Recent advances in brain research show how the environment sculpts the young child's brain, as neurons form connections and mature in response to stimulation. The environment has the greatest potential to influence the child's developing brain during a child's first few years of life. If a child does not have adequate emotional, physical, cognitive, and language stimulation, neurons can be lost permanently.
Language development is one of the most critical school readiness skills.
A child's capacity to talk and the size of their vocabulary when they enter kindergarten is predictive of success in school. Early intervention may prevent or decrease the severity of language delays in preschoolers, enhance school readiness, and increase later academic success in school. Cumulative Effects of Poverty and Environmental Risk. Research on young children raised in poverty demonstrates the dramatic detrimental impact that impoverished environments can have on a child's capacity to learn to talk. Educational programs beginning at 3 or 4 years of age could not hope to overcome such vast differences in cumulative experience.