Early Influences on Development


Playing, singing, reading and talking to babies and toddlers are the most powerful tools parents have to promote their children's growth far into the future.


 


The Role of Family, Childcare and School in Early Childhood


While the mystery of how individual differences develop is far from solved, one long-term study has begun to sort out the answers.


The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) launched the Study of Early Childcare and Youth Development in 1991 to follow more than 1,000 ethnically, geographically and economically diverse children from birth through early adolescence.


Unique in that it regularly measures multiple qualities of the children, including cognitive, language and social skills, the study also tracks the amount of time those children spend in childcare, the quality of that childcare and, after the age of 5, their performance in school. The study also assesses their interactions with their mothers and their childcare providers.


The result is a comprehensive collection of data on the many early environmental influences on children's development - and the beginning of an understanding of how family, childcare and school work in concert to shape our children's abilities and behavior. The children in the study have now progressed beyond first grade, enabling researchers to observe how early cognitive, language and social skills emerge in the school setting.


While first-grade academic achievement may seem a distant goal to the parent of a young baby, it is a revealing measurable outcome of a complex interplay of social and cognitive skills in early childhood. By looking at children's performance at the age of 6, researchers can trace the strands of their development back to their earliest interactions with parents and other caregivers.






Gender Differences Found


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