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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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Supporting Emergent Literacy and Math Skills (ELM) in Early Childhood Programs in Ethiopia
One of Save the Children’s programmatic priorities is supporting 3 to 5 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
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Measuring and Improving Quality in Early Childhood Environments
ISSA, UNICEF, UNESCO, and the Bernard van Leer Foundation, in partnership with the World Bank and the Brookings Institution, joined forces to call attention to the importance of measuring and improving quality in early childhood environments. An internati
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Early Language Delays in the UK
Between birth and the age of two years, babies and toddlers develop their communication skills. Not only do these skills allow children to start speaking their first words and making simple sentences, they also equip them with the ability to express feeli
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Emergent Literacy and Math (ELM) Intervention Endline Report November, 2013
Ethiopia is progressing well in education over the last two decades and the country is also at the vanguard of Africa’s move toward improving access to education. Enrollment in primary education has increased from less than 30% twenty years ago to 95.4% (
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ECCE Pakistan LB End of Year One Report 2013
During the 2012-2013 school year, Save the Children (SC) began implementing the first year of the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) program. The program, designed to improve reading skills for early grade students and prepare young children for sc
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Literacy Boost El Salvador: Baseline Report 2013
This report examines the results of a student background survey and reading assessment conducted in April and May 2013. The survey and reading assessment covered 875 grade 2 learners throughout 57 schools in the 3 areas of El Salvador. The 57 schools are
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Zambia School Readiness and ECCD Baseline Report: November 2013
This baseline report presents the results of a school readiness assessment administered to children ages 3-5 in new sponsorship areas of Lufwanyama, Zambia, as well as a survey of their caregiver and a more general community questionnaire, focused on Ear
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Emergent Literacy and Math (ELM) Results: Bangladesh
In 2011, Save the Children field tested early childhood development resources geared toward developing emergent literacy and math (ELM) skills in young children. Testing was done as a part of a USAID-funded early childhood care and development (ECCD) prog
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Exploration of the Status of Services for Immigrant Families in Early Childhood Education Programs
Immigrants make up at least 15 percent of the population in more than 50 countries. In 2005, “One in every three international migrants lived in Europe and one in every four international migrants lived in North America.” At age 3 and 4, children in immi
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Early Language Development and Children's Primary School Attainment in English and Maths: New research findings
One child in five starts primary school in England without the language skills they need to succeed, a figure that rises to one in three of the poorest children. This briefing paper presents new findings that show the real consequences for children who ar
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Interactions Between Maternal Parenting and Children's Early Disruptive Behavior: Bidirectional associations across the transition from preschool to school entry
This study was a prospective 2-year longitudinal investigation of associations between negative maternal parenting and disruptive child behavior across the preschool to school transition. Our main goals were to 1) determine the direction of association be
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Budget and legal analysis of Early Childhood Education in Kosovo
Projects of Save the Children in Kosovo/a (SCiK) in education are aimed to improve the situation of children and children’s access to inclusive education, particularly pre-school education.This budget analysis on early childhood education and care service