
Thinking: Children apply and gain a comprehension of mathematical ideas and techniques for solving problems.
Self-control: The capacity to appropriately express and control one's emotions.
Self-confidence: Children are more eager to try new things when they have self-confidence and feel capable.

Cognitive Development:

Early childhood cognitive development is crucial for a number of reasons, including the fact that it establishes the framework for schooling and learning. The ability to reason, think, and solve problems is essential for academic achievement. It describes how a child's mental faculties—such as perception, attention, memory, language, problem-solving, reasoning, and decision-making—develop and mature throughout time.

When acquired in an early childhood educational setting, cognitive skills can improve a child's ability to control their emotions, speak clearly, and form connections with others. Additionally, they are more likely to have greater self-esteem and a good self-image. It is crucial for fostering the growth of vital life skills including problem-solving, critical thinking, and decision-making. These abilities are essential for success in all aspects of life, including relationships and employment.

Social Skills:

Early childhood education plays a pivotal role in teaching children how to interact effectively with peers and adults. During these formative years, children learn crucial social skills that will benefit them throughout their lives. They practice sharing, taking turns, and working together, which helps them develop strong communication and cooperation skills. Interacting in a structured educational setting allows children to form friendships, resolve conflicts, and understand social norms, laying the foundation for healthy relationships in the future.

Emotional Growth:

Early education is also essential for emotional growth. In a supportive learning environment, children learn to understand and manage their emotions. They develop emotional regulation skills, which help them cope with frustration, anxiety, and other challenging feelings. Additionally, early education promotes resilience, enabling children to bounce back from setbacks and adapt to new situations. Teachers and caregivers provide the nurturing support that children need to build a positive self-image and emotional well-being.

Language and Literacy:

One of the key benefits of early childhood education is the development of language and literacy skills. During these years, children are exposed to a rich language environment that fosters their vocabulary and communication abilities. Early exposure to reading and storytelling not only enhances their language skills but also sparks their imagination and creativity. These activities are fundamental in preparing children for future academic success, as strong language and literacy skills are critical for learning across all subjects.

Foundation for Lifelong Learning:

Early childhood education lays the groundwork for lifelong learning and academic achievement. Research has shown that children who attend quality early education programs perform better in school, have higher graduation rates, and are more likely to pursue higher education. The skills and knowledge gained in early childhood provide a solid foundation that supports continued educational growth and development. Investing in early education is an investment in a child's future success and well-being.

By actively participating in your child's early education, you can help them build a strong foundation for future academic and personal success. Early childhood education is a vital step in preparing children for the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.

10 good reasons your child should attend preschool

by: The GreatSchools Editorial Team | Updated: December 15, 2023

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10 good reasons your child should attend preschool

Preschool provides a foundation for learning both socially and academically that will help your child succeed in elementary school. We have ten good reasons why your youngster can benefit from attending a good preschool.

Preschool is an opportunity for growth

Preparing children for kindergarten.

As kindergarten becomes more academic, many parents l ook to preschool to launch their child on the path to success in schoo l. At the same time, parents may worry that the current trend to focus on pre-math and pre-literacy skills in preschool cuts into important play time and pushes a child to grow up too fast. It’s a confusing issue,especially with friends and family offering different opinions and advice.

Fortunately, in selecting a preschool, parents aren’t forced to choose between protecting a child’s play time and making sure she’s ready for kindergarten. A high-quality early childhood education program will offer children both.

Promoting social and emotional development

In order to learn, a young child needs to feel cared for and secure with a teacher or caregiver. A 3-year-old child is able to spend time away from parents and build trusting relationships with adults outside the family. High-quality preschool programs nurture warm relationships among children, teachers and parents. And teachers build a close personal connection with each child in their care.

Children thrive when there is consistency in care between home and school. In high-quality preschools, teachers value parents as the experts on their children. Parents get daily reports on their child’s activities and regular meetings are scheduled for more in-depth conferences with staff. Teachers strive to understand and respect parents’ child-rearing goals and values.

The preschool environment is structured, although it may not appear that way

Children get to make choices, children learn to take care of themselves and others.

Children’s sense of competence and self-worth grow as they learn to take care of themselves and help others. Teachers appeal to a young child’s desire to engage in “real work” by offering him chances to help out in the classroom, for example, by setting the table at snack time or feeding the classroom hamster. Children are expected to wash their hands before snack time, keep personal belongings in their “cubby,” and put away toys before moving to a new activity.

Teachers also encourage a child to view herself as a resource for other children. For example, a teacher might ask a child who’s more competent at pouring water to help a child who is learning. Or she might ask a “veteran” preschooler to show a newcomer where the sand toys are kept.

Promoting language and cognitive skills

Preschool-age children’s language skills are nurtured in a “language-rich” environment. Between the ages of 3 and 5, a child’s vocabulary grows from 900 to 2,500 words, and her sentences become longer and more complex. In a conversational manner, and without dominating the discussion, teachers help children stretch their language skills by asking thought-provoking questions and introducing new vocabulary during science, art, snack time, and other activities. Children have many opportunities to sing, talk about favorite read-aloud books, and act out stories.

Preschool teachers nurture a child’s curiosity

Teachers observe, ask questions and listen to children’s ideas during these activities — “correct” answers are not the goal. To nurture their curiosity and motivation to learn, teachers use children’s interests and ideas to create activities. And even a simple, chance event – such as a child’s discovery of a snail in the outdoor play area — can be turned into an exciting opportunity to learn.

