Introduction to early childhood development and research in Singapore

Abstract

Education and well-being care are important throughout life, but especially so during early childhood, a time characterized by profound neural change. Importantly, early life experiences and neurodevelopment, in turn, lay the foundation for the subsequent ways in which neurodevelopment unfolds. As neurodevelopment is influenced by both genetic and environmental factors, it is not surprising that the quality of early childhood experiences has been found to have short- and long-term impacts upon individuals and society. For example, early environments characterized by relative responsiveness from caregivers (Fraley et al., 2013; Raby et al., 2015) may lead to academic and/or social competence even into adulthood. On the other hand, early childhood experiences with poverty and/or low socioeconomic status, exposure to parental mental health difficulties, forms of insecure attachment, and abuse or trauma have been linked to outcomes such as lower levels of school readiness, attentional problems, and/or difficulties in socioemotional development (e.g., Psychogiou et al., 2020; Fearon & Belsky, 2004; Dearing et al., 2001; Enlow et al., 2012).