Child Development Programs

Child development programs are learning environments outside of the home where parents can take pre-kindergarten-age children to receive instruction from adult instructors based on a variety of different learning theories. The drastic increase in child development programs has meant in many cases that children are receiving formal instruction earlier. This comes as good news, because research in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries has shown a strong connection between early childhood education and the level of success children enjoy in later life.

Overview

Child development programs are learning environments outside of the home where parents can take pre-kindergarten-age children to receive instruction from adult instructors based on a variety of different learning theories. Many childhood development programs address the needs of pre-kindergarten —or early childhood-age —children, whose ages range from infancy to five years. Demands for such programs have increased dramatically, due to the increased prevalence of families in which both parents work. In 1940, 87 percent of children under the age of six had a nonworking parent who provided full-time care. But by 1989 only 48 percent of children under six had a stay-at-home parent. As a result, the United States has seen an explosion of new childcare facilities and child development programs since 1950.

The federal government has fueled this explosion with funding. Funding for Head Start, the nation's oldest child development program, shot up from $404 million in 1974 to $3.3 billion in 1994. In 1992, states provided roughly $665 million for pre-kindergarten programs serving academically at-risk pupils. In 1993, the federal government spent nearly $1.8 billion on childcare programs for children from low-income families. To families of all incomes, it gave $2.5 billion in tax credits to help purchase childcare.

While this trend means that many children have less contact with their parents, the drastic increase in child development programs has meant in many cases that children are receiving formal instruction earlier. This comes as good news, because research has shown a strong connection between early childhood education and the level of success children enjoy in later life. Since 1990, extensive research has brought to the fore much new knowledge on how the brain develops in the early years. During this time, environment has a much greater influence on the development of a child's cognitive and emotional skills than was once believed. A wealth of new evidence has shown that intervention at this level gives financially disadvantaged children a much better chance at healthy development.

Children's cognitive development—which includes language and vocabulary acquisition and numeracy—begins at the moment of birth. Research has shown that the brain retains an immense amount of information about language during the first year. Before uttering a single word, infants learn the basic sound components of language, what sounds go together to form certain words and the rhythms and inflections of speech. In time, this extends into literacy. Young children exposed to books and spoken language early on will learn to read sooner than children who are not. Kindergartners who lack this background are at high risk of starting behind classmates who do.

To gauge the effects of child development programs on children, researchers have examined growth in the areas of cognitive skills, social skills, language development and school achievement. Studies followed subjects into later years, examining (among other things) rates of grade retention, placement in special education, high school graduation and college enrollment. Among the most significant findings was the discovery that good early care and education programs are effective in improving the development disadvantaged children.

Two important studies done on child development programs were the Abecedarian Project and the High/Scope Perry Preschool Project. Both studies tracked and compared disadvantaged children in these programs with a control group of similar children who were not.

The Abecedarian Project began in 1972 and studied 112 children—ages infancy to five years—from very disadvantaged families, most of African American descent. Subjects were given high-quality pre-school services until age five. These services included a curriculum emphasizing language development, a high teacher-to-student ratio (1:6 or greater), and medical and nutritional services. The High/Scope Perry Preschool Project, which ran from 1962 to 1967, gave a similar education to African American children, ages three and four, from low-income families and said to be at high risk of academic failure.

Both studies revealed that children who participated in child development programs experienced lasting gains in IQ and achievement in reading and mathematics. Further, both studies found that subjects did better in school: they scored higher on tests, were less likely to be held back a grade or placed in special education, and were more likely to graduate from high school. As young adults, they were more likely to attend a four-year college and as adults, be employed.

Application

This section discusses certain aspects of child development programs with an emphasis on how these approaches are applied and encountered in the "real world." These examples are:

• The Head Start Program

• The Chicago Child-Parent Center (CPC) Program

• The High/Scope Program

• Montessori

• The Waldorf School

• Reggio Emilia

• Eclectic Programs

Head Start

The oldest federally funded child development program, Head Start began in 1965. In 1964, the government had selected a panel of child development experts to draft a program to help communities overburdened with preschool children from low-income families. Project Head Start began as an eight-week summer program intended to give disadvantaged preschoolers a program to meet their educational, psychological, social, health and nutrition needs. Head Start's four major components are education, health, parent involvement and social services. Its educational component was designed to meet each child's individual needs and to be in step with the community's ethnic and cultural characteristics. Programs that serve multilingual communities, for example, hire bilingual staff. Children participate in indoor and outdoor play and are introduced to words and numbers. Activities are designed to build self-confidence, self-expression and social skills. Child-to-teacher ratios are low. As an added service to low-income families, Head Start also provides children with medical, dental and mental health services. Since 1965, Head Start has served more than 38 million children.

The Chicago Child-Parent Center (CPC) Program

The CPC program is the second oldest federally funded program after Head Start. Begun through funding from Title 1 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (1965), the program served families in high-poverty neighborhoods. Its objective was to ensure children's academic success and increase parent involvement in their children's education. Most of these children were from low-income African American and Hispanic families. Like Head Start, the CPC program offered a structured educational curriculum, nutrition and health services, community outreach, and opportunities for parental involvement.