Preschool-age children have active imaginations and learn through make-believe play. Teachers know that the line between reality and fantasy is often not clear to a young child. Sometimes this results in fears of monsters under the bed. But imagination also fuels learning. For example, when a group of children creates a make-believe pet store, they will practice many social and cognitive skills as they assign roles to each child, figure out categories of pet supplies and how to organize them, make signs to label products; help their “customers” select the right shampoo or cat toy; and take “money” for merchandize.

Preschool activities boost pre-math and literacy skills

Young children show growing interest in pre-math and pre-literacy skills. They are curious and observant, and they want to be competent in the skills that their families and society value — such as reading the instructions for assembling a toy, or selecting the correct bills or coins to pay for a purchase. To prepare children for the academic demands of kindergarten, teachers offer a wide variety of games and activities that help children acquire the pre- math and literacy skills.

Singing an alphabet song while following along in a picture book builds a child’s awareness of the connections between alphabet letters and word sounds. Learning rhymes and chants helps them to notice the distinct sounds within words. Engaging children in a discussion about an exciting read-aloud story encourages their listening, comprehension, and expressive language skills. Playing with magnetic alphabet letters may inspire a child to ask a teacher to help her write the first letter of her name.

Matching games, sorting games, counting games, and board games build children’s understanding of number, categories and sequence, which supports later math learning. Putting together puzzles encourages children to notice patterns, plan ahead and problem-solve.

10. Helping develop motor skills

When you choose a high-quality program that suits your child and family, you can feel assured that your child is well cared for, is enjoying activities and making friends — and is building the knowledge, skills, and confidence to do well in kindergarten.

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Early Child Education

The importance of early childhood education: consequences of neglecting developmental foundations

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Early childhood education and development (ECED) is a critical period that lays the foundation for a child’s future learning, behaviour , and health. What is the meaning of early childhood education? Early childhood education (ECE), also known as nursery education, is a branch of education theory that relates to the teaching of children (formally and informally) from birth up to the age of eight. Traditionally, this is up to the equivalent of third grade. According to UNICEF,Early childhood, which spans the period up to 8 years of age, is critical for cognitive, social, emotional and physical development.Neglecting this crucial stage can have far-reaching consequences, not only for the individual but also for society at large. The first few years of a child’s life are marked by rapid brain development.

According to the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University, 90% of a child’s brain development occurs before the age of five. This period is crucial for cognitive, emotional, and social growth. Neglecting early childhood education can result in missed opportunities to stimulate brain development through activities that promote learning and social interaction. Children who do not receive adequate early education are at a higher risk of developmental delays and cognitive impairments.

Social and emotional development is another critical aspect of early childhood education. Children who do not engage in structured early learning environments may struggle with social skills such as cooperation, empathy, and problem-solving.

The American Academy of Pediatrics highlights that early relationships with caregivers and peers significantly influence a child’s emotional well-being and ability to form healthy relationships later in life. Neglecting this developmental phase can lead to behavioural problems, difficulties in forming relationships, and increased susceptibility to mental health issues such as anxiety and depression.

Education in the early years sets the stage for academic success. Research by the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) indicates that children who attend high-quality pre-kindergarten programmes perform better in reading and math during their elementary school years. Conversely, children who lack early educational experiences often enter school behind their peers and struggle to catch up.

This academic lag can persist throughout their schooling, leading to lower graduation rates and reduced opportunities for higher education and employment. The economic implications of neglecting early childhood education are profound. Nobel Laureate economist James Heckman has extensively studied the economic returns of early childhood education and found that investing in high-quality early learning programs yields significant long-term economic benefits. These benefits include reduced costs associated with remedial education, decreased reliance on social welfare programs, and increased earning potential for individuals. Conversely, failing to invest in early childhood education can perpetuate cycles of poverty and limit economic mobility.

Health outcomes are also closely linked to early childhood development. The World Health Organization (WHO) emphasizes that early childhood experiences have a lasting impact on physical health. Children who do not receive proper nutrition, healthcare, and stimulation during their early years are more likely to suffer from chronic health conditions such as obesity, heart disease, and diabetes later in life.

Additionally, early childhood education programs often provide essential health screenings and interventions that can identify and address developmental and health issues early on.

Neglecting early childhood education and development also has societal implications. A lack of investment in early education can contribute to social inequalities, as children from disadvantaged backgrounds are less likely to have access to high-quality early learning experiences. This disparity perpetuates the achievement gap and limits social cohesion. Moreover, communities with higher rates of educational attainment tend to experience lower crime rates and greater civic engagement. Therefore, neglecting early childhood education can undermine the social fabric and stability of communities.

The consequences of neglecting early childhood education and development are extensive and multifaceted. From cognitive and social-emotional development to academic achievement, economic outcomes, health, and societal well-being, the early years of a child’s life are a critical period that shapes their future. Investing in high-quality early childhood education and development is not only beneficial for the individual but also for society as a whole.

Policymakers, educators, and communities must recognize the importance of early childhood education and take proactive measures to ensure that every child has access to the opportunities and support they need to thrive. The evidence is clear: the cost of neglecting early childhood education is far too high to ignore.

