Children, even babies, have the ability to soak up whatever you offer them because their brains are like sponges, eager to percolate itself with information and knowledge. Children even start to pick up communication skills provided that they are exposed to them and eventually, they will begin to mimic words, sounds, expressions, etc.

The super absorbent ages

The generally engaging and encouraging climate in enrichment centers for mathematics are structured to cater for children’s early encounters with the subject. Their confidence in their ability to understand and use mathematics is boosted, and at the right time too. These positive experiences help children to develop dispositions such as curiosity, imagination, flexibility, inventiveness, and persistence, which contribute to their future success in and out of school.

The qualified educators at these centers work to introduce mathematical concepts, methods, and language through a variety of appropriate experiences and research-based teaching strategies. They also strive to guide children in seeing connections of ideas within mathematics and guide their mathematical knowledge throughout their day to day experiences too. These teachers are trained to encourage children to communicate as they interact with important mathematics in deeper and more sustained ways.

Recognizing the Limits

Mathematics have concepts at many different levels of abstraction and at times, even the lowest levels of abstraction are beyond the abilities of young children’s understanding. For example, Algebra. This component of maths requires the learner to have acquired formal operations, operations that enable them to deal with second symbol systems. Very young children are unlikely to comprehend second symbol systems.

As we are our children’s first teachers, it’s crucial to ensure an environment that is pleasant as it is conducive for our young one to thrive and learn. Babies and toddlers can be easily influenced, regardless if the influences are good or bad. If they are exposed to good behavior, habits, language and so on, those are what they will pick up, and fast! With this in mind, it would certainly be a good idea to read to them, expose them to music and of course speak to them like they can understand you.

Encouraging a child to take up something at a young age would make them advance further than other kids who are left to develop on their own without guidance or the advantage of exposure to lessons an earlier stage. For this reason too, more and more parents these days are packing their little ones off to playschools or enrichment centers, with hopes that it will give them an edge when pursuing their dreams in the ever-advancing world of high technology we live in today.

How Does Early Childhood Education Work?

Early childhood development, when understood enough to be manipulated, can reap magnificent results for children. There are five important factors that make up a child’s development. These can be summed up using the following description: SPICE.

Social

This part of one’s development focuses on forming connections with others, being able to bond and interact with them well. This skill is one which is carried on throughout one’s life.

Physical

The main area taken into consideration here, are one’s gross motor skills and fine motor skills.

Intellectual

Trying to understand the workings of the world by large, by forming one’s own individual perspective.

Creative

Developing areas that require one’s talent like writing, singing, playing an instrument, dancing, acting and so on. This creativity is what reveals any special talent of what one is good at.

Emotional

Feeling a range of emotions and understanding how each one is associated with a certain event or reaction. Developing this self-awareness is what this part of the development is all about.

The basics brain functioning

Newborns and young babies depend on hand signals and the tone of their parents’ voices to initiate any kind of communication with them. The stage further develops into the use of the child’s imagination, where memory and symbols then come into the picture, further enhancing the baby’s learning experience. Then, before long, a baby will be learning (or recognising) the language being spoken by his or her family members.

When a child begins to think is is said to be an egocentric, non-logical and non-reversible stage.These are the major stages a baby’s brain has to go through from when they are born to when he or she comes of age. Then, the child can think independently and move out into the world, taking in and changing information as it is received.

Intelligence

Intelligence then further increases with age, where mathematical interpretations and the use of objects and complex symbols are then used. Here thinking then advances to being reversible, operational and less egocentric. Abstract ways of thinking where symbols that coincide with abstract ideas, is when the individual has to interpret and change his ways of thinking to a higher level, which is a stage not many people complete. It is believed though that a child who has been exposed to some form of early education such as those offered in enrichment classes, adapt much easier to advanced forms of education.

The importance of early childhood education is now something people are familiarizing themselves with, being a complete ball of logic that has seen results when tried and tested. It is a fast catching on concept that more and more parents are starting to accept and understand. The ones that benefit the most, of course, are the little ones, who have a bright future ahead of them!