High Quality Early Childhood Results in Better Long-Term Health
North Carolina’s Abecedarian Project is once again making news. Science Daily reports that researchers found that individuals who had received the intensive education intervention starting in infancy had significantly better health and better health behaviors as young adults.
The Abecedarian project was a carefully controlled scientific study of the potential benefits of early childhood education for children from low-income families. Four groups of individuals, born between 1972 and 1977, were randomly assigned as infants to either the early educational intervention group or the control group.
- Children from low-income families received full-time, high-quality educational intervention in a childcare setting from infancy through age 5.
- Each child had an individualized prescription of educational activities.
- Educational activities consisted of “games” incorporated into the child’s day.
- Activities focused on social, emotional, and cognitive areas of development but gave particular emphasis to language.
- Children’s progress was monitored over time with follow-up studies conducted at ages 12, 15, and 21.
- The young adult findings demonstrate that important, long-lasting benefits were associated with the early childhood program.
The lastest study was done by researchers at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health.