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Developing and Evaluating an Assessment of Preschoolers’ Science and Engineering Knowledge

A major challenge to promoting effective early science and engineering education is the lack of reliable and validated assessments that align with current educational guidelines for science and engineering. Existing early science and engineering assessments either cover a narrow range of concepts and practices and/or are not designed in a way to evaluate and provide information within theorized dimensions of science and engineering knowledge and skills. The goals of this study were to develop a preschool science and engineering assessment and to examine the factor structure of children’s science and engineering knowledge and skills using the newly developed assessment. A 120-item assessment was developed and administered to 186 children (50.28% female) ages 3-to-5 years ( M = 4.62 years, SD = 0.61 years). The overall best fitting structure of the assessment was found to be a three-dimensional model: disciplinary core ideas, science and engineering practices, and crosscutting concepts. Items that had low correlations with the overall test, loaded poorly onto their respective factors, or were found to provide overlapping information with other items (i.e., exhibited similar difficulties for the same content areas) were removed, resulting in a final and brief (48-item) version of the assessment. This study has important implications in that the newly developed science and engineering assessment can be used in both the research (e.g., evaluate curricula, interventions) and classroom (e.g., assess learning) settings to provide information at the dimension-level, and has the potential to transform how we view and instruct science and engineering during the early childhood years.

Administration for Children and Families (ACF) of the United States (U.S.) Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of a financial assistance award (Grant #: 90YR0173).

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Doctor of Philosophy
Human Development and Family Studies

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West Lafayette

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Additional committee member 2, additional committee member 3, additional committee member 4, additional committee member 5, usage metrics.

Child and adolescent development
Testing, assessment and psychometrics

Understanding your lab values and other CKD health numbers

Last Updated: September 05, 2023

Medically reviewed by NKF Patient Education Team

About your lab values and other ckd health numbers, measuring your general health, measuring your kidney health, measuring your balance of important minerals and acidity, measuring ckd complications: nutrition & malnourishment, measuring ckd complications: anemia, measuring ckd complications: mineral and bone disorder (ckd-mbd), measuring ckd complications: cardiovascular disease (cvd), measuring ckd risk factors: diabetes, questions for your healthcare team, more resources.

It is normal to feel like living with chronic kidney disease (CKD) sometimes means you need to learn a new language. CKD is a complex condition that worsens over time. Early on, only a small number of tests may be needed. As CKD gets worse, your kidneys have a harder time doing all their jobs like helping make red blood cells, balancing important minerals, and keeping your bones healthy. So, you may notice more tests being checked and/or checked more often as your CKD gets worse. You may also need extra tests to monitor for other health conditions that are related to kidney disease.

Having regular visits with your healthcare professionals and getting your recommended lab work done can help you stay up to date with your health. But you may not be familiar with why some of these measures of your kidney-related health and wellbeing are used. So, the information below serves as a quick guide to the different types of health information that you may see in your medical record that is important for people living with CKD. Some of these tests require a blood or urine sample (also called “lab tests” or “labs”) – these are usually sent to a laboratory for measurement. Other measures, like weight or blood pressure, are usually done in an exam room.

If you have questions about your results, always talk with your healthcare professional first before taking any action.

Everybody's situation is different - some of these tests may not apply to you. Similarly, your situation may need a test that is not included in this list. Also, having test results that are not in the "normal" range (as provided on your lab sheet) doesn't always mean there is a problem or concern.

Blood pressure

A healthy blood pressure is very important for your kidneys and overall health.

High blood pressure puts extra stress on your kidneys, heart, and blood vessels - increasing your risk for heart attack, stroke, and worsening kidney disease.
Low blood pressure makes it hard for your blood to deliver oxygen and nutrients to all the different parts of your body. This increases your risk for acute kidney injury . It can also increase your risk for dizziness and falling.

Your blood pressure is reported as 2 separate numbers – for example “120/80” or “120 over 80”. The first/top number (called “systolic pressure”) is the pressure in your blood vessels during each heartbeat - when blood is actively pumped out of your heart to the rest of your body. The second/bottom number (called “diastolic pressure”) is the pressure in your blood vessels when your heart is resting between each beat.

The recommended blood pressure target may vary depending on factors like your age, other health conditions, risk of falling, and whether you are on dialysis . Ask your healthcare professional what your goal blood pressure should be.

Maintaining a healthy weight is important for your overall health. The definition of healthy weight depends on many other factors like your height, age, and other health conditions. So, ask your healthcare professional what a healthy body weight is for you.

If you are underweight or losing weight without trying, you may not be getting the right nutrition to stay healthy.
If you are overweight or slowly gaining weight, you may be getting too many calories and/or not enough physical activity.

In either of these situations, working with a dietitian can help you find ways to safely add or remove extra calories to your diet and make sure you get the right nutrition.

Sudden weight gain can also be a serious problem, especially if you are on dialysis and/or have heart failure. It may be a sign of too much fluid in your body, especially if it also comes with symptoms like swelling, shortness of breath, and/or a rise in blood pressure.

If you are on dialysis and/or living with heart failure, it is important to ask your healthcare professional what your dry weight is – your “normal” weight without any extra fluid in your body. As part of your treatment plan, your healthcare professional may recommend weighing yourself at a certain time every day. After you check your weight, compare the number to your dry weight number. If your weight has gone up or down by too much (as defined by your healthcare professional’s directions), contact your dialysis center or clinic for further instructions.

Serum (blood) creatinine

Creatinine is a waste product in your blood that comes from the digestion of protein in your food and the normal breakdown of muscle tissue. It is removed from your body through the kidneys. If you have kidney disease, the kidneys can have trouble removing creatinine from your blood. So, the level of creatinine in your blood starts to go up. High creatinine levels can be a sign of acute kidney injury and/or chronic kidney disease . A “normal” creatinine level in the blood is hard to define because it can change depending on your age, sex, body size, and other factors.

Cystatin C is a protein that is produced by the cells in your body. Like creatinine, it is also removed from the body through the kidneys. If you have kidney disease, the kidneys can have trouble removing cystatin C from your blood. So, the level of cystatin C in your blood starts to go up. For some people, this blood test can be helpful to measure instead of (or in addition to) your serum creatinine to check your kidney health. This test is not as common as the creatinine test and can be more expensive.

Estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR)

The estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) is an estimate of how well your kidneys are removing waste products from the blood. It is calculated using your serum (blood) creatinine level, age, and sex. It can also be calculated using your cystatin C level instead of, or in addition to, your serum (blood) creatinine level. A “normal” eGFR varies according to age – it naturally decreases as you get older. For this test, a higher number is better .

If you have chronic kidney disease (CKD) , the eGFR is used to determine your CKD stage . In general, an eGFR value lower than 60 is a sign that the kidneys may not be working properly. An eGFR lower than 15 is a marker of kidney failure .

A pie chart graphic of a speedometer-like dial that depicts GFR results of 0 to 15 as kidney failure, 15 to 60 as kidney disease, 60 to 90 as early-stage kidney disease, and 90 to 120 as normal

Measured glomerular filtration rate (mGFR)

In less common situations where a more accurate measure of your kidney function is needed, your healthcare provider may order a measured glomerular filtration rate (mGFR) . The mGFR is a direct measure of how well your kidneys are removing waste products from the blood. It can be a complicated and lengthy process. So, it is not used as often as the estimated GFR (eGFR).

Your healthcare professional may recommend this test if a more accurate measure of your kidney function is needed. There are many ways to complete this test – some involve collecting all the urine you make in 24 hours; others involve multiple blood samples taken from your arm over several hours. The mGFR is sometimes called a different name - measured creatinine clearance (mCrCl).

Blood urea nitrogen (BUN)

Urea nitrogen is a waste product in your blood that comes from the breakdown of protein in the foods you eat. It is removed from the body through the kidneys. A “normal” BUN level varies, and usually increases as you get older. Checking your BUN level is usually not very helpful by itself. So, your healthcare provider will likely compare your BUN level to your creatinine and eGFR levels when evaluating your kidney health.

Urine albumin-creatinine ratio (uACR)

The urine albumin-creatinine ratio (uACR) test measures the amount of two different substances in your urine (pee) – albumin (protein) and creatinine. Healthy kidneys keep the albumin in your blood while filtering the creatinine out into the urine. So, this test checks to see how well your kidneys are keeping albumin in your body and sending creatinine out.

The uACR is calculated by comparing the amount of albumin in your urine with the amount of creatinine in your urine to find the ratio. A “normal” uACR level is less than 30 mg/g. For this test, a lower number is better . A uACR level of 30 mg/g or more can be a sign of albuminuria .

When you check the results from this test on your lab report, you may see many different numbers. Focus on the result that has the word ratio in the name. For example, the name on your report may be “alb/creat ratio”, “albumin/creat ratio”, or “albumin/creat ratio, random urine”.

Urine protein-creatinine ratio (uPCR)

This test is very similar to the uACR test described above. But instead of measuring only the amount of albumin in your urine (pee), it measures all the different proteins that may be present. In some forms of kidney disease (like IgA nephropathy , lupus nephritis , or glomerulonephritis ) or when testing children for protein in their urine , your healthcare professional may choose to measure your uPCR instead of uACR. A “normal” uPCR level is less than 150 mg/g. For this test, a lower number is better . A uPCR level of 150 mg/g or more can be a sign of proteinuria .

Potassium is an important mineral found throughout your body. It is needed for many of your body’s functions – like keeping your heart beating regularly and muscles working properly. Your kidneys help keep the right amount of potassium in the blood.

In more advanced stages of chronic kidney disease , your kidneys may have a hard time removing extra potassium from the blood, especially if you are on dialysis. People living with CKD can also be at risk for low potassium, especially during earlier stages of CKD. The recommended goal potassium level for most people is between 3.5 and 5.

Sodium is an important mineral that helps balance the amount of fluid in your body. It also helps your nerves and muscles to work properly. Your kidneys play an active role in keeping your fluid levels balanced, partly by helping get rid of any extra sodium in your body through your urine.

In more advanced stages of chronic kidney disease , your kidneys may have a hard time balancing your fluid and blood sodium levels. This can increase your risk of high blood pressure, edema (swelling), and/or heart failure.

Having a sodium level higher or lower than the goal range can be a result of many things. So, your healthcare professional will likely compare your results from this test with your other test results (such as serum creatinine, glucose, potassium, carbon dioxide, and/or urine tests). When looked at together, your healthcare professional can provide you with custom guidance for resolving the issue (if applicable).

However, it is also possible to have a normal sodium level while still consuming too much sodium (salt). When your blood sodium level goes up, your body tries to balance it out by holding on to extra water. This is what causes symptoms like thirst, swelling, high blood pressure, and/or shortness of breath. It is important to limit your sodium (salt) intake to less than 2300 mg per day. Your healthcare professional may advise an even lower target depending on your other health conditions.

Serum (blood) bicarbonate / carbon dioxide (CO2)

Bicarbonate is needed in your blood to stop it from getting too acidic. Most of the bicarbonate in your body is in the form of carbon dioxide (CO2), a waste product from when your body turns food into energy. So, another name for this blood test is your “serum carbon dioxide (CO2)” level.

The kidneys work together with the lungs to keep your bicarbonate (carbon dioxide) level in your blood in the goal range. In more advanced stages of chronic kidney disease , your kidneys may have a hard time removing extra acidic waste products from the blood. This is also known as metabolic acidosis . A bicarbonate/CO2 level less than 22 mEq/L can be a sign your blood has too much acid – talk with your healthcare professional about a treatment plan if your labs show a CO2 (bicarbonate) level less than 22.

