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The future starts today: supporting early childhood education, development and school readiness

Parents are their child's first learning companions and have the greatest influence on their child's development and education. Children go through various developmental phases, each with its unique features and challenges. During these phases, children expand their social, emotional, physical, and cognitive skills. From birth, they are involved in a continuous learning process, acquiring basic skills needed for everyday life and later for school. It is crucial to encourage children as early as possible, both physically and cognitively. Joint activities help your child observe their environment, ask questions, and gain experiences. For example, when you point out the different characteristics of plants or animals while out in nature and discuss them, you foster their language development. You can improve your child's concentration and stamina by providing suitable play materials such as building blocks, puzzles, or coloring books. Activities that engage different senses enable children to understand their world in a comprehensive way. When feeding an animal, a child experiences the animal's trust, which awakens a deep sense of empathy for all living beings. A child who sings not only activates their sense of hearing but also improves their language skills and develops a sense of rhythm. Ensure developmentally appropriate encouragement by acknowledging your child's individual interests while avoiding overwhelming them.

As children grow up, they learn to deal with challenging situations. They do this by actively perceiving their environment, thinking about it, acting and communicating. These processes are closely interlinked and assist children in engaging with their surroundings and finding their place within it. The language of parents and other caregivers plays a significant role here. It aids children in understanding their everyday lives. Children are fascinated by everyday things and situations, which naturally leads to learning. They acquire knowledge playfully and joyfully, without the need for specialized teaching programs. Even days when nothing extraordinary seems to happen are significant for a child. These quiet times are crucial for children to process their experiences and learnings. The role of adults is to offer age-appropriate stimuli that enhance a child's natural curiosity. For instance, if your child enjoys drawing, offer them a variety of drawing tools such as crayons, finger paints, wax crayons, brushes, and chalk. These tools promote creativity as well as the development of fine motor skills. If your child shows an interest in screwing and building, a construction set is an excellent way to nurture this interest. It is advisable to refrain from intervening in a child’s play. If your child enjoys playing with farm animals, they deepen their knowledge of the animals' appearance, learn to distinguish the different sounds and better understand the importance of the animals in their habitat. In this way, children build a connection to nature and its inhabitants and develop empathy for other living beings. It is advisable to refrain from intervening in a child’s play. This preserves the child’s innate curiosity and sense of discovery.

Between the ages of three and six, children improve their gross motor skills by climbing, balancing and riding scooters. From four to six years of age, children expand their fine motor skills by drawing in greater detail and cutting with scissors with increasing precision. However, important school skills like good fine and gross motor skills are not acquired only one year before starting school through a special preschool program and numerous worksheets. Particularly in the first years of life, children need lots of opportunities to move regularly and in a varied way so that their gross motor skills develop well. Activities such as running, swinging, balancing, climbing or playing ball games strengthen their muscles and coordination, while activities such as building with Lego or kneading develop their hand and finger dexterity. Good hand and finger dexterity makes it easier to draw and later to learn to write. Children improve their fine motor skills in everyday activities such as getting dressed, keeping things tidy, kneading or playing with small parts. You recognize problems in fine or gross motor skills, for example, if a five- or six-year-old child has difficulty grasping small objects or finds gross motor activities such as riding a scooter, climbing or balancing challenging.

Alongside motor skills, language development plays a crucial role in a child's life. It forms the foundation for both communication and later learning. In the first few years, a child’s language skills develop rapidly, from individual words to complete sentences. This development enables children to express their thoughts, feelings, and needs and to communicate with others. When parents take time daily to talk with their children, such as by reading stories, discussing everyday experiences, or singing favorite songs together, they lay the groundwork for a vast vocabulary. This linguistic interaction also helps children get a better sense of proper sentence structure. Particularly, regular reading aloud significantly aids language development. During regular reading times, children encounter a variety of words, sentence structures, and expressions, which enhance their understanding of text and communication skills. Moreover, reading aloud boosts the ability to listen attentively, which proves highly beneficial later in school. Regular verbal communication is crucial to prevent potential language delays and to actively support the child’s language development over the long term.

In the first few years of life, parents are the most important caregivers for a child. During this important phase, a positive bond is formed that has a decisive influence on the child's emotional, mental and physical development. If children are cared for outside the home from an early age, the quality of the time spent together with their parents is particularly important. This early bond forms the basis for children to discover the world, develop confidence in their own abilities and take on new challenges. A loving and positive relationship with caregivers influences all areas of a child's development. It has a positive effect on the child's emotional well-being and promotes their social, cognitive and language skills. It facilitates the development of social skills such as compassion, empathy and helpfulness. It also contributes to the development of cognitive skills by stimulating the child's curiosity and independent thinking. Spending time together with parents is crucial in preparing children for the demands of school. Through shared activities and conversations, parents help their children develop the necessary social, emotional and cognitive skills needed to start school.