2.2 Early child development programs
Bronfenbrenner’s model provides a useful framework for studying various settings (or microsystems) and the impact they have on young children. On the previous page, research about children’s families was explored. The prevalence of early childhood education and care programs means that the effect of these settings on young children also needs to be better understood.
There are a variety of child development programs available for children before they enter kindergarten (usually at age five). These programs may provide child care while parents are at school or work, may provide a particular intervention, or may simply provide opportunities to socialize and play with other children. In general, options include licensed early learning and child care centres, family child care homes, and part-time nursery schools or junior-kindergarten programs.
The Survey on Early Learning and Child Care Arrangements was conducted by Statistics Canada in January and February 2019. Review the Statistics Canada website to learn more about the use of various child care arrangements in Canada. Note the various tables that provide more detailed information.
The Early Childhood Education Report (2023) also highlights key information about the sector across Canada. Explore this interactive map to find out how the provinces and territories compare on a number of benchmarks. For instance, see the percentage of preschool children who take part in an early childhood education program in provinces across Canada and what percent of provincial government budgets are invested in early childhood education.
What did you discover about the early childhood education situation where you live? What was surprising?
How do access rates vary across Canada? What kinds of factors do you think affect rates of early childhood participation in different provinces and territories?
What did you learn about parents’ reasons for choosing specific child care arrangements?
Research reveals the enduring and positive child development effects of high quality early childhood education and child care programs. However, research does suggest that mediocre and poor quality child care is associated with modest but long term developmental risks. The following article from the Encyclopedia on Early Childhood Development (2021), cites the prevalence of early childhood education and care in many European and North American countries – yet raises concerns about the quality of many of those programs, and the negative consequences these low quality programs can have.
If research supports the conclusion that good quality child care programs benefits children, and mediocre or poor quality programs do not, this is clearly something about which we need to learn more about. What is good quality child care? How is it measured? What is it about a quality program that promotes positive outcomes or benefits for children?
Researchers continue to study and analyze research in order to support evidence-based recommendations for policies and programs. Listen to Dr. Michal Perlman, professor of Human Development and Applied Psychology at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, discuss the importance of systematic review and meta-analysis of studies on quality.
In the next three videos, Michal Perlman discusses some considerations and challenges of research into program quality.
Perlman talks about structural and process measures of quality and adds that this definition needs to be expanded. What suggestions do you have for expanding this definition at an educator level? A child level?
How could this expanded definition be captured in research?
The City of Toronto has developed and validated its own operating criteria to ensure program quality, respect for diversity and parental involvement. Child care centres that the city operates or contracts with for fee subsidies must meet Toronto’s Assessment for Quality Improvement (AQI). Listen to Michal Perlman describe the development and implementation of the AQI. The City of Toronto website has more information.
Is there a quality rating system of any type in your community? How does it compare to Toronto’s AQI? How would you as a parent or a practitioner benefit from such a system?
In the next video, Perlman describes the validity and reliability of the assessment tools.
Listen now as Perlman highlights the value to programs and parents when rating scores are made public.
Dr. Megan Gunnar, professor and former director of the Institute of Child Development at the University of Minnesota, studies children’s participation and play with peers in child care settings and how it impacts cortisol levels, an indication of children’s stress levels. In the following video Gunnar explains what she and her colleagues are learning from their research.
What is the impact of poor quality child care on children who are fearful and anxious?
Are you surprised that children’s cortisol levels – a biological measure of arousal – are typically higher when they attend a child care centre?
What are the implications for organizing late afternoon activities in a full day child care centre?
A series of articles from from the Encyclopedia on Early Childhood Development reviews the considerable volume of evidence about the impact of child care on young children.
How would you summarize the evidence about the impact of early childhood education and care on young children?
What do you think are the benefits of early childhood education for young children?
What difference does quality make?
Do any of the findings raise concerns?
What do you think are the key messages for parents?
Parents typically want to make the best possible care arrangements they can for their children. Abilio prepared a summary of the key messages based on what research tells us about quality child care.
Can you identify specific research findings that back up the key messages to parents?
Are these key messages similar to what you summarized after reading the encyclopedia articles?
Early intervention programs
Early intervention programs may look very different from each other, but the goal is the same – to intervene early in the lives of children who are experiencing biological, developmental or environmental challenges. View the next excerpt from The Beginning of Life documentary and hear about the evidence behind investing in the early years, specifically in interventions.
