The Development Of Early Childhood Education

Early childhood education is often defined as "a branch of educational theory which relates to the teaching of young children (formally and informally) up until the age of about eight." Early childhood education is closely-knit and connected to the development of the brain specifically the development of physical, emotional and social skills. “A child 's brain can be about 80% the size of a full grown adult’s brain by the age of five years old and at the age of three, a child has a brain 2.5 times more active than the average adult.” (McCarthy, 2011.) Early in a child 's life, synapses begin forming at a rate faster than any other time of their lives. Because of this, young children learn things much quicker than adults do. Development of

The teaching of language or academic skills in early ages is not something only found in formal types of education, but is also found in child-directed play and interaction with children in early ages is also an important part of education. (Webster-Stratton & Reid, 2010). According to the Seattle Learning Center, Child-directed play is a one-on-one play interaction where the child is helped to direct and lead the play in any way the child desires. While adult directed play or adult-led play is opportunities set up by adults for children to discover. (Pearson Schools and FE Colleges). Child-Directed play is important because it allows children to find practice necessary skills like overcoming obstacles, problem-solving, effectively communicating feelings, and working with others who may have different ideas and points of view. It also encourages development of children 's skills such as cognitive, emotional, social and physical. It is a necessary part of every child 's life. In experiments conducted by Webster-Stratton & Reid, the difference between child-directed play and adult-directed play are shown. In the experiment, a five-year-old boy, Dylan who had shown aggressive behavior towards people and threw tantrums, was asked to participate in child-led play with his parents. In the beginning, he continuously would reject his parent 's attempts to play with him, but slowly started to interact with them and allow them to be a part of his playtime. By conducting this child-directed play they began to form ego and helped Dylan practice how to express himself and control himself in social situations. (Webster-Stratton & Reid, 2010). Teaching children not only through formal education but also play, children begin to learn important social skills along with developing their own