Serum albumin

Good nutrition is important for providing your body with the resources to fight infections, repair body tissue, and build new muscle. Having a more advanced stage of chronic kidney disease increases your risk of problems with your nutritional health and malnourishment, especially for people who are on dialysis . It is not possible to measure your nutritional health directly, so a variety of tests can be used to check the highest risk areas for health problems.

Albumin is an important protein normally found in the blood that serves many roles in the body. These roles include building muscle, repairing tissue, and fighting infection. A low level of albumin in your blood may be caused by not getting enough protein or calories in your diet, especially if you are on hemodialysis . Since albumin is made in the liver, low albumin levels can also be a sign of liver problems. A low albumin level may lead to health problems such as difficulty fighting off infections. When compared against your other health information and test results, your serum albumin level can help your healthcare professional see if you are getting enough nutrients in your diet.

Normalized protein nitrogen appearance (nPNA)

If you are on dialysis , the nPNA can be a helpful tool that your healthcare professional may use to see if you are eating enough protein. This number is calculated using your blood urea nitrogen (BUN) level just before your dialysis session, your weight, and the amount of protein you ate (including food, drink, and supplements) during a specific period of time. The amount of urea nitrogen in your urine may also be used.

When compared against your other health information and test results, your nPNA results can help your healthcare professional see if you are getting enough protein in your diet.

Another name for this test is the normalized protein catabolic rate (nPCR).

Subjective global assessment (SGA)

If you are on dialysis , your dietitian may use the SGA to help check for signs of nutrition problems. The dietitian will ask you a few questions about your daily diet and any symptoms you may have, measure your weight, and then check your fat and muscle stores in your face, hands, arms, shoulders, and legs. All this information can help your dietitian see if you are getting enough nutrition in your diet. If there are any concerns, your dietitian will work with you to create a plan to help you get the nutrition you need.

Anemia happens when you have low levels of red blood cells in your blood. Red blood cells carry oxygen from your lungs to the rest of your body. The kidneys play a very active role in helping your body make these red blood cells. Also, people living with advanced CKD can have problems absorbing iron from food. They are also at high risk for repeated blood loss from frequent blood tests and during dialysis . This makes the kidneys try to make even more red blood cells when they are having trouble keeping up in the first place. So, having a more advanced stage of chronic kidney disease increases your risk of anemia, especially for people who are on dialysis .

Keep in mind that anemia is not always caused by CKD and the descriptions below are general guides to the most common tests. If you have anemia, talk with your healthcare professional about what the primary cause may be and how you can treat it.

Hemoglobin (Hgb)

Hemoglobin is the protein in your red blood cells that carries oxygen. For adults and children over 15 years living with CKD, anemia is suspected when the hemoglobin level is under 13 g/dL (in males) or under 12 g/dL (in females).

Hematocrit (Hct)

Hematocrit is very similar to hemoglobin. It is a measure of how many red blood cells your body is making. The number is the actual percentage of your blood sample that is made up of red blood cells.

Ferritin (pronounced FAIR-ritt-in) is the stored form of iron found in your body. So, your ferritin level is a measure of how much iron your body has available to use at any given moment. Iron is an important ingredient for making hemoglobin. Having enough iron (ferritin) available is important for being able to make more red blood cells. Having a low level of ferritin means you may need an iron supplement to help treat your anemia.

Transferrin saturation (TSAT)

Transferrin (pronounced trans-FAIR-rin) is a protein that helps move iron throughout your body. So, your transferrin saturation (TSAT, pronounced TEE-sat) number helps show what percent of the transferrin in your blood is currently attached to iron. Your healthcare professional will likely look at your TSAT number in combination with your ferritin level to decide the best way to treat your anemia. In general, a TSAT number of 20% or more is considered “normal”.

Mean corpuscular volume (MCV)

The mean corpuscular volume (MCV) is a blood test that measures the average size of your blood cells. When combined with your other test results and medical history, it can help your healthcare professionals identify the best treatment for your anemia.

For example, an MCV below the reference range suggests the anemia may be caused by low iron. Similarly, an MCV above the reference range suggests the anemia may be caused by low vitamin B12 and/or folic acid.

Your kidneys play a very active role in balancing the ingredients needed for healthy bones – calcium, phosphorus, and vitamin D. In more advanced stages of chronic kidney disease , your kidneys may have a hard time activating vitamin D (which is needed to absorb calcium from your food) and removing extra phosphorus from the blood. This increases your risk of having calcium and phosphorus levels that are out of balance (also known as secondary hyperparathyroidism ). Without close monitoring and treatment, this can cause CKD-related bone disease (also known as CKD-mineral and bone disorder or CKD-MBD).

Parathyroid hormone (PTH)

Parathyroid hormone (PTH), also known as intact parathyroid hormone (iPTH), helps balance the levels of calcium and phosphorus in your blood. When your blood level of calcium goes down, your body makes more PTH to raise it, usually by releasing calcium (and phosphorus) from your bones. PTH also helps remove extra phosphorus from your blood through the kidneys. So, the kidneys play a very active role in this complex process.

Even though this test has the word “thyroid” in the name, it is entirely separate from anything related to your thyroid function. The name “parathyroid” comes from the place where the hormone comes from - very small glands in your neck that sit very close to your thyroid.

A “normal” PTH level in the blood is hard to define because it depends on many other factors (including your stage of CKD, phosphorus level, and calcium level). Ask your healthcare professional what your custom target PTH level should be.

