Taking action during the early years

Taking action during children’s earliest years helps ensure a high degree of prevention and fosters equal chances for all at a crucial moment in life. It calls for action beginning with pregnancy, or even earlier, and continuing until age five.

Every child is born with an enormous potential for learning; however, it is important to keep in mind the crucial role the environment plays in enabling children to lay solid foundations and grow up to become healthy and well-balanced adults. 

Why is it important to take action before age five?

• Early interventions have a positive influence on young children’s best possible development
• Pregnancy and the early childhood years are the best time for prevention. According to research into human development, certain periods of time are better suited for interventions than others
• A number of physical and mental health disorders can take root during the early childhood years
• Inequality can become entrenched at a very early age and entail adverse long-term consequences. For example, the life expectancy of individuals who grow up in unfavourable circumstances can be as much as ten years shorter than average
• Early interventions have been proven to produce a range of economic and social benefits: the cost to society is much less expensive
• Parenting support and early childhood development measures, such as the Québec Parental Insurance Plan and public daycare centres, benefit all members of society

Windows of opportunity in early childhood development

Windows of opportunity, or “wiring opportunities,” are specific moments in time during young children’s development when they are naturally predisposed to learn certain things. Toddlers already lay the foundations they will need when they grow up. With these foundations in place, they move on to consolidation stages that allow them to use and further refine what they have learned. The window-of-opportunity periods vary in relation to different areas of development. If we want to derive the greatest benefits from these wiring opportunities, in particular if we consider their positive long-term effects, we need to act and intervene as early as possible.

The table below lists a selection of wiring opportunities as relevant to specific areas of development.

 

Area of Child’s Development (Protective Factors)	Window	Wiring Opportunity	Greatest Enhancement
Physical Health and Healthy Lifestyle Habits	Vision	0-24 months	2 years to the puberty
	Motor Development	0-24 months
Oral and Written Communication Skills	Language Skills	0-24 months	2 - 7 years
	Vocabulary	0-24 months	2 à 5 years
Social and Emotional Skills	Attachment	0-12 months	4 years to the puberty
	Independence	18-36 months
	Impulse control	16-48 months
	Cooperation	24-48 months
Cognitive Skills	Cause and effect	0-16 months	4 years to the puberty
	Problem-Solving	16-48 months

Source: Table excerpted from Schiller, Pam (2012). Start Smart! Building Brain Power in the Early Years, Gryphon House Inc., p. 10

Areas of development

The various areas of development find expression in the different kinds of learning and skills that children acquire as they grow up. Each area of development engages the child’s skills (by way of the five senses) while harnessing the stimulations in the environment in which he or she grows up. There are four main areas of development:

• Oral and written communication skills
• Cognitive skills
• Social and emotional skills
• Physical health and healthy lifestyle habits

Further information

Babies’ astounding capacity for learning

Public awareness campaign on the importance of the social environment L’importance de l’entourage

Public awareness campaign on social skills Les habiletés sociales

Observatoire des tout-petits infographic: Les enfants ont-ils tous des chances égales à leur entrée à l'école?

Observatoire des tout-petits annual report on young children in Québec  Portrait annuel des tout-petits québécois

Masse, L. and Barnett, W.S.,(2002).  A Benefit Cost Analysis of the Abecedarian Early Childhood Intervention.

Karoly et al. (2005).  Early Childhood Interventions: Proven Results, Future Promise.

Heckman et al. (2009). The Effect of the Perry Preschool Program on the Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Skills of its Participants.

L'importance d'un réseau social pour les parents (the importance of parents’ social network)

L’éveil à la lecture et à l’écriture (Early reading and writing skills)

Observatoire des tout-petits infographic (cognitive and language development): Développement cognitif et langagier

Observatoire des tout-petits data: Les données de l’Observatoire des tout-petits