Early Childhood Education Background

The first eight years of a child’s life establish the foundation upon which the child grows and develops. Because these first years are an especially critical time in the growth of the child, ChildFund offers a variety of programs to ensure proper growth and development. These programs recognize the importance of investing early in children’s development as a means to build social equity and give disadvantaged families a better chance of breaking out of the cycle of poverty. Effective programs in Early Child Development (ECD) also increase the likelihood that other programs, such as basic education and health services, will be successful.
ChildFund-supported ECD programs focus on strengthening the synergies among children’s health, nutrition, protection, stimulation, psychosocial support, and age-appropriate play and learning opportunities.
In conjunction with ChildFund programs on maternal-child health and nutrition, environmental sanitation, adult education and income generation, ECD programs contribute to building the capacity of families, communities, and other stakeholders to create an environment where young children can grow and develop their potential.
Ensuring School Readiness through ECD
ChildFund’s ECD programs help children make a successful transition to primary school by building school readiness skills. ChildFund has always tracked the physical growth of children in communities where it works. In addition to monitoring weight and height, ChildFund has developed a culturally sensitive, universal monitoring scale that measures a child’s developmental progress in critical areas of child development including:
Social and emotional skills
Cognitive abilities
Gross motor skills
Fine motor skills
Communication and language ability
By monitoring a variety of developmental milestones, CHILDFUND can take advantage of critical opportunities to detect and correct developmental delays as early as possible in a child’s life.
ChildFund’s Principal ECD Interventions
Along with basic education, ECD is a cornerstone of ChildFund's work and a key element in ChildFund’s approach to building social equity. Around 11 percent of ChildFund’s investments go towards Early Child Development programs.
ChildFund promotes ECD through the following program interventions:
Advocacy at the local, district, regional, national, and international levels – Achieved through awareness-building efforts, Information, Education, and Communication (IEC) campaigns, newspaper and electronic discussion groups, organizing constituent groups, and conferences;
Capacity building at the local, district, regional, and national levels – Training those involved in providing education services, establishing ECD centers, enhancing parents’ skills, and training the staff of community-based organizations (CBOs);
Service Delivery – Providing services such as training and follow-up coaching for parents or caregivers; health, nutrition, early stimulation, and psychosocial support for children; and the training of facilitators and teachers;
Knowledge building – Using participatory studies such as action planning, focus groups on topics such as indigenous knowledge and practices, applied research and evaluation, and the publication of papers, to expand CHILDFUND’s understanding of issues related to ECD.