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The first three years of a child’s life, when the human brain develops more rapidly than at any other subsequent period, are a time of enormous social, emotional, physical, and intellectual growth. The pace of this growth depends on whether the child’s eagerness to learn is stimulated by his/her environment. For children to grow into successful adults, they need a supportive and healthy early foundation.

Why Is It Important?

Both research and experience show that investment in students, families, and community early childhood education strategies can:

• reduce variation in children’s achievement that persist and widen over time,
• increase children’s cognitive and social skill development, which is mostly complete by age 5,
• make children’s home environments safer and reduce the likelihood that they will become victims of abuse and neglect,
• be less costly and provide a higher rate of return on investment than student remediation or other attempts to reduce education deficits later in the life of a student, and
• increase a child’s likelihood of graduating from high school, adult earning potential, and employability.

Every family must have access to high-quality early childhood preparation and education and be aware of the role they play in enabling each child ot reach developmental milestones.