Most people understand that the early years are an important time in a child’s development, but recent research is painting a startling picture of how the experiences and interactions that occur from conception to age six drastically affect the trajectory of children’s lives1, their success in school2 and who they will become as adults. Research on the predictors of success at the age of eighteen, for instance, show the single most significant factor to be the quantity and quality of dialogue in the child’s home before the age of five3. What happens (or doesn’t happen) to a child in their first months and years of life affects the very structure of the brain and the kinds of connections and neural pathways that are formed. “As we build networks and patterns of synaptic connections when we are very young, so we build the framework which will ‘shape’ how we learn as we get older4.”

And here’s the problem: Canada ranks “dead last” among developed nations in its spending on early childhood education—despite overwhelming evidence of the crucial importance of the first six years of life5. In Ontario alone, the cost of behavioural and mental health problems triggered by problems in early childhood are estimated at $30 billion; with appropriate programs in place, “that could get down to less than $15 billion a year, and probably even lower than that”, says Fraser Mustard, a leading expert in the early years6.

The Developing Brain
Babies are born with their brains less than 40% formed, but they are also born with all the necessary raw material to develop the remaining 60% out in the world. The newborn brain comes fully equipped with all the nerve cells it will ever possess—over 1 billion (more than all the stars in the Milky Way). Some neurons are already programmed for specific survival functions like breathing and heartbeat, but most are waiting for experiences in the environment to determine their function. Like a mass of unconnected electrical wires, they need to be connected in order to start working. And these connections are made based on what the newborn experiences through their senses – every sound, touch, sight, smell and taste builds connections. The more connections made, the more the brain can do. Forming and reinforcing these connections is the very work of early brain development—but babies can’t do it alone. They have the raw genetic material but it is the activity, experience, attachment and stimulation they get from their environment that determines how the brain will develop and be structured7. “Our earliest experiences are not simply laid down as memories or influences, they are translated into precise physiological patterns of response in the brain that then set the neurological rules for how we deal with our feelings and those of other people for the rest of our lives. It’s not nature or nurture, but both. How we are treated as babies and toddlers determines the way in which what we’re born with turns into what we are8.”
 Read more about how humans are born to learn.

A Critical Period
A baby’s brain develops at an amazing pace. By age two, a child who is developing normally has the same number of connections (synapses) as an adult and by age three, they have twice as many – which is twice as many as the child will eventually need. This is why the years before age six are so important. Experiences or lack of experiences during this critical period literally shape who they will become, how they learn, their abilities and their emotional capacities. This is because the synapses that are used repeatedly in a child’s day-to-day life get stronger. Those that are used very little will be eliminated. The brain literally changes itself according to the surrounding environment And it is changing incredibly quickly during the early years.

At four months, an infant’s brain responds to every sound produced in all the languages of the world. By 10 months, they can now distinguish and even produce the sounds of their own language (such as “da-da”) and they no longer pay attention to the sounds of language that are foreign to them9. If a child has never heard or spoken any language by the age of twelve, they will probably never be able to speak – even though they were born with the potential ability or predisposition to do so. It turns out we have lots of different kinds of potential abilities that we have inherited from our evolutionary ancestors —they have helped us to survive as a species. We aren’t just wired to learn language, we have natural predispositions to develop everything from the ability to read facial expression to empathy.
Read more about how we are predisposed for development.

What happens in the early years is critical because just like language, many of these predispositions are time limited. Brain development doesn’t occur at a constant rate— there are prime times for acquiring different kinds of skills and knowledge and specific times when the brain is pruning out unused connections. Enriched environments and appropriate stimulation help ensure that a window of opportunity for developing a specific capacity will be optimized. The absence of appropriate stimulation within certain time frames may lead to the skill or ability being ‘pruned out’ from lack of use. 

Read more about how timing is everything.

Timing is also important in catching and addressing problems in development. Studies have shown that early learning and behaviour problems can lead to poor school performance, social maladjustment, criminal behaviour, substance abuse and health problems later on10. About one-quarter of Canadian children experience some learning or behavioural difficulty by age six11. By not intervening in the early years, “that’s a huge opportunity lost,” said Elena DiBattista, director of the Peel School District’s “Success by 6” program12. “We are now beginning to appreciate the social enormity of these problems, plus the cost to society,” says Stuart Shanker from the Council for Early Child Development, “It’s very expensive to do intervention on a school-age child and at best you’ll only succeed about half the time13.”

The Importance of Parenting
Clearly, by the time kids get to school, many opportunities for optimizing development have been lost. From conception to the time they enter preschool or kindergarten, parents are the ones who are providing the environments, interactions and experiences that will shape children’s lives.

