Why preschooling should be taken seriously

When having conversations with friends and family about my new venture, Table View Preschool and Creche, there is always an excited, supportive response and the general statement about education in South Africa needing to improve, but I often wonder if people really see the value in what we are hoping to do, or realize the extensive research that went into this decision and the importance we see in our work.

 

As time goes on, there is more and more research to show that the early years of a child’s life highly impact their overall health, happiness and levels of success throughout their life. 

 

In particular, the first 1000 days of a child’s life has been termed the brain’s window of opportunity, as it is when the foundations of optimum health, growth and neurodevelopment for a person’s lifespan are established (Cusick, S. & Georgieff, MK. 2016). During this time, children’s brains have sensitive periods (periods of optimal readiness to develop) in core developmental areas. These sensitive periods continue throughout the early years and decrease over time as children get older. This can be seen graphically below. 

 

Sensitive periods for brain development 

 

Source: Council for Early Childhood Development (2010) 

 

Not supporting children effectively during these early years results in lost opportunities and a developmental lag which is very difficult to overcome in later years. As researchers across the world have started to understand this better, the development of the early year’s sector globally has developed rapidly and we, in South Africa need to follow suit. 

 

Increasing access to and the quality of preschool education in South Africa is the best investment we can make in our country. 

 

Andy Bassingthwaighte

Principal, Table View Preschool & Creche

 

References: 

 

1. Cusick, S. & Georgieff, MK. (2016). The role of nutrition in brain development: the golden opportunity of the first 1000 days. The Journal of Pediatrics. 175: 16-21 

2. Council for Early Childhood Development, 2010.