Early Childhood Care and Education: Right to Survival and Development

Early childhood sets the foundation for life. What happens—or does not happen—to children in the earliest years of their lives is of critical importance, both to their immediate well-being and to their future. Ensuring that young children have positive experiences and their needs for health, nutrition and stimulation are met is crucial for their development and well-being. If the child has received the best start in the earliest years of life, she is more likely to have grown healthy, developed language and learning capacities, gone to school and led a productive, rewarding life.

Research in the field of neuroscience, particularly on the brain, has provided very convincing evidence of the ‘critical periods’ located within these early years, particularly the first 3 years, for the formation of synaptic connections in the brain and for the full development of the brain’s potential. Research has also indicated that if these early years are not supported by, or embedded in, a stimulating and enriching physical and psychosocial environment, the chances of the child’s brain developing to its full potential are considerably, and often irreversibly, reduced. What follows logically is the crucial importance of investing in these early years to ensure an enabling environment for every child, and thereby a sound foundation for life, which is not only the right of every child but also something that will impact, in the long term, on the quality of human capital available to a country (National Council of Educational Research and Training 2006).

Brain architecture is constructed through an ongoing process that begins before birth and continues into adulthood. It is impossible to say that a certain percentage of brain development occurs before a certain age—it is not that simple. It is true that the early years are the most active period for establishing the neural connections that comprise our brain architecture—700 new connections form every second in the first 3 years of life. As it emerges, the quality of that architecture establishes either a sturdy or a fragile foundation for all the capabilities and behaviour that follow. Skill begets skill as brains are built in a hierarchical fashion, from the bottom up. Increasingly complex circuits and skills build on simpler circuits and skills over time. The interaction of genes and experience shapes the circuitry of the developing brain. Young children serve up frequent invitations to engage with adults, who are either responsive or unresponsive to their needs. This ‘serve and return’ process is fundamental to the wiring of the brain, especially in the early years. Although manageable levels of stress are normative and growth-promoting, toxic stress in the early years can damage developing brain architecture and lead to problems in learning and behaviour, as well as increased susceptibility to physical and mental illness. Precipitants of toxic stress may include severe poverty, serious parental mental health impairments, child maltreatment and/or exposure to violence, in the absence of stable, nurturing relationships with the adults in a child’s life (http://​developingchild.​harvard.​edu/​ retrieved 10 March 2014).

Early childhood is quoted by some as between birth and 6 years of age and by others between birth and 8 years (also includes early primary years along with pre-primary years). This period of life is characterised by most rapid growth and some of the most significant achievements—including talking, walking, forming attachments, encountering fear and pleasure and discovering oneself and the world beyond home. During this time, children learn to be autonomous and experiment with objects in the surrounding environment. They show a lively curiosity at what is going on around them, enjoy the company of other children and seek to imitate adult behaviour. At this stage, children play all the time. Play provides opportunities for the body to grow and chance to reflect, empathise, emote, discover, count, acquire self discipline, communicate and socialise. Play fosters creativity and develops higher order intellectual structures.

Early years are the golden years of learning and are also called as ‘windows of opportunity’. Very young infants need stimulation and active interactive initiatives from adults in their environment to develop their faculties. Early years are critical for the development of brain of the child. Most brain development happens before a child reaches 36 months of age. By 36 months of age, children develop their abilities to think and speak, learn and reason and lay the foundation for their values and social behaviour as adults. Factors such as adequate nutrition, good health, freedom from diseases, clean water and a safe environment free from violence, abuse, exploitation and discrimination, all contribute to how the child grows and develops.

Early childhood is a period in life when the individual is particularly open to new experiences and especially able to take advantage of them. When children do not get the care they need during developmental prime times, or if they experience starvation, abuse or neglect, their survival, growth and development may be compromised. Early care and nurture have a decisive and lasting impact on how children grow to adulthood and how they develop their ability to learn and their capacity to regulate their emotions. The love, care and nurturance children receive in their first years—or the lack of these critical experiences—leave lasting imprints on young minds, hence underscoring the importance of early years in determining the life of an individual.

When the key ingredients for healthy, positive development are not present, the early years become a time of vulnerability rather than promise. Persistent environmental stress from unstable housing, an absence of adequate nutrition and high parental stress, coupled with few opportunities for rich early learning experiences, can be toxic to early brain development. Children with risk factors, such as living in low-income households, abuse or neglect, prenatal exposure to alcohol or other substances and low parental education, have a higher incidence of developmental delays and disabilities than the general population. Disparities emerge as early as 9 months and widen by 24 months of age (Halle et al. 2009). Divergence in language abilities begins to emerge before a child’s first birthday and widens by age 3 (Hart and Risley 1995). Infants and toddlers who experience or are at risk for maltreatment are most vulnerable. More than half of children under age 2 who have any contact with the child welfare system—regardless of substantiation of abuse or neglect—are considered at high risk for developmental delays or neurological impairment (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 2007).

