We should focus more on 'critically' important early years

Nonetheless, the early years of children’s lives do matter.

The combined momentum of the global economic downturn from 2007 onwards, and an increasing recognition of the significance of the first few years of life as a basis for positive outcomes into adulthood, have underpinned the Scottish Government’s position in promoting high quality Early Years education and childcare provision. Ensuring ‘the best start in life for every child’ has endured as a dominant Scottish Government policy message for over 10 years, driven by strong dual discourses of the ‘invest early to save later’ early intervention agenda, and research highlighting the important impact of early brain development and relationships upon cognitive, social and economic outcomes across the life-span.

The Scottish Government’s financial investment in the expansion of Early Years provision appears to further endorse the value of Early Years education and childcare to our society, suggesting that early years are a critically important time to build foundations of learning and skills which will enable later successful educational outcomes, and that early years services can enable parents and carers to access work, study or training, thus reducing the poverty related attainment gap.  

However, whilst children’s early years experiences can, and do, have important influences upon their later life outcomes, there are dangers in viewing Early Years education and childcare only through this lens.

Early years matter not only for children’s futures, but also in children’s lives in the here and now. Conceptualising Early Years education and childcare from an early interventionist standpoint runs the risk of positioning young children’s potential predominantly as an asset to be nurtured only in those ways which are most likely to optimise their positive, successful futures.

By viewing early years as a preparatory stage for what comes next, we may fail to value the early years of childhood as a stage in the lifespan in their own right and in turn, may not notice or act upon what might help the child to thrive, flourish and enjoy their lives in the present. 

Considering the importance of children’s early years experiences from the further perspective of what supports them to flourish in the present enables a holistic consideration of their wellbeing, development and learning across family, community and global environments.

This alternative perspective offers a way to see the young child as simultaneously looking towards the future, whilst engaging in the present moment with parents, carers and other adults they know well, through loving, responsive, playful actions, interactions and relationships. This is significant, given that the expansion of early learning and childcare provision means that many young children now spending more of their waking hours with Early Years Practitioners than with parents or carers.

Reassuringly, my own research with Early Years Practitioners found that their sense of professional purpose was deeply rooted in prioritising strong, caring relationships with the children they work with and enabling their wellbeing and happiness as  unique individuals, before their concern for policy or learning or educational outcomes.

So, for all those children taking big or small steps in learning this August, whether at home with family, with childminders or in nurseries- their early years matter. This time matters not only for what it may help children achieve in future, but also as an important stage in the lifespan in its own right, during which they have the potential to grow, play, learn and develop, and also to influence and shape their relationships with those of us who have the privilege of spending their early years with them.

Joyce Leslie is a Lecturer in Education (Childhood Studies / Childhood Practice), at the University of the West of Scotland