According to the Inter-American Development Bank, programs in Early Childhood Development have great potential to increase academic achievement and save our education systems millions of dollars because graduation rates will increase and the need to hold students back a grade and the placement of special needs children will decrease. Here are three innovative ideas in child care and development that will help our education system.
Get the Parents Involved
The Center on Innovation and Improvement indicates that parent involvement in a child’s learning produces a positive outcome. This ranges from early childhood into adolescence. Report cards, GPAs, standardized testing scores, as well as other cognitive tests and dropout rates, show that children whose parents are involved in their education have a higher level of cognitive and language skills, as opposed to children whose families are uninvolved in their education. Also, young children participating in programs in early childhood that have strong family collaborations are likely to be well-prepared for school.
Build the Self-Confidence of Caregivers
The conscious effort to teach children to be proud of who they are should overlap into the lives of their caregivers. Children learn by example, so if they see a role model who is confident in who they are, children are more likely to mock that behavior. This is especially for disadvantaged groups, such as the poor, disabled, or minority. Bring self-confidence to the leaders of the children while they are young so they can develop into confident adults.
Put a Strong Emphasis on Communication
Communication strategies are used for children and adults, as well as the media, as communicators. “Children are oftentimes powerful communicators so having them help each other learn and analyze concepts is very effective,” said Imajine That.
Children are able to be agents of change for each other while they learn at different paces and pick up new ideas from each other. While the quality of education is usually measured through processes or results, communication in the evaluation process measures both. Additionally, using integrative, longitudinal studies to watch the impact of different child care and development programs helps to increase the awareness of what works and what does not. Communicating with the community by forming strategic partnerships is also a key element. Partnerships between the community and child care providers help expose children to different aspects of their city.
While some of these ideas have been around quite some time, their innovation is the emphasis shift onto these very important issues. These three issues can work together to help the development of children and lessen rates of school drop outs and troubled children.
With the help from parents, high self-confidence, and great communication, the child care system will be off to a better future.
