Early Childhood Engagement

Abstract

Children’s experiences with formal group early learning experiences serve as an introduction to schooling and provide foundational experiences with cognitive, language, social, emotional, behavioral, and relational skills that start the trajectory to a successful transition to elementary school and beyond. Despite evidence supporting the benefits of early childhood engagement for learning and development, there is very little consistency in how early childhood engagement is defined and measured. This chapter summarizes the evidence on early childhood engagement, describes the myriad ways early childhood engagement has been defined, and highlights some potential options for measuring early childhood engagement.