Day Care and Early Childhood Education

Child care and early education are critical components of a child’s social and emotional growth. From birth to the age of three, the quality treatment encourages stable brain growth. The way a child thinks and reacts toward others is shaped by his or her interactions with others during the early stages of development. Proper planning means that the infant is excited about kindergarten and that he or she has a promising future. Among the papers selected were ’The Impact of Family Involvement on the Education of Children Ages 3 to 8’ and ’Counting on Early Math Skills.’ Both studies investigate the effects of nursery and early childhood education on infants.
The Effects of Family Involvement on Children’s Education Ages 3 to 8 The article focuses on the study of literacy and arithmetic achievement outcomes as well as social-emotional skills. It is written by Voorhis, Maier, Epstein, and Lloyd. The study examines the effects of family’s involvement in care and education on child’s social-emotional skills, literacy, and mathematics skills. A family consists of the parents, guardians, and school teachers. The authors reviewed a total of 95 studies on family involvement in child’s development. The review comprised of descriptive, intervention, and nonintervention studies on different activities undertaken by family members to strengthen a child’s literacy and understanding of mathematics (Voorhis et al., 2013). According to the authors, there are four areas in which a family participates in care and the child’s early education. Firstly, parents engage children in learning activities at home with an aim of promoting child’s literacy and math skills. Secondly, the children are taught arithmetic and literacy skills by teachers at school. Thirdly, the school has put in place the strategies to engage children and their families feel welcomed and supported. Finally, parents nurture the parent-child relationship and set a conducive environment to ensure their children healthy development.

The authors found out that the involvement of families plays an important role in enhancing child’s literacy and development of math skills. Parents who come from diverse backgrounds should be encouraged to engage more with their child to ensure better outcomes (Voorhis et al., 2013).

The research assumed that the primary data obtained from the reviewed studies was unbiased. The assumption is that no internal or external factors that could have influenced the outcome described in the studies. Another assumption was that the use of a random method to select the study to be reviewed was not subjective. It is my thinking that exclusion of internal and external factors gave the researchers the chance to narrow down on the role played by families in child’s education. Besides, I think that it was wrong to assume that the reviewed studies were not biased and that the outcomes were not influenced by environmental or social factors. Use of random method to select study to be reviewed is not appropriate. Instead, the authors should have selected documents to be reviewed based on rural and urban, cultural, social, geographical, and economic settings.

Counting on Early Math Skills

The article is based on the ability of a child to develop early arithmetic ability. It was written by Mattera and Morris. The authors state that evaluation of math ability is an appropriate predictor of child’s reading and arithmetic skills. They claim that children who show stronger math proficiency in their childhood are more likely to pass well in high school and proceed to college for further education. Materra and Morris (2017) evaluated the effectiveness of Making Pre-K Count and High 5s math programs in improving a child’s early arithmetic skills. The article examines the short and long-term outcomes of using the selected math programs. The study found out that there is a statistically significant impact of the use of Making Pre-K Count and High-5 math programs on skill development of a child (Mattera & Morris, 2017). Use of the math programs affects arithmetic understanding, math attitude, language comprehension, and executive functions of a child. The used 2,700 children from low-income families. Children were placed in different control sites where educators in incorporated Making Pre-K Count while others used High-5 math programs in their lessons. Each child was individually assessed at the end of the kindergarten year. Math tests were given to measure the child’s ability to understand mathematical measurements, patterns, arithmetic operations, and geometry (Mattera & Morris, 2017). According to the study, prior math experience improves the child’s math and executive function abilities.

The study assumed that the use of special math programs such as High 5s was the only contributor of child’s enhanced math skills after kindergarten year. This is because factors such as good attitude towards learning can contribute towards improving child’s math skills. Besides, the study assumed that exposure to math programs influenced all areas of learning such the understanding of numbers, patterns, geometry, and executive functions. I think that the authors used correct assumptions in measuring the effect of Making Pre-K Count and High 5s math programs on children math ability. The assumptions helped the researchers narrow the scope of the study and concentrate on effects of math’s programs in the development of child’s abilities.

References

Mattera, S., & Morris, P. (2017). COUNTING ON EARLY MATH SKILLS. Preliminary Kindergarten Impacts of the Making Pre-K Count and High 5s Programs, 1-9.

Voorhis, F. L., Maier, M. F., Epstein, J. L., & Lloyd, C. M. (2013). THE IMPACT OF FAMILY INVOLVEMENT ON THE EDUCATION OF CHILDREN AGES 3 TO 8. A Focus on Literacy and Math Achievement Outcomes and Social-Emotional Skills, 1-17.