The contribution of early education to vulnerable and resilient developmental pathways

This study investigates the relationship between early education and cognitive and social development in young British children between the ages of 3-7 years. It is hypothesised that pre-school education might facilitate resilience in children's developmental pathways that have proved vulnerable due to the significant impact of risks. This study aimed to provide a systematic examination of the relationship between cognitive and social development, child or family specific developmental risks, and the structures and processes of early education. Adopting the methodology of secondary analysis, this study re-examined the data of the Effective Provision of Pre-school Education (EPPE) project that followed the developmental progress of nearly 3,000 British young children as they experienced different kinds of early education from 1997 to 2001 and later primary school. Three sets of longitudinal statistical analyses were carried out. First, a new method was developed for measuring the relative weight of different kinds of risks as they predict development. Second, the impact of different kinds of risks upon development during the pre-school period (ages 3-5) was examined to see whether it was lessened by high quality early education. Third, the developmental skills and abilities of children at exit from early education were studied in terms of their prediction of developmental pathways during the first two years of school (ages 5-7). Results from these three sets of analyses suggested the following: (1) validity of the new method of measuring developmental risks, (2) strong evidence of partial protection of young children's general cognitive ability when examining child level developmental risks and the quality of the processes that take place in programmes of early education, (3) that high quality early education can contribute to resilient developmental pathways during the first two years of school by boosting the vital cognitive and social skills of children at entrance to primary school. In policy terms, high quality early education programmes have the potential to serve as interventions within normal populations. Further, high quality early education programmes also have the potential to act as a type of primary prevention in a manner similar to targeted Early Interventions for children already at risk