Serum calcium

Calcium is an important mineral your body needs for strong bones, and for your nerves, muscles, and heart to work properly. Your kidneys play a very active role in balancing your calcium levels to make sure the level is just right. If your body needs more calcium, your kidneys activate vitamin D to help absorb more calcium from your food and drink. Your body is not able to absorb the calcium without it. In more advanced stages of chronic kidney disease , your kidneys may have a hard time activating vitamin D. This makes it very hard for your body to absorb enough calcium from your food. So, your body starts breaking down bones to supply the calcium. This increases your risk of CKD-related bone disease .

For people living with advanced CKD, your healthcare professional will likely compare your results from this test with your phosphorus and PTH levels. Looking at these three tests together will help them provide you with custom guidance about your target for each item.

Serum Phosphorus

Phosphorus (sometimes called phosphate) is an important mineral that your body needs to make strong bones, store energy, and maintain your tissues and cells. Your kidneys play a very active role in keeping your phosphorus levels in the goal range. In more advanced stages of chronic kidney disease , your kidneys may have a hard time removing extra phosphorus from the blood, especially if you are on dialysis. This increases your risk of having phosphorus levels that are too high, and can also lead to CKD-related bone disease .

For people living with advanced CKD, your healthcare professional will likely compare your results from this test with your calcium and PTH levels. Looking at these three tests together will help them provide you with custom guidance about your target for each item.

Vitamin D (25-hydroxyvitamin D; 25(OH)D; calcidiol)

Vitamin D is something your body needs to absorb calcium from your food. Vitamin D is needed for strong teeth and bones. It also helps keep your muscles, nerves, and immune system working well. Your body gets vitamin D from sun exposure and the food that you eat. Once absorbed, your liver converts the vitamin D into its storage form to save for later, also known as 25-hydroxyvitamin D or calcidiol. Your kidneys are responsible for activating the stored vitamin D when your body needs it.

In more advanced stages of chronic kidney disease , your kidneys may have a hard time activating vitamin D. This increases your risk of not absorbing enough calcium from your food. So, your body can start breaking down bones to get the calcium it needs. This increases your risk of CKD-related bone disease . Having a low 25-hydroxyvitamin D (calcidiol) level suggests you may not have enough stored vitamin D ready to use when your body needs it.

People living with chronic kidney disease are at an increased risk of having cardiovascular disease (heart attack or stroke). This is especially true if you have an advanced stage of CKD and/or if you have albuminuria . Your risk of CVD (heart attack or stroke) is increased even more if you also have high cholesterol.

Cholesterol is a fat-like substance found throughout your body and in your blood. It is important for keeping your cells and organs healthy. Your body gets cholesterol from two places – it is absorbed from food and made in your liver. Too much cholesterol in your blood can lead to it attaching to the walls of your blood vessels, making them narrow or blocking them altogether.

A typical cholesterol test usually checks your blood for four different things:

Total cholesterol (TC)

Total cholesterol is the total level of cholesterol in your blood. This number includes all the major types of cholesterol that exist in your blood (LDL cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, and triglycerides). For most people, a level below 200 mg/dL is considered the goal. However, there may be situations where a higher TC number is okay – for example, people who have very high HDL (“good”) cholesterol levels. So, your healthcare professional may advise you to focus more attention on the numbers for the different types of cholesterol listed below.

HDL cholesterol (HDL-C)

HDL cholesterol is the level of “good cholesterol” in your blood. It has this name because it helps remove extra fats from your blood. This lowers the risk of having blocked arteries and lowers your risk of heart disease. For this test, a higher number is better , especially if it is 40 mg/dL or higher.

LDL cholesterol (LDL-C)

LDL cholesterol is the level of “bad cholesterol” in your blood. It has this name because it increases the amount of fat that attaches to the walls of your blood vessels. This increases the risk of blockages in your arteries and raises your risk of heart disease. For this test, a lower number is better . A number less than 100 mg/dL is generally considered to be at goal. People who already have heart disease or are at very high risk for developing heart disease may have an even lower LDL-C goal.

Triglycerides (TG or “trigs”)

Triglycerides are a mixture of fats and carbohydrates (sugars) that your body uses as an energy source. A high triglyceride level can increase the risk of heart disease and pancreatitis. For this test, a lower number is better , especially if it is less than 150 mg/dL.

High blood glucose (sugar) levels over a long period of time can damage the kidneys. So, diabetes is a very strong risk factor for developing chronic kidney disease. This is especially true if your blood sugar levels are higher than your goal range for long periods of time. Two of the most common tests used to diagnose and monitor diabetes are the hemoglobin A1C and serum (blood) glucose level.

Hemoglobin A1C

Your hemoglobin A1C, often just called “A1C”, is a blood test that describes your average blood sugar over the past 2-3 months.

If you have not been diagnosed with diabetes before , this test can be used to check for it. An A1C of 5.7% or more can be a sign that you are at high risk for developing diabetes. An A1C of 6.5% or more can be a sign that you have diabetes. A repeat test is usually recommended to confirm the results are accurate before a diagnosis can be made.
If you have been diagnosed with diabetes before , this test is used to see how well you are managing it. The goal for most adults living with diabetes is an A1C of 7% or lower. Some people may need a higher or lower goal depending on their clinical situation. Ask your healthcare professional what your goal A1C level should be.

The A1C test may not be as accurate for people on dialysis or receiving erythropoietin stimulating agents (ESAs, a medication for anemia caused by CKD).

Serum (blood) glucose (sugar)

Glucose (sugar) is an important source of energy for your body, including your brain and red blood cells. This test describes the amount of glucose that is in your blood at the time of testing.

