We form future Life Champions!
Most parents all wish we had a crystal ball to see how far and how fast your children will rise to the occasion called life. We would also love to know in real-time how well we are doing in the upbringing of our children. How their relationships at a young age will form habits and will create long lasting bonds that will ultimately form their life’s trajectory. Some of us move to different zip codes and switch jobs to accommodate certain school systems just to give them fighting chance to achieve more with the right peer system. There are many studies that correlate early childhood interaction and education with future behavior, future graduation rates and future success.
Early social-emotional development is closely tied to and helps boost, academic achievement and other kinds of learning. It’s not just our day care facility that think this way, it’s actually a published study!
In 2015, researchers published the findings of a 20-year study that examined the relationship between children’s strong social-emotional skills at kindergarten entry, including how well kindergartners cooperated with peers and understood feelings, and their later outcomes.1. Who your child interacts with is directly associated with how they will behave and how much they succeed later in life!
This undoubtedly puts the onus on our child care system to ensure that we hire qualified individuals that are capable of being nurturing, patient and caring towards children. On a more local level, knowing about such studies and applying the research is what we at Apple Tree Preschool in Norwalk CT practice every year, every quarter and daily.
The aforementioned groundbreaking study revealed that children with better social-emotional skills in kindergarten and early childhood daycare were more likely to graduate high school on time, complete a college degree, and maintain full employment by age 25.
Children with strong social-emotional skills were also less likely to be enrolled in special education services or repeat grades while in school, receive public assistance, be involved with the police, or binge drink as young adults.
The unfortunate reality is that many in the early childhood development field do not work in this field for the love of children. Many view it as a form of income or a business venture, as seen with large chain day care centers. We pride ourselves in being established in the Norwalk community since 1971. We treat every child that enters our program like one of our own.
Social-emotional development is often unnamed or misunderstood by those who care for young children, and those who make broader decisions about their health and welfare. The studies are in; social-emotional development is important not just to children’s academic success and well-being, but to their adult outcomes as well.
Moreover, there is a gap in adult understanding of children’s social emotional growth that if filled, could lead to more resilient, curious, healthy children who grow into higher functioning adults.
Apple Tree Preschool is a loving facility where we actually know what it takes to nurture children. By the time they leave our establishment they are well on their way to a bright start in Kindergarten and beyond.
We welcome you to call us and tour our facility and meet our teachers for you to experience first hand what sets our school apart. Come see how we build future life champions!
1. Damon E. Jones, Mark Greenberg, and Max Crowley, “Early Social Emotional Functioning and Public Health: The Relationship between Kindergarten Social Competence and Future Wellness,” American Journal of Public Health 105 (11) (2015): 2283-2290.