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The purpose of quality early education and child care is to enable our children to enter kindergarten "ready to learn". In order to do this, they need to develop skills in four key areas: language and literacy skills, thinking skills, self-control, and self-confidence. From birth, children learn by interacting with their environment and the people in it, family members and others.
Scientific research has shown that, in a nurturing environment, the growing brain, especially in the age range zero to three, has the ability to learn these skills if placed in a "quality" environment, even though there maybe impairment, either environmental or physical, at birth.
Families make a variety of arrangements for care of their children including child care centers, nursery schools or preschools, their own homes, homes of relatives, or, most frequently, family daycare homes. Care in these settings may begin at or soon after birth. If the setting is of good quality, the child will thrive. However if the quality is poor, the child will languish. This is true for all ages but, because of the nature of brain growth and development, it is especially true for the zero to three populations.
In Hawaii we have a series of state and federally funded programs which address the needs of subgroups of the zero to five population. Healthy Start serves newborns born into environmental situations which place them at risk for social-emotional and cognitive delays. Early Identification Services, in collaboration with the Medical Home, identifies children at an early age who have special health care needs. Early Head Start provides services for children zero to three years and Head Start for age three to five. Open Doors make it possible for low income families to afford preschools. Department of Education Preschools serve children with special health care needs, ages three and four. These programs collaborate with a large number of agencies which provide specialized services for children.
In its policy statement, Universal Access to Good Quality Education and Care for Children from Birth to Five Years, the American Academy of Pediatrics gives the following criteria for quality care:
1. Adult care givers who have specialized training or experience in child development.
2. A warm, nurturing, attentive, and developmentally appropriate and stimulating learning environment.
3. Small groups of children with sufficient numbers of consistent, interactive care givers who have long term relationships with the children in their care.
4. Good communication between program staff and families and policies that actively involve parents in child care activities and that try to enhance parenting skills.
These criteria apply throughout the age range from birth to five.
Recommendations
In its policy statement, Quality to Early Education and Child Care from Birth to Kindergarten, the American Academy of Pediatrics makes the following statement:
"The real barrier to high-quality programs is a lack of infrastructure supporting quality, regardless of setting, and the necessary funding to make this happen. This infrastructure has to address, on a statewide or community level, high-quality standards, compensation and training for teachers, tracking of availability of services for parental referral, and a reliable financing system that makes these programs available (full day/full year, etc) and affordable in a coordinated way. This same systematic approach to the education and socio-emotional health of children who are cared for by stay-at-home parents is also necessary."
These recommendations apply to all situations and all children from birth to age five. Without a fully-developed infrastructure, the children will not benefit from the programs offered. A concurrent barrier is the inability of families to afford quality services which now exist.
Based on this discussion, we suggest the following:
1. Identify those programs which meet the criteria for quality and provide subsidies for children to participate in these settings.
2. Strengthen the programs that are providing quality programs but are not able to serve the number of children requiring services, particularly for the zero to three programs.
3. Fund the development of an infrastructure as indicated above for a sound, integrated pathway from birth to age five.
With such a system in place Hawaii's children will truly reach kindergarten "ready to learn". The gains to future lives for the children and the savings in future expenses for the state will be immense.
References:
1. Universal Access to Good-quality Education and Care of Children From Birth to 5 Years, AAP Policy Statement, Committee on Early Childhood, Adoption and Dependent Care. PEDIATRICS, Vol. 97 No. 3, pp 317-419, March, 1996.
2. Quality Early Education and Child Care From Birth to Kindergarten, Committee on Early Childhood, Adoption and Dependent Care. PEDIATRICS, Vol. 115 NO. 1 January 2005, pp. 187-191.
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