About the Early Years

According to existing research, the first few years of a child’s life not only lay the foundations for a successful, healthy path to adulthood for the child, they also have meaningful implications for parents, local communities, the economy, and society as a whole. Cleveland and Krashinsky (1998) state that when examining the benefits of child care, both the benefits to the child in terms of development and the benefits to parents must both be included as it is a complex issue.

Did You Know?

• The early years is a critical period for developing resilience. Resilience is a key component of mental health and wellbeing, allowing us to cope with and "bounce back" from ups and downs in life (Masten & Coatsowrth, 1998; Werner & Smith, 2001).
• “In the first few years of life, more than 1 million new neural connections are formed every second” (Center on the Developing Child, 2007).
• The early years is the most crucial period of learning for "soft skills" such as communication, collaboration, and self-management (UNICEF, 2019). 
• Canadian cost-benefit analyses indicate that for every dollar spent on early childhood education, the benefits range from $1.49 to $2.78 (Alexander & Ignjatovic, 2013).
• Access to child care allows parents to return to work and increases family income while decreasing the need for social assistance programmes (Oxfam Canada, 2019).
• Access to child care promotes gender equality by supporting women and gender diverse parents’ participation in the workforce (Oxfam Canada, 2019).
• Supporting and investing in the Early Years leads to a healthy, successful society with benefits for everyone, including a more productive workforce, a boosted economy, less strain on social services and higher graduation rates (Fairholm, 2011; Fairholm, 2012).

The New Brunswick Child Care Review Task Force (2016) outlines that “high-quality early learning and child care that is well-designed, implemented and monitored, supports:

• optimal child development;
• inclusion of children with additional needs;
• social inclusion of cultural minority groups;
• gender equality;
• women’s and families’ participation in the labour force;
• job creation;
• poverty reduction;
• reduced need for social assistance;
• higher fertility rates; and
• a more vibrant economy”

UNICEF (2019) states that high-quality child care programmes provide children with strong foundations that lead to “stronger social skills, larger vocabularies, better number sense, and curiosity to learn more”. They also help children develop resiliency, and strategies to handle trauma, stress, and conflict (UNICEF, 2019). Reaching IN...Reaching OUTᴼᴹ (RIRO) defines resilience as “the ability to "bounce back" from life's inevitable pressures and hard times. It helps us handle stress, overcome childhood disadvantage, recover from trauma and reach out to others and opportunities so we can grow and learn” (Masten & Coatsowrth, 1998; Werner & Smith, 2001).

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Children are not the only recipients of the impact that the early years have. When the early years are valued and supported, there are benefits for everyone.

When parents have access to child care for their children, there are multiple benefits for the family, the employer, and society as a whole. Parents are able to return to work – especially women – which allows families to bring in more income (New Brunswick Child Care Review Task Force, 2016). Additionally, research shows that parents who experience difficulty accessing stable, high-quality child care are often forced to reduce work hours or quit their jobs (Fairholm, 2011; Fairholm, 2012).  Parents are also shown to be more motivated, focused, and productive employees when they are confident their children are in high-quality child care (Fairholm, 2011; Fairholm, 2012). As a result, employers save money by not having to recruit, rehire, and train new staff, or cover absences. Employers will also experience a boost in revenue due to a higher volume and quality of work by employees.

Society as a whole experiences a boost to the economy due to job creation, increased tax revenue from working parents, reduced need for social assistance due to increased standard of living for families, more revenue from sales taxes due to increased spending by families, higher birth rates leading to more tax payers in the future, and a stronger workforce of the future leading to higher productivity, higher incomes, and increased tax revenue (Fairholm, 2011; Fairholm, 2012). 

Children’s early years don’t just have the potential to strengthen the economy and workforce of the future, but the current workforce and economy as well. 

Canadian cost-benefit analyses indicate that for every dollar spent on early childhood education, the benefits range from $1.49 to $2.78 (Alexander & Ignjatovic, 2013).

Powell et al. (2019) state that there are four key ways that investments in early childhood benefit the economy:

1. multiplier effect to dollars spent in ECE;
2. increased female workforce participation;
3. increased parental earnings;
4. increased employee productivity.

UNICEF (2019) agrees, stating that high-quality child care “facilitates the upward mobility of two generations . . . enhancing labour force productivity and reducing the social costs of crime and health care”.