In this context, it is important to consider if children in India are having a stimulating and enriching early childhood experience or is the childhood in India embedded in deprivation, distress and disease.

Arguments in favour of providing enriched opportunities for Early Childhood Development (ECD) are varied and numerous. They range from the economic argument of greater productivity, and the ethical argument of the right to live and develop potential to the fullest, to the social argument of greater equality between classes and sexes, to the scientific argument of greater intelligence and more balanced social behaviour and to the political argument of greater participation in society. The CRC focuses on four sets of rights—survival, development, protection and participation. By and large, all these rights are interdependent and cannot be dealt in isolation. They have to be applied and implemented simultaneously if at all the rights of every child are to be respected. ECCE is a child’s right. It is a major contributor to the survival, growth and development of children. Building on the CRC, the World Declaration on ‘Education for All’ was adopted at Jomtien, Thailand, in 1990. It highlights that ‘learning begins at birth’ and encourages providing for ECCE. Children being naive and young cannot take action on their own, they have to be dependent on the actions of others for realising their rights.

The question in point is what are the programmes which would foster early childhood development?

It has been demonstrated that the most effective programmes are those which ‘integrate’ health, education, nutrition, social and economic development, and that younger children benefit from such interventions more than older children. The latest research on the relationship between health, nutrition and stimulation argues convincingly that an adequate food supply is not enough to ensure a child’s survival, neither is access to micro-nutrients, neither is education, nor absence of disease. Children’s growth and development is fostered when all these variables are present, within a caring environment.

It is obvious that the care of children directly affects the infant health and well-being. Good feeding practices, immunisation and clean environment all impact the infant. Further, provision of childcare and health services is paramount to the child’s health. These services are directly impacted by the government of that time and its concern for children, i.e. its political ideology and programmes. Education opportunities and the resources allocated for it are a decision which the political bosses take. How safe the children are is also affected by the laws, which are enacted by the government. So, the infant survival, growth and development are not a product of the immediate family, but is affected by the society, government and other forces around the child.

Early childhood development approach are a range of activities and commitment on part of the parents, family, community and nation with an aim of providing a healthy physical, social, emotional and stimulating environment to children in very early years of life. It enables them to blossom and realise their best potential, laying a strong foundation for them to grow as a useful member of the family and the society, and a valuable human resource for the country.

ECD activities generally cover children between birth to the time that they join a formal school, which is normally 6 years. It also includes care of pregnant woman, because safe prenatal beginnings are the first sure steps towards healthy newborns. ECD also includes improving community awareness on infant care, mother care and childcare. Thus, ECD programmes include:

As mentioned, Early Childhood Development includes infant care. Although developmentally most critical, the under-3 age group is the most neglected age group. Infant care includes infant feeding, weaning, immunisation, health and nutrition care, psychosocial care and protection from diseases among others. ECD also encompasses preschool education. In the preschool programme, children learn through manipulating objects and learn by doing. They acquire the concept of shapes, sizes, numbers, space and relationships. Their body grows and muscles strengthen. The finger muscles also gain strength which help them to colour, scribble and then write. Preschool experience provides tremendous developmental opportunities to young children and also lays the foundation for the rigours of formal schooling. Good quality ECD programmes necessarily address both care and education of children. Pregnant women, families and communities are also part of ECD as their skills and knowledge about safe motherhood and childcare practices determines what the children will receive from them.

The ECCE programme should ensure ‘holistic development’ of the child and reflect the inseparable nature of care and education by comprehensively addressing the need for care, nutrition, health and well-being of young children and parent counselling along with supporting the development of all domains.

Unarguably, early childhood constitutes the most vulnerable stage of life. Deprivation and neglect in this stage can lead to development retardation. ECCE has mostly been linked to ‘right to development’. But when we examine closely, ECCE contributes clearly to child protection. Proper care in early years reduces neglect. A child who in the absence of parents (due to jobs or otherwise incapacity to care), is in the safe environments of a ECCE programme, is protected from abuse of many forms which could arise due to violence by known persons, neighbours or strangers. With joint families breaking and families migrating to bigger cities for livelihood, both parents working, this is posing a threat to children. Child abuse by relatives and neighbours is on the rise. Home is at times, not the safest haven. The relationship of ECCE with child protection cannot be ignored.