If Rotarians want to make a difference in the lives of children, the most effective place to start is with the early years, considered to be from birth to about age six. This period of early child development sets the foundation for lifelong learning, behavior, and health.
Early learning takes place within families and the community. It is shaped by the daily interactions of home life. These simple interactions establish the pathways for lifelong learning, behavior, and health and thus, to the development of the whole child. Interactions include nourishment, being held, hearing sounds around them, listening to conversations or music, being guided to crawl and then walk, feeling safe, or, for some, feeling frightened. The brain uses all of these experiences to orchestrate our physical, social, emotional, verbal, and cognitive development, determining how we learn, our behavior, and ultimately setting the stage for future physical and emotional health. Once set, it is more difficult to change. These early years' experiences set the course of our lives, whether positive or negative. Children who have experienced fear and jump or hide at loud sounds, for example, have formed a safety trigger in their brains and will react quickly. These children will need support to overcome this.
Based on this knowledge, Rotarians can help families to understand how children learn and how their learning can be enhanced. For example, clubs could work with the local medical community to plan the placement of brochures in appropriate community locations or plan opportunities for community gatherings for new parents. It may also be important to work with community partners to develop appropriate community programs for young children that could serve to demonstrate simple, safe, playful activities that families can plan that will enhance the early learning of their child. Learning the consequences of their children feeling frightened by what they see and hear may help to change adult behavior too.
Young children are naturally curious, enthusiastic, physical, and vocal. Time spent asking children to sit for long periods of instruction or filling in worksheets does not make use of the active, growing brains that are the strength of early year development. Active early learning programs build on this natural love of, and enthusiasm for learning. Play is learning and children learn well through play. Play is how children make sense of the world and is very effective when activities are planned appropriately.
Children at play are able to integrate skills that are more complex and require greater cognitive skills. Consider the child who is sitting at a table with other children, all quietly copying a page of o and l ‘s with increasing precision. Compare that to the child who is playing doctor with a group of children. A piece of paper and a pencil suddenly transforms into a prescription for the sick baby that her parents have brought in. The children engaged in this activity may choose to:
- Plan their trip to the doctor through conversation between the family members about what is wrong (social development)
- Take on the role of the parents or siblings (social development)
- Show empathy for their ill baby (emotional development)
- Engage in conversation as they inform the doctor of the symptoms (language development)
- Write marks on the pad in the role of the doctor and pretend to read them back (fine motor development and literacy development) Note: as children learn to match speech sounds to letters they can be expected to print those letters and pretend to print the others through scribble (language development – hearing sounds in words)
This simple activity, or one similarly planned, allows children to practice and demonstrate development in most, if not all, of the key areas. Children are learning and having fun doing so. Rotarians can help communities gather simple resources for a common program or work with parent groups to understand the importance of early, but appropriate, holistic development.
Young children are not lacking in skills. He can’t print yet. He does not know how to count to 10. He has trouble making some sounds. Young children have steps to take, at their own pace, with some guidance from a caring adult. He can make sticks and circles, which he pretends to read to the baby at the Home Centre. He can recite the numbers to six and can point and identify numbers to 3. He needs some help learning to hold his tongue and lips when forming the sound ssss. These children have come a long way in their development in a short period of time, but can feel excited about moving forward.