A fasting blood glucose level of 100 mg/dL or higher is a sign that you may be at high risk for developing diabetes.
A fasting level of 126 mg/dL or more is a sign that you may have diabetes.
In both cases, “fasting” means you have not had anything to eat or drink (except water) during the 8-12 hours before the test.
A blood sugar level of 200 mg/dL or more at any time is also a sign that you may have diabetes.
In all of these cases, a repeat test is usually recommended to confirm the results are accurate before a diagnosis can be made.
If you have been diagnosed with diabetes before , this test is used to see how well you are managing it. Keeping your blood glucose (sugar) level within your goal range is important. A blood sugar level that is too low (less than 70 mg/dL) can starve your brain and other parts of the body of energy. A blood sugar level that is too high can cause damage to your kidneys, heart, and other organs in your body. Everyone’s goal range is different – ask your healthcare professional what your goal range is.
Am I at a healthy weight?
What is my recommended goal blood pressure?
What is my goal A1C and/or blood glucose level?
What is my “dry weight”? What should I do if my weight at home is much higher or lower than my “dry weight”?
Are there any test results in my lab work that you are especially concerned about or that I should pay special attention to?
Which of my results have a different goal level or range than the “normal” range that is shared with my lab results?
Kidney Failure and the Kidney Failure Risk Equations (KFRE)
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Nutrition and Chronic Kidney Disease

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Hong Kong arts education must do more than strengthen national identity

In seeking to boost children’s understanding of Chinese culture, we must not lose sight of why arts education is important in the first place

In the past, friends who visited Hong Kong would tell me, “Hong Kong museums are great if you want to beat the crowds. There is hardly any one there.” For the most part, they didn’t mean to be demeaning. Most enjoyed their museum trips but wondered why so few people visited. It’s that sort of intangible environment – one in which arts and culture permeates the air – that we lacked.

Art Basel Hong Kong 2024 opens as city boosts mega-events to draw visitors

A cultural desert no more, Hong Kong still has much work to do. Another piece of the puzzle must come in the form of education and increasing arts and culture exposure in our school curriculum.

These benefits include better emotional well-being and coping mechanisms that come with children having access to creative outlets for their emotions and self-expression. Appreciation of and engagement in the arts enriches lives. If people from all backgrounds and social strata have the right access, the city will be living and breathing art and culture.

Hong Kong’s world-class visual culture museum M+ to open in November

Including Chinese works in the curriculum would definitely enrich pupils’ cultural understanding. How else would they be able appreciate the diversity of art forms? There’s no question that children need to be exposed to both Western and Eastern art, as well as for them to learn how culture has affected such art. This is essential to broadening their understanding of the world and to shaping their perceptions of how to relate to the nation and the world.

Let’s not veer off course. We can’t afford to if we truly want to be the centre of art and culture exchange while equipping our future leaders to be creative thinkers and innovators.

Alice Wu is a political consultant and a former associate director of the Asia Pacific Media Network at UCLA

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About Vaccines for Your Children
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About Vaccines for your Children

At a glance.

Most parents choose to vaccinate their children according to the recommended schedule, but many parents may still have questions about the vaccines recommended for their child.

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Vaccine Safety

Are vaccines safe.

Yes. Vaccines are very safe . The United States’ long-standing vaccine safety system ensures that vaccines are as safe as possible. Currently, the United States has the safest vaccine supply in its history. Millions of children safely receive vaccines each year. The most common side effects are very mild, such as pain or swelling at the injection site.

What are the risks and benefits of vaccines?

Vaccines can prevent infectious diseases that once killed or harmed many infants, children, and adults. Without vaccines, your child is at risk for getting seriously ill and suffering pain, disability, and even death from diseases like measles and whooping cough. The main risks associated with getting vaccines are side effects, which are almost always mild (redness and swelling at the injection site) and go away within a few days. Serious side effects after vaccination, such as a severe allergic reaction, are very rare and doctors and clinic staff are trained to deal with them. The disease-prevention benefits of getting vaccines are much greater than the possible side effects for almost all children. The only exceptions to this are cases in which a child has a serious chronic medical condition like cancer or a disease that weakens the immune system, or has had a severe allergic reaction to a previous vaccine dose.

Is there a link between autism and vaccines?

No. Scientific studies and reviews continue to show no relationship between vaccines and autism.

Please see the CDC vaccine safety website for more information on autism and vaccines .

Side Effects

What are common side effects of vaccines.

Vaccines, like any medication, may cause some side effects. Most of these side effects are very minor, like soreness where the shot was given, fussiness, or a low-grade fever. These side effects typically only last a couple of days and are treatable. For example, you can apply a cool, wet washcloth on the sore area to ease discomfort.

Can vaccines overload my baby's immune system?

Vaccines do not overload the immune system. Every day, a healthy baby’s immune system successfully fights off thousands of germs. Antigens are parts of germs that cause the body’s immune system to go to work to build antibodies, which fight off diseases.

The antigens in vaccines come from the germs themselves, but the germs are weakened or killed so they cannot cause serious illness. Even if babies receive several vaccinations in one day, vaccines contain only a tiny fraction of the antigens they encounter every day in their environment. Vaccines give your child the antibodies they need to fight off serious vaccine-preventable diseases.

Schedule for Vaccines

A mother holding up and smiling at her young baby.

Why do vaccines start so early?

The recommended schedule protects infants and children by providing protection early in life, before they come into contact with life-threatening diseases. Children receive vaccinations early because they are susceptible to diseases at a young age.

Should my child get shots if she is sick?

