Study: Kids' Crucial Learning Period Extends beyond Year Three

This article originally appeared in SLJ’s Extra Helping. Sign up now!

Joan Oleck -- School Library Journal, 4/11/2007

Parents of newborns don't need to waste their dollars on Mozart CDs or the latest Baby Einstein toys. A new study says that although the first three years of an infant's life are important, they're not as crucial in a child's mental development as was previously thought.

"Million Dollar Babies: Why Infants Can't Be Hardwired for Success" by the Washington, DC, think tank Education Sector says that companies such as Baby Einstein and Brainy Baby have generated handsome profits by taking advantage of the incorrect conventional wisdom that sufficient stimulation in the first three years of life "can go a long way toward hardwiring the brain for success."

But the truth is, "adults can't make newborns smarter or more successful by having them listen to Beethoven or play with Einstein-inspired blocks," the report says. "Nor is there any neuroscience evidence that suggests that the earliest years are a singular window for growth that slams shut once children turn three."

In fact, the social programs with the strongest evidence of positive, long-term results include high-quality preschool programs that children attend after the age of three. "There is very strong evidence about the effectiveness of preschool for mostly four-year-olds, [and] a little bit for three-year-olds and five-year-olds, too," says Sara Mead, the report's author and a senior policy analyst.  Mead adds that early childhood advocates have "misused" neuroscience research to falsely promote the idea of a "critical period" of learning during infancy. The research they cite, Mead says, comes from animal research about specific sensory and motor functions, not "entire sensory systems."

This inaccurate information has led state and federal lawmakers to pour millions of dollars into programs focused on children from birth through age three, the report says. "Some have seized on the importance of early brain development in an effort to excuse elementary and secondary schools from the difficult task of working hard on behalf of all students—on the grounds that by the time many students get to school they are already hopelessly and permanently behind."

For a full copy of the report, click here.