Quality early learning is good for children of all backgrounds

Spending more time in quality early years' education between ages two to four can have a positive impact on the cognitive development and social and emotional wellbeing of children - regardless of their social background, new research suggests. Children in this age bracket who spent more time with childminders, were also found to have fewer emotional difficulties, such as fears and worries. The insights were revealed in newly published findings from the government funded Study of Early Education and Development (SEED) study. SEED aims to study children from age two, to age seven, in order to better understand how different early childhood education and care experiences (ECEC) can impact child development. This report focused on the development of children age two to four years and looks at the range of ECEC that children receive. It also assessed the impact of the parent child relationship on child development, and whether the quality of their home learning environment may play a role. The research which is conducted by a consortium comprising the University of Oxford, Action for Children, Frontier Economics and the National Centre for Social Research, was commissioned in 2012 by the Department for Education.