Three years ago, when there was a dramatic fall in the world ranking of America's college graduates, early childhood education was accorded special attention. Setting a target of reclaiming the top rating by 2020, President Barack Obama made it clear improvements in the teaching of the country's under-3s would be crucial. His focus was informed by research that indicates early education is the most promising vehicle for preventing poor academic performance during a pupil's school years. That same knowledge heightens the relevance of the Education Review Office's new report on early childhood services in this country.
Its conclusions are not flattering. In sum, it found almost half of the services are not doing enough to help infants and toddlers learn. The 235 providers reviewed were good at establishing warm and nurturing relationships, but 46 per cent lacked a responsive curriculum supporting under-3s to be "communicators and explorers". Thirty per cent were said to have "limited responsiveness" and 16 per cent were "not responsive". In contrast, the good providers had teachers attuned to children's communications and who encouraged them to explore.
The latter aspect of teaching is vital. Experiences during the first years of life make a lasting impact on how the brain develops. And, as Auckland University research fellow Jean Rockel notes, "you don't easily get a second chance with the brain". It is, therefore, incumbent on early childhood services to focus on providing stimulating activities, along with basic concepts and social skills.
Toddlers need to be able to investigate and find out things for themselves. A failure to provide this could go some way to explaining why American college graduates fared particularly badly in science. This country has also slumped in that subject in the OECD's International Student Assessment (Pisa) rankings, which measure skills of 15-year-olds.
Modern technology has, if anything, probably made it more difficult to stimulate toddlers in the most beneficial of ways. They are familiar with television and video games, and the temptation may be to think these provide sufficient encouragement. But children can use them in an unthinking manner, and they are not the most effective way to stimulate them to use their imagination. They need to be encouraged to try new things. If not, they will simply become bored and unresponsive to future learning.
