Talking points.

For use by school leaders in papers or presentations about important issues related to public education Key Message: A person's capacity to become a happy, healthy, contributing adult begins to take shape at the beginning of that person's life. It is our collective responsibility as a society to provide the environment and opportunities within which that development is most likely to take place. " What happens – or doesn't happen – to children in the earliest years of their lives is of critical importance, both to their immediate well-being and to their future. " – UNICEF.org Most of a child's brain cells are formed before birth, but the connections between those cells are made after birth. It is those connections that make the brain cells work. By the time a child is three years old, they have formed about 1,000 trillion connections – two times as many as they are likely to form as an adult. It is up to all of us to ensure that the connections that contribute to academic and social success are developed and exercised during early childhood. Sometimes when we hear the term " early childhood, " we think of a program or a class. While early childhood may include both, it is neither. Early childhood is the period in a person's life when that person's mind is developing and those critical connections are being made within the brain. Early childhood begins prenatally and extends to about five years old. Early childhood has been described as a window of opportunity in a person's life when learning is most efficient and most likely to occur. " We have a lot of research that says if a child is in a healthy environment, in a loving environment in which there's bonding between the parents and the child, where there's positive interaction, so the child starts ready for school, cognitively ready and socially ready, there's a high probability that child will succeed in life. If not, there's a high probability he or she will not. " – Art Rolnick, economist, Humphrey Institute fellow, and former research director at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis That's where early childhood begins, but not where it ends. Research demonstrates that a child's social, physical and academic development is enriched through high-quality early childhood programs. This is particularly true for at-risk children. Projections indicate that the real financial return on the investment …