Strong foundations, successful futures

What does the research tell us about the benefits to children under three of attending an early childhood program? Many of us are familiar with the research demonstrating the benefits to preschool-aged children of attending a good-quality early childhood program. The idea of education for preschool children is well established and accepted. Studies such as the Effective Provision of Pre-School Education (EPPE) in the UK (Sylva, Melhuish, Sammons, Siraj-Blatchford & Taggart, 2010), and Perry HighScope (Schweinhart et al., 2005) and Head Start in the USA (McWayne, Hahs-Vaughn, Cheung & Green Wright, 2012) show that the benefits across all areas of development and well-being are significant and long lasting.