The original four CPC Centers, opened in 1967, were the result of a report done by Chicago Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Lorraine Sullivan on how to improve student attendance and achievement. At the time, Dr. Sullivan's territory—District 8—had one of the highest concentrations of poverty in Chicago. The report made four recommendations that would become the cornerstones of the CPC Program: Increase parent involvement in the early school years; tailor instruction to children's individual learning styles, emphasizing speaking and listening skills; reduce class sizes and teacher-to-student ratios; provide increased health and nutritional services.

The High/Scope Program

The High/Scope Program began as the curricular component of the High/Scope Perry Preschool Project. It uses a dictated set of teaching practices, content areas, and assessment tools that measure teaching effectiveness and child progress. The program also comes with a training model to help adults use the curriculum to support child development. Classrooms are divided into stations centering on specific kinds of play, (e.g. art, small toys, blocks, sand and water). High/Scope's "active learning" approach stresses direct, hands-on activities. Central to daily learning is a "plan-do-review sequence," in which the children choose an activity, complete it, then review what was done with the teacher, who asks guiding questions about what children experienced during the activity.

The High/Scope K-3 curriculum differs from the preschool model, as it was designed for public school children. The K-3 model helps five- to nine-year-olds meet early grade elementary expectations such as good performance on standardized achievement tests. The program still uses the active learning approach designed for preschoolers. Students choose their own activities, execute them, and reflect on the results in teacher-guided discussions. The instructor continues to act as facilitator and observer, arranging instructional activity centers in the classroom. But activities at this level center more on academic subjects, such as language, math, science, social studies. The program stands apart from other K-3 instruction models, in that it is less teacher-directed and puts the child in a more active role of self-initiating learner. The K-3 relies more on cognitive-developmental theory, with greater emphasis on the development of problem solving and independent thinking skills, instead of social development and relationships.

Montessori

Founded in 1907 by Maria Montessori (1870–1952), Italy's first woman physician, the Montessori movement was popular mainly in Europe and India until the 1950s, when it was widely adopted in the United States. By the early twenty-first century, there were about 5,000 schools in the US using the Montessori name. Of these, about 20 percent bear the imprimatur of the Association Montessori Internationale (AMI) and the American Montessori Society (AMS), the two major accrediting Montessori institutions. Because the Montessori name is not trademarked, anyone can use it. For this reason, care must be exercised in choosing a Montessori school or program, to ensure that it is truly in line with the Montessori philosophy.

Children at all levels of the curriculum use specially designed, self-correcting materials—or "manipulatives"—and do projects at workstations. Classes are comprised of pupils of different ages who choose their own activities and work at them for extended periods of time under teacher supervision. These collaborative projects become increasingly complex.

In its purest form, the Montessori approach does not use formal evaluations, grades, textbooks and daily recess. Children begin in the curriculum as early as age three. Preschool activities focus on practical life experiences and are designed to instill independence and self-confidence. Children use small wooden racks with buttons and zippers to learn how to put on and fasten their own clothing. They might learn to pour liquids using bottles full of beans.

The Waldorf School

The first Waldorf school was opened in 1919 in Stuttgart, Germany, following World War I. Its founder, Austrian scientist and philosopher, Rudolf Steiner (1861–1925), wanted to educate children about the creation of a peaceful and just society. Hundreds of Waldorf schools have since opened around the world. Preschool- and kindergarten-age children learn primarily through imitation and creative play. Academic subjects are not stressed until after kindergarten. Children participate in dramatic play, dressing up like mothers and fathers, kings and queens, or other adult characters. They experience language through songs, poems and stories; and paint, color, bake bread and build houses from boxes. The Waldorf philosophy states that immersion in this kind of work-play prepares children for life, building interest and concentration, and engendering a lifelong love of learning.

In the elementary years after kindergarten, children move from imitation to the more conscious act of imagination. Academic subjects are introduced and integrated with arts, crafts, music and movement - more than in other programs. Students typically are assigned the same teacher from ages six to eight. In some Waldorf schools, pupils might remain with the same instructor until fourteen years of age. The idea is to make evaluation of each child's needs and progress through important developmental stages easier and to encourage long, stable relationships with adult mentors.

Reggio Emilia

Named for the Italian city that saw its genesis, Reggio Emilia (RE) was founded by its first director, Loris Malaguzzi (1920–94). The program began as a parent cooperative movement, its purpose to help reconstruct society and build preschools and childcare centers in the wake of World War II. Eventually, it became a city-run system, and by 2000, RE programs were common in Asia, Australia and North America.

Its family-centered curriculum serves children from infancy to preschool, with priority given to children with social service needs or disabilities. RE is a more flexible model than Waldorf and Montessori: it has no defined methods, accreditation processes or teacher certification standards.