Some early interventions are centre-based, some are home-based and many are mixed and directed at children and their parents. In some cases, attending an early childhood program is the intervention in and of itself. Listen to a parent share her perspective.
Tove Mogstad Slinde, senior advisor in the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research, shares data about the benefits of early childhood programs for minority language children.
The reading and math test scores were one piece of the puzzle, that led to further research about participation rates, and interesting findings about program quality.
How does this illustrate the importance of using research and data when making policy decisions?
Read the following research report to learn more about this Norwegian research referred to in the Slinde interview.
We often talk about intervention strategies, but how do we know what really works?
Dr. Marni Brownell, senior research scientist and associate director of research at the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy, describes a specific type of intervention program targeted to children who are disadvantaged. She goes on to comment on the need to ensure children who are disadvantaged are included when programs are universally available.
Findings from neuroscience, child development and program evaluation can guide effective early intervention policies and practices. First published in 2007, but still widely used today, members of the American National Forum on Early Childhood Policy and Programs and the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child developed a framework for using early intervention research evidence to improve outcomes for vulnerable children.
Research about two significant intervention programs follows:
1. Bucharest Early Intervention Project
During the 1990’s, the world learned about the tragedy of children raised in Romanian orphanages. Young children were found in very low quality institutions with little emotional or social stimulation (Weir, 2014). Researchers were able to study those children who began life in very negative circumstances but were later in nurturing settings, to see to what extent early deprivation could be overcome. It was a natural field experiment that allowed researchers to compare the group that got the intervention (adoption into a nurturing family) earlier with those who got it later.
The following readings and interviews with Dr. Charles Nelson, professor of Society, Human Development and Health at Harvard, describe the results of the children – at age eight and age 12 – who were being followed in the Bucharest Early Intervention Project (BEIP).
What do you see as the implications for young children living in neglectful or abusive homes, around the world?
Can you suggest any solutions to reduce the risk of long term harm?
The next reading from REACH, the journal of the Canadian Institute of Advanced Research, profiles another of Nelson’s research projects – this one with refugees in Dhaka, Bangladesh -and relates it to the Bucharest Early Intervention Project. Neuroimaging techniques continue to demonstrate how severe adversity affects the developing brains of young children. As with the BEIP, researchers are using what are very disturbing findings to learn valuable lessons – and hopeful messages – about how and when interventions can make a difference.
2. Carolina Abecedarian Project
The Carolina Abecedarian Project in the United States considered whether high quality, relationship based child care and parenting supports from infancy to age five for children from poor backgrounds increases their likelihood of school success.
Dr. Joseph Sparling, one of the investigators and developers of the program, explains the history of the Abecedarian project and meaning of the word “abecedarian”.
Sparling and other researchers investigated the impact of a highly resourced model that was implemented on a small scale under optimal conditions. Children were randomly selected to be in the intervention group or the control group. Similar to an efficacy study, Carolina Abecedarian Project outcomes determined whether an intervention works in ideal circumstances with a specific population of children.
In the next two videos, Sparling discusses the findings of the Abecedarian project as the original participants are reaching 40 years of age.
Sparling attributes the positive long term results to the educational program that was embedded in the Abecedarian project.
Dr. Maureen Black, professor of Pediatrics at the University of Maryland, provides an overview of this intervention, highlighting the impact of the research results.
What does the Abecedarian study tell us about the impact of early experience?
According to the research findings, do experiences after early childhood have any impact on children’s skills and abilities?
Why is this study considered to be a high quality research study?
The Abecedarian Approach has been implemented in a variety of contexts and conditions since the original study. In addition to being used in child care centres, it has shown success in family child care homes, parent/child centres, nursery schools, and orphanages. A randomized evaluation of the Abecedarian Approach was initiated in an inner city child care centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada in February 2012. Joe Sparling provides an overview of the project as it first began in 2012. The article highlights exciting results.
What do you see as the role of intervention programs?
What intervention programs are available in your community?
Are there any “lessons learned” from these examples that could be applied in your context?
Whatever the reason for children attending an early child development program, researchers have recognized the importance of understanding the effect of these programs. Based on research, practitioners and policy makers can then make evidence-based decisions to promote positive environments for young children.
