Importance of Early Childhood Education

By Audrey Treece



I truly believe that people are not educated enough in the importance of early childhood education. I, although an early childhood advocate, did not realize how crucial those first few years of your life can be. If I do not learn anything else throughout my thesis process, which is highly doubtful, I can successfully say that I have a better understanding of what all early childhood education entails.

Neurological research proves that children are born to learn, while absorbing every aspect of their environment. The first three years of life are the most critical to the neurological development of a child. (See Chart) Child care in the United States has been viewed as a domestic responsibility rather than a basic component of a community’s infrastructure and there has been limited concern for the impact of institutional settings on children’s development. It is estimated that children, under the age of six, that are enrolled in child care spend an average of ten hours a day, five days a week, and fifty weeks of the year in early childhood centers. With the overwhelming amount of time that our children are spending in centers, we should be focusing on the importance of these particular buildings and the effects that they have on them.

As designers and/or architects, it should be our concern to find a model for these early childhood centers. These buildings should be rethought and redefined to create an environment that addresses the relationship between children and their built environment. This is a big, open opportunity to make a difference and we should use our creative thinking to create a building model that will foster experiential learning while helping children learn, discover and prosper.