Academic And Social-Emotional Performance

The impact of early experience on academic and social-emotional performance

Introduction: Experiences that occur during infancy are affected by the surrounding environment and genes to shape the brain structure (Friederici, 2006; Grossman, 2003; Hensch, 2005; Horn, 2004; Katz & Shatz, 1996; Majdan & Shatz, 2006; Singer 1995 as cited in Fox, Levitt, & Nelson, 2010). Hess (1973) and Knudsen (2004) call these years in which human are flexible to change “sensitive periods” (as cited in Fox, Levitt, & Nelson, 2010). It has always been an argument whether early experience or later experience has a stronger impact. One study by Vega- Mendoza, West, Sorace, and Back (2015) suggested that later fluency in a second language is a result of acquiring

Knudsen (2004) said “Just as a square house cannot be built on a round foundation” later experience cannot bring characteristics that are not related to early experience (as cited in Fox, Levitt, & Nelson, 2010). This paper seeks the answer to the debatable question of the strongest experiences influence. In addition, it provides comprehensive evidences for the tremendous impact of early experience on academic performance and social-emotional capacity. Early vs. later experience: It has been claimed that although early experience might influence human development and leave an impact on the brain structure and behavior, the impact is temporary and could be modified or even reversed by later experience. Therefore, opponents of discontinuity in development claimed that the continuity of development from infancy has impacts that are unsusceptible to last (Bennett (e.d.), 1999, p 22). Wadington (1962-1972) believe that early experience does not

In a study by Yazejian, et al. (2015) the findings show that early entry time of early education centers and the endurance attendance to them result in having high academic performance especially in language skills. The study states that infants from poor families have lower scores since they did not have the opportunity to enter kindergartens as the children of middle and high income families. The researchers in this study attributed this to school readiness, as children who enter care centers acquire the basic skills that prepare them to school, thus they get high scores. On the same side, Melhuish, Phan, Sylva, Sammons, Siraj-Blatchford, and Taggart (2008) investigated the influence of home education and preschool centers on children's development, and found that there are sufficient evidences that preschool education determines academic achievement. In addition, they believed that early parental education incorporates about 20%-50% influence on child academic development. Moreover, McLeod, Harrison, Whiteford, and Walker, (2015) concluded their study by saying that the early development of speech and language competence, literacy and numeracy provide bases for adult’s performance. Therefore, it is obvious that early experience has an effective influence in the development of academic performance. Nelson, Zeanah, Fox, Marshall,