Early interactions, care and nurture have a decisive long-lasting impact on how people develop, their ability to learn and their capacity to regulate their own emotions. Research on the impact of early attachments confirms that warm, responsive caregiving is essential to healthy brain development14. “The basic systems that manage emotions – the stress response systems, the responsiveness of our neurotransmitters, the neuro pathways in which our implicit understanding of how intimate relationships work – none of these are in place at birth. Nor is the vital prefrontal cortex developed. All these systems will develop rapidly in the first two years of life….the path that is trodden in very early life tends to gather its own momentum, and the harder it is to retrace our footsteps15”.

We know that parents have a huge impact on brain development and life trajectories16, but the sad truth is that “only about one-third of the population are actually highly competent parents” says Fraser Mustard, one of the authors of the Early Years Study 2: Putting Science Into Action. We need to provide programs that give parents up-to-date and consistent information about parenting, as well as ensuring that parents have all the support they might need to stay balanced and healthy, and therefore have the best chance of getting it right for their children.

It is critical that parents have the time and the social support to love their kids well, for research shows that in the early years, love is a foundational requirement for intellectual, social and physical health. Read more about the importance of parent involvement.

The Need for Community Support
Parents can’t do it alone. Abundant research studies of health determinants, neuroscience, early childhood, and human and social capital affirm the substantial influence of non-formal learning in the family and community17. The preparation for lifelong learning and effective community participation starts at the very beginning of life. Ideally, children’s learning should be supported by a loving and committed nuclear family, reinforced by the extended family, neighbours and the immediate community18. We have, however, undergone significant [[shifts in society]] that have changed both the nature of family and the cohesion of community.
In Canada in 2003, there were over 63.4% of women with children under three working outside the home19. Yet In the same year, there were only enough regulated child care spaces to accommodate 15.5% of Canadian children aged 0 to 1220. Canada, in fact, ranks “dead last” among developed nations in its spending on early childhood education despite overwhelming evidence of how crucial the first six years of life are to life long development and success21. And it is not just that we are not providing child care opportunities, per se. It is the fact that the programming that does exist is a “chaotic mess,” says Dr. Fraser Mustard. To replace it, Mustard proposes a system of community hubs (ideally located in schools), that would offer play-based preschool activities, help for parents, social service referrals and child care22. In this way school, home and community would work together to support the development of our youth during the critical early years of life.
Read more about community involvement.

The Importance of Play
Anthropologists suggest that the more complex the cognitive processes of the species, the greater the importance of playfulness. Without play, we don’t go beyond the normal and the predictable. Play is about experimenting in a moderately safe environment. Psychologists define it as “a state of optimal creative capacity23”. Play, it turns out, enhances every aspect of children’s development—it forms the foundation of the intellectual, social, physical and emotional skills necessary for success in school and in life. That is, play “paves the way for learning24”.

For example, playing with blocks, sand and water lay the foundation for logical mathematical thinking, scientific reasoning and cognitive problem solving25. Rough-and-tumble play develops social and emotional self-regulation26. Pretend play fosters communication, developing conversational skills, turn taking, perspective taking and the skills of social problem solving—persuading, negotiating, compromising and cooperating27.
Play is so important to a child’s development, in fact, that it is recognized by the United Nations as a specific right of children. Sadly, children’s opportunities for play and their access to play environments have changed dramatically. Massive shifts in society have meant that it is increasingly rare for children to have long, uninterrupted blocks of time for open-ended, self-initiated free play, especially outdoors in natural environments28.
Read more about [[the importance of play]].

People have intuitively understood the importance of early childhood development for hundreds of years. But now that scientific knowledge has come through to explain how the development of the brain in the earliest years – this is before a child enters the school system – sets trajectories of physical and mental health that will last throughout life, as well as learning behaviour, that’s pretty fundamental…Most primary school teachers know this story in spades, but nobody pays attention to them. – Fraser Mustard 
A passion for learning isn’t something you have to inspire in kids; it’s something you have to keep from extinguishing.
Deborah Meier, Educational Reformer, Writer and Activist

