Autumn 2015 - The Pre and Primary School Guide | Page 14

charity

learning and thriving
CHARMAINE SMITH from the Children’s Institute explains how investing in children’s
development from a young age can put them on the road to success later in life.
What you put in during the early years of a child’s life provides the building
blocks for ensuring healthy, well-adjusted and thriving individuals as they grow
older. Research has proven the first 1 000 days of life (from conception to two
years) is a critical time for children’s development. But it doesn’t stop there.

As they grow older, children continue to move through different
stages of development – physically, mentally, emotionally, socially, spiritually
and morally – all these areas need attention. Assisting them to thrive in these
areas is what early childhood development (ECD) is about.

ECD is like a “scaffolding process”, explains Lizette Berry, an ECD
expert from the Children’s Institute at the University of Cape Town. “If we don’t
make the necessary investments in the early years, it gets more difficult for
a child to benefit from opportunities later in life. Early childhood is a critical
‘window’ of opportunity – but this ‘window’ will close; so we need to do all we
can for young children within the critical early years.”

Put simply, ECD enables a readiness to learn and thrive later on.

The importance of play

Creating opportunities for play that stimulate learning is a very important part
of development, and parents and caregivers have a vital role in this.

Lizette says children need a stimulating, inviting and interactive play
environment, and opportunities for play activities that are guided by a warm,
caring and responsive adult. “We are their ‘filters’ – we need to expose them
to stimulating and positive influences as often as possible.”

What kinds of play are important? “Both indoor and outdoor play
is important because the different settings help develop different skill sets in
children”, she explains. At the same time, play activities must be suitable for
the developmental and learning needs of different ages. Between birth and 5
years, it is important to focus on physical, social and emotional development,
as well as cognitive (early maths) and language skills.

How do children learn literacy and numeracy?

Literacy is learnt in phases. Ages 0 – 3 need play that stimulates:

• verbal and non-verbal communication,

• listening and speaking.

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Literacy learning for ages 3 – 5 builds on these skills to increase:

• letter knowledge;

• print, vocabulary and book awareness, and finally

• early reading and learning.
Early mathematics skills for ages 0 – 3 help memory and problem-solving
through for example:

• imitation and symbolic play, and