A Child’s Education Should Begin at Birth!

Early child education, or simply “early education”, according to the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), refers to the phase in the period of childhood characterized by the child beginning to learn through play, spanning the human life from birth up to the age of eight.

Over the years, researchers, teachers, and parents have all recognized the importance of early education on the child’s overall development. Numerous studies have been conducted to establish whether there is a connection between early education and the child’s academic performance and behavioral development patterns. Findings varied in some ways but one thing remained dominant—the findings show that majority of those who did not have early education end up getting arrested or drawn into the use of alcohol, drugs or tobacco. One particular study came up with shocking findings suggesting that students who lacked early education are 70% more likely be to be arrested for a violent crime by age the of 18. This clearly shows how early education is vital for a child’s overall development.

However, many people, especially parents, have this common misconception that early child education simply means enrolling the child at an early age—three years old as the earliest possible. While that could in fact be the earliest age for a child to be eligible to enroll, early education does not necessarily mean learning at school. As how NAEYC defines it, early education begins at birth!

To further emphasize why even infants need to be exposed to stimuli at such an early age, here is a little trivia for parents. An average newborn infant has roughly 12 million neurons. These refer to the cells in the brain. When a child reaches the age of 12, all unused neurons die. Thus, most of the 12 million neurons of a child when he was still an infant die since they were not used. Although a few parents already know this scientific discovery, they do nothing about it.

Your child should be given early brain stimulation as early as a month old to retain most of their neurons. At 10 months, he should be exposed early to math and reading. There are programs on early child education designed even for infants that create learning pathways in the brain, enabling them to understand math and read even before they reach the age of 2.