{"id":234,"date":"2017-10-03T09:18:26","date_gmt":"2017-10-03T13:18:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/healthpsych\/?p=234"},"modified":"2018-01-12T14:21:12","modified_gmt":"2018-01-12T19:21:12","slug":"early-childhood-matters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/healthpsych\/2017\/10\/03\/early-childhood-matters\/","title":{"rendered":"Early childhood matters"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chapter 6 evaluates the many stages of childhood and early life and how it can influence health and longevity later on. Friedman and Martin examined aspects such as breast-feeding, early education, head start, skipping ahead in school, play time and higher education and discussed the various effects each had on long live. Findings were not directly correlated with long life, but there were significant patterns. For example, breastfeeding made little difference in the long term, however it was found that children who started school early were more likely to encounter difficulties later on in their lives. Children who were pushed to start school early tended to second guess their abilities and less likely to grow up as well adjusted adults. It is possible that an early start takes away the play time that children need at that age, and being surrounded by older classmates causes them to feel inadequate. Interestingly, children who skipped a grade later on in their teenage years were less affected; what really mattered was early childhood.<\/span><\/p>\n

I personally went to head start when I turned four years old. Since I started school around the same age as most of my peers, I never felt as though I was left out. In addition, my family was very supportive of my schooling and my parents helped me with my homework as much as they could. Although my parents are immigrants and I\u2019m a first generation student, I never felt as though I was left behind in school. The book mentions how having a healthy life is not just directly correlated with factors such as starting school early or being breast-fed, but rather is a combination of social environments and internal characteristics. Since I lived in a household that placed importance on education and success, I always felt secure in my learning and was confident in my abilities. I remember being one of the first kids in my kindergarten class who learned how to read; my teacher Ms. Anderson would often call on me to read to the rest of the class. However, I did not learn how to read early because of pushy parents, but because I had an intrinsic desire and pull towards books and words. It is also possible that my experience in head start gave me that initial boost that many classmates didn\u2019t have. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chapter 6 evaluates the many stages of childhood and early life and how it can influence health and longevity later on. Friedman and Martin examined aspects such as breast-feeding, early education, head start, skipping ahead in school, play time and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2688,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65929,59091],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chapter-6","category-fall-2017"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/healthpsych\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/healthpsych\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/healthpsych\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/healthpsych\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2688"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/healthpsych\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/healthpsych\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/healthpsych\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/healthpsych\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/healthpsych\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}