From the moment of conception, a child's wellbeing and development is dependent upon the mother's actions and behaviors. The maternal instinct to protect one's young is common throughout all of humanity. To move society forward, however, we must teach mothers not only ways to improve their child's health, but also ways to increase their child's learning and development.
The term early-childhood learning may conjure up different images to each of us. To some, it may mean reading to a child, playing classical music, or providing interactive learning opportunities. For many mothers around the world, however, the term has no meaning -- those mothers have never been taught ways to improve their child's learning development.
A child's learning and development starts at age zero.
Every action a mother takes (or fails to take) with respect to developing her child's learning skills, directly affect the child's ability to succeed in the future.
In developed countries, governments recognize the need to provide solid school-based curriculum, the goal of which is to prepare their learners to be competitive in a global economy. Most of these programs, however, begin for children at age five or six. That's too late! Children, who do not receive learning-development support from their mothers, will start school with skills years behind those of children who do!
In developing countries, the need for a mother's involvement in a child's learning and development is even greater.
We must set expectations for mothers that they must actively participate in their child's early learning and development.
For many children, their mother may be the only teacher they ever have. For all children, the mother is the first teacher and, more importantly, the mother is the teacher during the period of time when the child's brain is developing most rapidly and during which its development can be most influenced.
We must educate mothers on the learning-development process -- all mothers, everywhere.
During a meeting with my Head of the Class colleagues, we debated the existence of a "universal" set of learning-development skills that all mothers must know. The debate fueled discussion, which lead to a mission. To date, we have identified, and have made instruction available for, over 400 such child-development skills! The learning-and-development skills start at age zero and align with all children's first three years of life. To address the worldwide need for such instruction, Head of the Class established the Pregnancy through Toddler Website. Our goal is to partner with others to release the learning content to mothers worldwide, in many languages, through needed channels of distribution (Web, mobile, and text), for free!
Learning and development begins at age zero. Through instruction and knowledge, mothers can change the world, one learner at a time.
Kris Jamsa, Ph.D., MBA is the author of over 110 books on computing and education. Jamsa holds six college degrees which include a Ph.D. in Computer Science, a Ph.D. in Education, and Masters in Education with a focus on multiple intelligences. Jamsa is the author of the Head of the Class book series which present over 12,000 learning activities, available to parents and learners at the Head of the Class Website, for free! Dr. Jamsa believes all children deserve the opportunity for a quality education, for free, and through the use of technology, we can deliver that opportunity.
I'm afraid your 400 skills falls into the above catagory. Did you do a carefully controlled scientific experiment that was published in a peer reviewed journal that proves that these 400 skills are distinct skills that lead to improved learning?
The key factor that leads to student success is not a set of activities that parents must do, or schools must perform, but a positive attitude towards education and learning that is communicated to the child by the culture of the country, community and parents. They do not have to read to the child, help with homework,or be active in the school, They can be poor, non-english speaking, uneducated people (Jewish and Asian immigants); but, the parents must communicate to the child that scholarship, curiosity, knowledge and hard work are hightly valued.
If the county, community and parents communicate to the children their respect for education, the schools only responsibility is to teach a complete curriculum that covers ALL subject areas in a straight foward systematic way.