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Early childhood care and development (ECCD)
The first six years of a child’s life is a time of great promise and rapid change, when their developing brain is most open to the influence of relationships and experiences. However, millions of children across the world are at risk of not reaching their full potential because they do not get the care and stimulation they need in the early stages of life.
To achieve the SDGs and ensure that all girls and boys, especially the most deprived, are developmentally on-track we need to start early. Save the Children works with families and communities to help children to develop foundational learning skills in the years leading up to school. Save the Children also works with communities and partners to advocate for policies and practices that recognise the value of starting early and investing in cost-effective, inclusive quality approaches to ECCD.
Our goal is that all children will access quality inclusive early childhood care and demonstrate improved child development outcomes.
Save the Children’s experience shows that to reach the most vulnerable children, we need to go beyond preschools. High quality caregiving must be supported both in homes and in early learning centres to build strong foundations for young girls and boys. Moreover, rural, linguistic minority and refugee children need urgent support as they are falling behind. Save the Children works to address these gaps through targeted interventions, such as early learning programmes that support children’s learning at home in emergency and post-disaster settings, among remote and nomadic communities, and in areas where preschools are not available or accessible.
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International Development and Early Learning Assessment (IDELA): Endline study in Nepal
Save the Children began implementing Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) programs in Nepal in 1997 to help children learn and develop their full potential. By 2015, Save the Children had education programs in 18 districts and worked with 1402 ECCD
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Early Childhood Matters: Advances in early childhood development
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the first issue of Early Childhood Matters. Since the publication of the first issue, there have been significant advances in both our understanding of the science of child development and the importance of investin
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IDELA: Fostering Common Solutions for Young Children
Evidence about the importance of learning opportunities in early childhood has been mounting in recent years, culminating with the inclusion of pre-primary education in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Despite the known benefits, global investment
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Fëmijëria e Hershme: Promovimi i Sigurisë dhe Zhvillimit Socio-Emocional të Fëmijës
Children are part of the world they live in, which they interact with thorough emotions and actions. Before and after childbirth, children explore the world around them through their senses, experience phenomena, and develop relationships with their famil
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Bulding Brains: Early Stimulation for Children from Birth to Three
Now more than before, we know that the early years of a child's life are the foundation of human development and life-long learning. In the first year of life, 1 million new neural connections are formed per second. A child's brain is built, not born. Sav
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Windows into Early Learning and Development
Windows into Early Learning and Development sheds light on what can be done to give all children the best chance in life in their first five years. Poverty, stunting, and lack of cognitive stimulation mean that nearly half of 3- and 4-year-old children in
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Emergent Literacy and Math (ELM) Ethiopia: Endline report 2017
One of Save the Children’s programmatic priorities is supporting 4-6 year-old children around the world with quality early childhood care and development (ECCD) programs. The focus is on strengthening school readiness skills so that children are ready to
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0-3 Parenting Program Innovations in Bangladesh: Follow up study 2015-2016
Since 2011, Save the Children has been programming and evaluating early childhood development programs for children aged 0-3 years in Bangladesh. The aim of this study is to investigate the possible lasting impact of 0-3 programming on parents and childr
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Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD): Various modalities of delivering early cognitive stimulation programs for 0-6 year olds
Before young children can start to learn reading and math, they need to develop the physical, cognitive, language and social skills to use a pencil, follow a story and listen quietly to a teacher. That’s why Save the Children (SC) places such a high prior
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Inclusive Education: What, Why, and How: A handbook for program implementers
Inclusive education is one dimension of a rights-based quality education which emphasizes equity in access and participation, and responds positively to the individual learning needs and competencies of all children. Inclusive education is child-centered
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The Lost Boys: How boys are falling behind in their early years
Every child deserves the best start in life. But in England now, many children aren’t getting the support they need to reach their potential. During their pre-school years children learn so much – discovering through play, and starting to speak and unders
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International Development and Early Learning Assessment (IDELA): Children attending kindergarten in Albania
This study aims to provide an IDELA baseline assessment that establishes the conditions at the onset of an Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) project against which future changes will be measured amongst the targeted beneficiaries. The project i