Community-based services that meet the needs of infants and young children are vital to Early Childhood Development and they should include attention to health, nutrition, education, water and environmental sanitation in homes and communities. The approach promotes and protects the rights of the young child to survival, growth and development. The ECD approach remained unfortunately a lost out opportunity vis-à-vis the policies and programs of Government of Pakistan until recently. At present there are many ECD initiatives under-way, both by the Government and donors, to promote ECD approaches for education and development of young children in Pakistan. (For more details please refer to the section on RCC Program)
Most brain development occurs before a child turns three. In the first moments, months and years of life, every touch, movement and emotion in a young child’s life translates into an explosion of electrical and chemical activity in the brain, as billions of cells are organizing themselves into networks requiring trillions of synapses between them. Long before many adults even realize what is happening, the brain cells of a new infant proliferate, synapses crackle and the patterns of a lifetime are established. In a short period of 36 months, children develop their abilities to think and speak, learn and reason and foundation are laid for their values and social behavior as adults.
These early childhood years are when experiences and interactions with parents, family members and other adults influence the way a child’s brain develops, with as much impact as such factors as adequate nutrition, good health and clean water. And how the child develops during this period sets the stage for later success in school and the character of adolescence and adulthood.
When infants are held and touched in soothing ways, they tend to thrive. Warm, responsive care seems to have a protective function, to some extent immunizing an infant against the effects of stress experienced later in life. But the brain’s malleability during these early years also means that when children do not get the care they need, or if they experience starvation, abuse or neglect, their brain development may be compromised.
The effects of what happens during the prenatal period and during the earliest months and years of a child’s life can last a lifetime. All the key ingredients of emotional intelligence – confidence, curiosity, self- control, relatedness, capacity to communicate and cooperativeness – that determine how a child learns and relates in school and in life in general, depend on the kind of early care he or she receives from parents, pre-school teachers and caregivers. Emphasizing the care of babies and toddlers means focusing on women whose physical and emotional conditions influences their pregnancies and their babies development
Educating families about the importance of proper diet and health care for pregnant women is also the part of ECD, as is educating men about their important role in caring for their pregnant wives and nurturing their children. When fathers as well as mothers are convinced about the support required for healthy pregnancies and child development, harmful health practices `can be eliminated.
ECD requires integration of different departments especially health, education and community development. Health department should focus on integrated, holistic early childhood development. All children have the right to be delivered safely. It is possible only in the presence of well-trained community based midwives. Luckily, in Pakistan we have a strong network of 50,000 Lady Health Workers covering nearly 50% of the country’s population under the National Program of Primary Health Care. Many have the potential to be up- graded to do more specialized jobs.
