Importance of Early Childhood Development for Lifelong Health: An Overview

Introduction:

Childhood can be divided into three stages, namely, early childhood, middle childhood, and late childhood (preadolescence). Early childhood refers to the period between the time of conception until the child is eight years old, and early infancy is the most important period of development in every individual’s life. The success of a child in his or her later life, the overall growth and development, emotional and mental stability, and social life are all dependent on the child’s early development and his or her experience gained through it.

How Does Early Childhood Development Influence Well-Being in Later Stages of Life?

• Whatever the child learns in the initial six years of life can become powerful experiences that can positively or negatively impact the outcomes in the later stages of a child’s life.

• Early childhood development is of paramount importance as it forms the child’s major health determinant involving early childhood health and well-being, learning, and cognitive skills. These are required to prepare the child to face the future life.

• Insufficient access to early childhood development tools or limitations can cause the child to have negative influences, affecting the child’s behavior, learning, and adulthood.

• Thus, public health services need to intervene at the right time in such cases to promote the importance of early childhood development among the public and also take necessary steps to remove the negative influences through various awareness programs.

• Certain early childhood development programs like education and care programs, family support programs, and poverty reduction programs can lead to long-term benefits and better outcomes.

How Do Social Determinants Influence Early Childhood Development?

• Social determinants refer to the environmental factors to which a child is exposed during its growing period, especially in the early childhood days, which can impact the overall health and developmental aspects of a child.

• Social determinants include housing facilities, interpersonal relationships among children and their parents, friends, and family, daycare and school facilities, access to play areas, and safe neighborhoods.

What Are All the Factors That Influence Early Childhood Development?

Early childhood is an important phase in a child’s life. The following factors majorly impact the overall childhood development which includes:

Physical Development:

• Physical development is an important aspect of early childhood development.

• Physical development as a whole involves the overall development of the brain, muscles, and sense organs.

• As soon as a baby is born, it starts exploring the world around it through the senses of sight, touch, smell, sound, and taste.

• It is believed that the baby gets familiarized with its mother’s voice right in the womb itself, and hence, a newborn baby will be able to recognize its mother’s voice soon after birth.

• Infants start exploring the things around them through the senses, which increases their ability to grow and learn from their surroundings.

Growth:

• Studies reveal that the growth of the child will be the highest during the first two years of life, which then slowly reduces its pace between two to six years of age.

• A child can undergo a two to three inch increase in height and weight gain of around five pounds every year, which is also influenced by genetics.

• Lack of availability of adequate nutrition compromises a child’s growth and development.

• Malnourishment not only jeopardizes growth but also affects the cognitive and learning ability of a child.

• Also, the low socioeconomic status of families fails to provide good nutrition facilities to their children.

• Poor nutrition facilities causing deficiencies in vitamins A, B, D, K, iron, and calcium in small children (preschoolers) affect the overall growth and development.

Motor Skills:

• Early childhood development also constitutes motor development skills, which involve coordination movements between hands, legs, and other organs of the body. These movements prove to be beneficial as they involve the active involvement of muscles.

• Children aged between three to six years will be able to perform gross motor skills like jumping, climbing, kicking a ball, pedaling a three-wheeled bicycle, and running, which aid in improving their sensory and motor control of the nervous system and also facilitate brain maturation and development.

• Low-income communities may find it difficult to provide play areas for children to play outside, thus affecting their motor development skills. Hence, such children should be encouraged to play games in the schools to harness better outcomes.

Family:

• Family holds a prime position in a child’s life as they are closely associated with the family that supports, cares for, and nurtures a child from the time it is born.

• The nurturing of a child in a family is greatly dependent on socioeconomic status, cultural beliefs, and parenting patterns, which prepare the child to face society and cope with the upcoming social trends.

• According to recent studies, adequate maternal nutrition, parental stress, depression, parental mental and physical health, unemployment, earnings, certain home conditions, and the standard of living tend to influence a child’s overall health and academic performance in school.

Poverty:

• Poverty has been associated with overall well-being and academic factors like poor health status and development, performance and accomplishments in school, and adult health in the future.

• Children with poor socioeconomic status tend to face challenges in upgrading their linguistic and cognitive skills when compared to children belonging to high socioeconomic status.

Cognitive /Language Development:

• The intellectual quotient (IQ) of a child greatly depends on the educational status of the mother.

• Mental health influences adult life in the future.

• Lack of maternal education, scarcity of family resources, and inadequate mental health affect early childhood development.

Conclusion:

It is imperative to understand the importance of early childhood development in every child’s life, which supports overall well-being and contributes to better health outcomes in later life. Various social factors come into play, affecting the health, the development of cognitive and learning skills, and the academic performance of a child in school. Hence, the nurturing pattern of the environment, which includes parents, family, caregivers, and the group in which the child lives, learns, and is nurtured, hugely impacts a child’s early growth and development.