Abecedarian Project Essay

Melissa Chandler

February 08, 2018

In this essay I will address three areas of consideration from the media we were given to

reflect on; funding and actual long-term outcomes, what types of credentials or material are

approved for early educational professionals, and the problems with replacing playtime with

class time.

The first issue I want to discuss is the problem seeking out funding when the outcomes

are long term. There is a need to fund programs now; however, many investors want their

investments to pay off immediately, or they want guarantees. It may take 30 years for the

recipient to pay back the investment by helping contribute to the economy. We can plainly see

that early education whether it starts in infancy or at three increase not only the educational

success rate, it creates a thirst for learning. Misha, one of the children in the Abecedarian project

said that he enjoys education and this is primarily due to his participation in the project. The

NIH (National Institute of Health) article gives us some numbers and indicates that treated

participants in the Abecedarian project reported substantially higher earning income. The TED

talk further supports this idea by stating some of the critical economic benefits. Higher

education leads to the creation of new, more prestigious jobs with higher wages. This increase in

employment rates and salaries help raise per capita earnings which boost the local economy.

Employment rates with the tested children is at 75% compared to the control group with a 53%

employment rate. They also tested the results of tested individuals who needed to use some sort
of public assistance which can leach money from the local economy. The finding show that

3.85% of tested children still needed some form of public assistance but the numbers indicated a

significant decrease when compared to the control group at 20.41%.

The second issue I would like to address is the lack of prior training amongst early

childhood educators. Who regulates these standards? My experience with a Head Start program

back in 2000 was not the most assuring. I did not keep my daughter enrolled in the program

because it lacked structure. The routines felt vaguely similar to those at my daughter's daycare.

The head start video touches on a guideline set up in 1975 that outlined guidelines and

expectations but does not discuss procedures, material, or content. Doctors who put together the

Abecedarian project put together programs to help introduce particular learning concepts or

ideas. All of the articles focused on the outcomes which are encouraging, but no one talked

about what or who is putting together these early educational programs. What panel of

individuals sit down to come up with what we should or should not include and what are their

credentials. I am not arguing that the programs are not yielding results, but we need to provide

the parents with this information. This is an excellent segue into the next discussion topic. If the

doctors and educational program directors put together an effective and efficient program, they

can free up some of their schedules for natural play.

This need to teach and expose children to early education has trumped our interest in

allowing children to have natural playtime. I advocate sports, especially to children since it

teaches many social, emotional, and physical skills. We snub out our children's interest in

creative activity by forcing our focus to many revolve around learning outcomes. Headstart

which starts at a later age then the Abecedarian project subjects who were infants, focuses on
introducing educational games in the studies. These games are challenging and created to

stimulate certain parts of the brain early on. The Abecedarian project did address this issue

briefly by showing a game that researchers used with one of the infant test subjects. Dr Sparling

stated that children would indicate when they are interested in something, when that happens the

infant is open to learning more about that particular activity. This is important to note because

we tend to focus on outcomes, so we force too much content and forget to remember quality.

Children are eager to learn but need the time to develop other essential skills such as teamwork,

critical processing, and emotional development. I worry about how the programs hope to

address these possible deficits in learning, primarily since the newer head start programs are now

offered full time and year round.

In conclusion, my overall feeling is that these initiatives to engage children at an earlier

age is crucial, especially in an ever-changing world. Like everything in life, we need to be

mindful and balance the time and energy we expect from our children. Learning should not

replace fun; instead, they should both work cohesively.

 Reference:

Bartik, T. (2012, September). The economic case for preschool. Retrieved February 07, 2018,

from ​https://www.ted.com/talks/timothy_bartik_the_economic_case_for_preschool/transcript

Campbell, F. A., Pungello, E. P., Kainz, K., Burchinal, M., Pan, Y., Wasik, B. H., . . . Ramey, C.

T. (2012, July). Retrieved February 09, 2018, from

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3989926/

R. (2010, November 18). Head Start History. Retrieved February 08, 2018, from

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0pNlACUXkI

B. (2010, September 18). Abecedarian Study - Dr Joseph Sparling. Retrieved February 09, 2018,

from ​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YyZ8FkFsK4