We all know that early childhood lays the foundation for future learning. Although I am sure some people are not convinced, that doesn’t matter because this theory is backed up by decades of research. Its one of the few things in education that I would bet my life savings on. If you want to know why early childhood sets the foundation for future learning, just keep reading. We are going to discuss 6 early childhood concepts that lay the foundation for future learning.
- Adaption. A child’s ability to modify a skill to suit the environment. Adaptation is the highest level of achievement in early childhood. If a child learns to masters this skill during their foundational years, it will only become heightened throughout the rest of their life, leading to increased skill and knowledge acquisition.
- Temperament. Your child’s temperament is made up of personality traits that will ultimately shape their overall personality. It is during early childhood that positive personality traits such as resilience and curiosity form. These traits can play a huge role in the future, as they help students learn at exponential rates.
- Socialization. The ability to learn and execute the social norms and expectations of society. Without the ability to socialize with others, our learning curve is limited. Think about all the things that we learn from other people, whether they are family members, friends, classmates, teachers, mentors, etc. If we didn’t learn to socialize in early childhood, the skills and knowledge base that we have would probably be significantly diminished.
- Emotional intelligence. The expression, understanding, and regulation of emotions. This skill is acquired in early childhood education and helps us to form the intrapersonal and intrapersonal skills that it takes to participate in a learning environment and in the world in general.
- Communication r
ules . Rules and characteristics of a conversation that must occur for there tobe order in the exchange. Without these rules in place, communication will break down. We wouldn’t be able to learn via conversations with others, because we would violate the basic rules of communication, and the conversation would end or become unproductive. - Imagery. A strategy for memorizing new information wherein a child superimposes images of one or more stimuli so that the relationship between the images helps with recall. Without this skill, we wouldn’t possess the spatial awareness that it takes to play sports or drive a car.
What did I miss?