School's first five years: Why they count more than you realize

The school years that start at the start of it all can be recalled to go by in a blur of wee ones' pajamas, lunchboxes, and morning mayhem. For others, it's a seascape of candy-coated photos, the alphabet, and the beginnings of best friends. But beneath all the sweet facade is something very profound, something which impacts not only learning pathways, but the very mapping of a child's brain. The early years in school add up to a lifetime of learning, social bonding, and callousing of heart. The science behind it might be an eye-opener for many.

Hardwiring the brain, not merely learning letters

Basically, pre-primary and preschool classes are full of the learning of shapes, figures, and everyday day words. That is just the tip of it.

What's actually happening is a whopping amount of neurological building. The Center on the Developing Child at Harvard approximates that more than 1 million new neural connections are built each and every second in the brain of the young child during early childhood. It is early experience, and specifically structured ones like school, that get to determine which of those connections become entrenched and which can slide away.

Learning in school does not simply pick up facts. It picks up thinking, waiting in line, listening, questioning, and getting along with other people. Those are the real lessons that develop life-long mental and interpersonal understanding.

Feeling muscles start to develop

"Children are too young to learn feelings or become socially smart in early grade school." These early grade school years are the years management of feelings begins firmly to take root.

At school, children are presented with actual dilemmas, such as how to settle a dispute with another person or how to cope with routine and authority. They're all small but powerful emotional training ground.

It was proved by researchers at Yale University's Child Study Centre that social-emotional learning (SEL) in preschool and kindergarten had a significant impact on being sensitive and even diminishing behaviour problems. Kids who can articulate and regulate emotions consistently within a secure, stable school setting will become empathetic, resilient, and confident adults.

Language skills today, communication power tomorrow

There is the tendency to believe that authentic language capability starts when kids are pretty well able to read and write. But beginnings start before, and they are simpler than they appear.

In those years, becoming raised in the midst of told control, class conversation, and read-alouds works to build something more than words: knowing the world capability.

Studies found that kids who'd grown up in more prosperous early language environments possessed quicker and more competent brain responses to word processing as children. These early language abilities are associated with higher critical thinking, improved memory, and even improved mental health as an adult. 

Early confidence patterns start early

Self-confidence is assumed by most to be something one develops in childhood along with age. But the primary school years plant this seed subterranean, sometimes to last an entire lifetime.

When the child is complimented for a minor achievement, such as getting their name spelled correctly or knowing how to tie their shoe laces, the child begins building their inner belief system. It is the same which will become the inner voice that resonates loud through challenging school years ahead.

Early success at school had a profound impact on children's perception of their own ability well into teenage years. Wonderful is the manner in which one little word of encouragement or good manners from one of them can be recalled as a lifeline of inner confidence later in life.

School is the first window to the outside world

Home will instill love and values, but school will instill the initial concept of community.

Throughout all these initial five years, school is where kids learn that the world consists of other people but who are to be respected. From the memorization of how to collaborate on class projects to role-playing in art class, every experience expands the mind to kids learning about rules, diversity, cooperation, and fairness.

Shepherding and interacting with early learning groups significantly influence tolerance, eradicating prejudices, and bring long-term positive tendencies among other individuals. This is the start of being open-minded, caring human beings one could be not only as an individual, but also towards other people.