Featured Video

Heather MacTaggart on Real-life Learning

Programs at Work
 Endnotes
  1. Fraser Mustard quoted in Toronto Star article “Expert urges replacing ‘chaotic mess’ of programs with community hubs”, Mar 26, 2007. Article by Kristin Rushowy, Education Reporter., Toronto Star. Article was related to the release of the Early Years Study 2: Putting Science Into Action, by Mustard, Margaret Norrie McCain and Stuart Shanker for the Council for Early Child Development.
  2. Canadian Council on Learning, State of Learning in Canada: No Time for Complacency, Chapter 2 – On Early Childhood Learning, January 2007.
  3. John Abbott. Article: “Lieutenant Peter Puget, the grain of the brain and modern society’s failure to understand adolescents”. 21st Century Learning Initiative, 2004.
  4. Stephen J. Quartz and Terrence Sejnowski, “The Neural Basis of Cognitive Development: A Constructivist Manifesto”. Behavioral and Brain Sciences (1997), 20: 537-556 Cambridge University Press.
  5. The Council for Early Child Development, Early Years Study 2: Putting Science Into Action, by Mustard, Margaret Norrie McCain and Stuart Shanker.
  6. Fraser Mustard quoted in Toronto Star article “Expert urges replacing ‘chaotic mess’ of programs with community hubs”, Mar 26, 2007. Article by Kristin Rushowy, Education Reporter., Toronto Star. Article was related to the release of the Early Years Study 2: Putting Science Into Action, by Mustard, Margaret Norrie McCain and Stuart Shanker for the Council for Early Child Development.
  7. Dr. Haim G Ginott (Author), Alice Ginott (Editor), H. Wallace Goddard (Editor). Between Parent and Child, Three Rivers Press, 2003.
  8. Sue Gerhardt. Why Love Matters: How Affection Shapes a Baby’s Brain. Routledge, East Sussex. 2004.
  9. Dr. Haim G Ginott (Author), Alice Ginott (Editor), H. Wallace Goddard (Editor). Between Parent and Child, Three Rivers Press, 2003.
  10. Toronto Star article “Expert urges replacing ‘chaotic mess’ of programs with community hubs”, Mar 26, 2007. Article by Kristin Rushowy, Education Reporter., Toronto Star. Article was related to the release of the Early Years Study 2: Putting Science Into Action, by Mustard, Margaret Norrie McCain and Stuart Shanker for the Council for Early Child Development.
  11. Canadian Council on Learning report, State of Learning in Canada: Early Childhood Learning, 2007.
  12. Toronto Star article “Expert urges replacing ‘chaotic mess’ of programs with community hubs”, Mar 26, 2007. Article by Kristin Rushowy, Education Reporter., Toronto Star. Learn more about the Peel Region’s innovative Success By 6 – Peel program.
  13. Stuart Shanker quoted in Toronto Star article “Expert urges replacing ‘chaotic mess’ of programs with community hubs”, Mar 26, 2007. Article by Kristin Rushowy, Education Reporter., Toronto Star. Article was related to the release of the Early Years Study 2: Putting Science Into Action, by Mustard, Margaret Norrie McCain and Stuart Shanker for the Council for Early Child Development.
  14. John Abbott presentation, Uncovering the Brilliance of Their Minds, given at the University of the West of England, Bristol,March 03, 08. at the ‘Inclusion for Early Years conference. The presentation is available to view online on the What’s New page of the 21st Century Learning Initiative website. Look under the date March 4, 2008: University of the West of England entry.
  15. Sue Gerhardt, as above.
  16. The Council for Early Child Development, Early Years Study 2: Putting Science Into Action, by Mustard, Margaret Norrie McCain and Stuart Shanker.
  17. Ron Faris. “Learning Community by Community: Preparing for a Knowledge-based Society”. Education Canada, Winter 2003 vol.43 No.1
  18. John Abbott presentation, Uncovering the Brilliance of Their Minds, given at the University of the West of England, Bristol,March 03, 08. at the ‘Inclusion for Early Years conference. The presentation is available to view online on the What’s New page of the  21st Century Learning Initiative website. Look under the date March 4, 2008: University of the West of England entry.
  19. Canadian Council on Social Development, Fact Sheet: Families: A Canadian Profile, quoting Statistics Canada facts.
  20. Canadian Council on Social Development, Fact Sheet: “Families: A Canadian Profile” 
  21. The Council for Early Child Development, Early Years Study 2: Putting Science Into Action, by Mustard, Margaret Norrie McCain and Stuart Shanker.
  22. Fraser Mustard quoted in Toronto Star article “Expert urges replacing ‘chaotic mess’ of programs with community hubs”, Mar 26, 2007. Article by Kristin Rushowy, Education Reporter., Toronto Star. Article was related to the release of the Early Years Study 2: Putting Science Into Action, by Mustard, Margaret Norrie McCain and Stuart Shanker for the Council for Early Child Development.
  23. John Abbott presentation, Uncovering the Brilliance of Their Minds, given at the University of the West of England, Bristol,March 03, 08. at the ‘Inclusion for Early Years conference. The presentation is available to view online on the What’s New page of the  21st Century Learning Initiative website. Look under the date March 4, 2008: University of the West of England entry.
  24. Kalliala, M. . “Play Culture in a changing world”. Berkshire, England: Open University Press, 2006.
  25. Canadian Council on Learning Report Let the Children Play: Nature’s Answer to Early Learning. November 8, 2006, Prepared by the Early Childhood Learning Knowledge Centre,
  26. Ibid.
  27. Ibid.
  28. Richard Louv, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder, Algonquin Books, 2006, quoted on the bookflap. For more author info. visit the Richard Louv website.