The modern RE school supports the Theory of Multiple Intelligences, which maintains that there are at least eight different types of intelligence - logical-mathematic, linguistic, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, spatial, interpersonal, intra-personal and naturalist. Each person possesses each of the eight intelligences to varying degrees. Children are encouraged to explore their world and express themselves using all of their natural intelligences and talents - through language, movement, music, dramatic play, painting. The setting for this exploration and expression is a classroom that supports a collaborative problem solving approach. Learning often comes through work done in small groups.

Eclectic Programs

These programs draw freely from any combination of the aforementioned philosophies. Most child development programs are at least somewhat eclectic in nature. Programs today rarely mirror any of the above teaching models and philosophies exactly, as educators today are trained in—or at least exposed to—a number of different techniques. Children can thrive in a variety of learning milieus and respond well to a number of different approaches. The modern classroom can be as unique as the adults running it and often reflect the individual strengths, interests and training of teachers and staff.

Further Insights

This section discusses aspects of child development programs that are of particular interest to professionals and researchers within the field of education. The aspects investigated include:

• Program quality standards

• Twelve guiding principles for all child development programs

• Home-based child development programs

Program Quality Standards

To be effective, child programs must meet certain standards of quality. These are most important to disadvantaged children, who can be hurt more by substandard programs. First and most important is the necessity of kind and caring interactions between caregiver and child. Also essential are small group sizes and high staff-to-child ratios. Low staff turnover is essential as children must enjoy steady relationships with a small number of caregivers who must be well trained and qualified. And the learning environment should provide an abundance of age-appropriate activities that reinforce learning through play. Programs must also supply adequate nutrition and ensure each child's health and safety.

Twelve Guiding Principles

Though the philosophies and programs described above use different approaches to teaching and socializing children, the National Association for the Education of Young Children released in 1997 its First Class: A Guide for Early Primary Education, a book that proffers twelve basic principles for how children learn in all programs:

• Domains of children's development-physical, social, emotional, and cognitive-are closely related.

• Development occurs in a relatively orderly sequence, with later abilities, skills, and knowledge-building on those already acquired.

• Development proceeds at varying rates from child to child as well as unevenly within different areas of each child's functioning.

• Early experiences have both cumulative and delayed effects on a child's development; optimal periods exist for certain types of development and learning.

• Development proceeds in predictable directions toward greater complexity, organization, and internalization.

• Development and learning occur in and are influenced by multiple social and cultural contexts.

• Children are active learners, drawing on direct physical and social experience as well as on culturally transmitted knowledge to construct their own understandings of the world around them.

• Development and learning result from interaction of biological maturation and the environment, which includes both the physical and social worlds that children live in.

• Play is an important vehicle for the social, emotional, and cognitive development of children, and a reflection of their development.

• Development advances when children have opportunities to practice newly acquired skills and when they experience a challenge just beyond the level of their present mastery.

• Children demonstrate different modes of knowing and learning and different ways of representing what they know.

• Children develop and learn best in the context of a community where they are safe and valued, their physical needs are met, and they feel psychologically secure.

Home-Based Child/Parent Development Programs

Studies have also been done on home-based child development programs that visit families in their homes and educate them on child rearing. The results of these studies, however, were found to be mixed and, at best, inconclusive. Researchers concluded that home-based child development programs were not nearly as effective as instructor-guided programs outside of the home.

Terms & Concepts

Abecedarian Project: A study that began in 1972 and studied 112 children, to see the long-term effects of a high-quality child development program given to underprivileged pre-kindergarten children.

Child Development: Progress made by a child in the areas of cognitive, social and emotional growth.

Early Childhood Education: Education given or teaching done to children before they reach kindergarten (age five).

Head Start: The oldest federally funded child development program. Serves underprivileged families and has four major components: education, health, parental involvement and social services.

High/Scope Perry Preschool Project: A study similar to the Abecedarian Project. This program ran from 1962 to 1967, giving preschool services to underprivileged children (mostly African American), ages three and four.

Montessori: A teaching philosophy developed by Italian educator Maria Montessori which stresses the use of "manipulatives," collaborative projects, and mixed-age classrooms.

Pre-School: Schooling given to children before kindergarten.

Reggio-Emilia: A family-centered curriculum based on belief in the Theory of Multiple Intelligences, R. E. is a more flexible model than other philosophies, eschewing a defined method, accreditation and teacher certification standards.

Waldorf: Founded by Rudolph Steiner in Germany in 1919, the Waldorf philosophy stresses imitation and creative play at the early ages, holding off on academic subjects until after kindergarten.

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Suggested Reading

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Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation (2002). Set for success: Building strong foundations for school readiness based on the social-emotional development of young children. Published by Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. Retrieved December 1, 2006, from .

Masse, L. N., & Barnett, W. S. (2002). A benefit cost analysis of the Abecedarian early childhood intervention. National Institute for Early Education Research. Retrieved December 1, 2006, from

Raver, C. C., & Knitzer, J. (2002). Ready to enter: What research tells policy makers about strategies to promote social and emotional school readiness among three and four year old children. National Center for Children in Poverty, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University. Retrieved December 1, 2006, from