Talk with your child’s doctor, but children can usually get vaccinated even if they have a mild illness like a cold, earache, mild fever, or diarrhea. If the doctor says it is okay, your child can still get vaccinated.

Should I delay some vaccines or follow a non-standard schedule?

Children do not receive any known benefits from following schedules that delay vaccines. Infants and young children who follow immunization schedules that spread out or leave out shots are at risk of developing diseases during the time you delay their shots.

Why can't I delay some vaccines if I'm planning to get them all eventually?

Young children have the highest risk of having a serious case of disease that could cause hospitalization or death. Delaying or spreading out vaccine doses leaves your child unprotected during the time when they need vaccine protection the most. For example, diseases such as Hib or pneumococcus almost always occur in the first 2 years of a baby’s life. And some diseases, like hepatitis B and whooping cough (pertussis), are more serious when babies get them.

If I'm breastfeeding, do I vaccinate my baby on schedule?

Yes, even breastfed babies need to be protected with vaccines at the recommended ages. The immune system is not fully developed at birth, which puts newborns at greater risk for infections.

Breast milk provides important protection from some infections as your baby’s immune system is developing. For example, babies who are breastfed have a lower risk of ear infections, respiratory tract infections, and diarrhea. However, breast milk does not protect children against all diseases. Even in breastfed infants, vaccines are the most effective way to prevent many diseases. Your baby needs the long-term protection that can only come from following CDC’s recommended schedule .

Can I wait to vaccinate my baby since he isn't in child care?

No, even young children who are cared for at home can be exposed to vaccine preventable diseases, so it’s important for them to get all their vaccines at the recommended ages. Children can catch these illnesses from any number of people or places, including from parents, brothers or sisters, visitors to their home, on playgrounds or even at the grocery store. Regardless of whether your baby is cared for outside the home, your baby comes in contact with people throughout the day, some of whom may have a vaccine-preventable disease.

Many of these diseases can be especially dangerous to young children, so it is safest to vaccinate your child at the recommended ages.

Can I wait until my child goes to school to catch up on immunizations?

No. Before entering school, young children can be exposed to vaccine-preventable diseases. Children under age 5 are especially susceptible to diseases because their immune systems have not built up the necessary defenses to fight infection.

Why do adolescents need vaccines?

Vaccines are recommended throughout our lives to protect against serious diseases. As protection from childhood vaccines wears off, adolescents need vaccines that will extend protection. Adolescents need protection from additional infections as well, before the risk of exposure increases.

Why are multiple doses needed for each vaccine?

Getting every recommended dose of each vaccine provides your child with the best protection possible . Depending on the vaccine, your child will need more than one dose to build high enough immunity to help prevent disease or to boost immunity that fades over time. Your child may also receive more than one dose to make sure they are protected if they did not get immunity from a first dose, or to protect them against germs that change over time, like flu. Every dose is important because each protects against an infectious disease that can be especially serious for infants and very young children.

Protection from Diseases

Do infants have natural immunity.

Babies may get some temporary protection from mom during the last few weeks of pregnancy, but only for diseases to which mom is immune. Breastfeeding may also protect your baby temporarily from minor infections, like colds. These antibodies do not last long, leaving your baby vulnerable to disease.

Haven't we gotten rid of most of these diseases in this country?

Some vaccine-preventable diseases, like pertussis (whooping cough) and chickenpox, remain common in the United States. On the other hand, other diseases vaccines prevent are no longer common in this country because of vaccines. If we stopped vaccinating, the few cases we have in the United States could very quickly become tens or hundreds of thousands of cases. Even though many serious vaccine-preventable diseases are uncommon in the United States, some are common in other parts of the world. Even if your family does not travel internationally, you could come into contact with international travelers anywhere in your community. Children who don’t receive all vaccinations and are exposed to a disease can become seriously sick and spread it through a community.

National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD) | NCIRD | CDC

Childhood Vaccines

Vaccines can help protect babies and children from serious, even deadly, diseases. It’s important to stay up to date on recommended vaccines.

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Susan Wojcicki, a Pivotal Chief of YouTube, Dies at 56

She helped turn Google into an internet juggernaut and became one of the most prominent women in Silicon Valley.

A woman in a leather jacket and white T-shirt sits against a dark background.

By John Yoon and Mike Isaac

Susan Wojcicki , who helped turn Google from a start-up in her garage into an internet juggernaut, and who became one of Silicon Valley’s most prominent female executives with her leadership of YouTube, died on Friday. She was 56.

Her death was confirmed by her husband, Dennis Troper, who wrote on Facebook that she had been living with lung cancer for two years. He did not say where she died.

Ms. Wojcicki’s more than two decades with Google began in 1998 in her house in Menlo Park, Calif., part of which she rented to her friends Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the company’s founders. For $1,700 a month, the two used the garage as their office to build the search engine.

Ms. Wojcicki, who had been working at Intel, soon joined Google as one of its earliest employees and was its first marketing manager. Over the years, she reached its executive ranks, becoming Google’s most senior woman employee. She eventually led YouTube, which Google acquired in 2006, and which became one of the world’s largest social media companies.

“She is as core to the history of Google as anyone, and it’s hard to imagine the world without her,” Sundar Pichai, Google’s chief executive, said in a statement .

When she became YouTube’s chief executive in 2014, Ms. Wojcicki was hailed as the most powerful woman in advertising. She had made Google enormously profitable, and she was expected to repeat the trick at YouTube. She led Google’s ad business and played a key role in its acquisition of DoubleClick , an advertising technology company, in 2007.

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Importance of Education for Children

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