The early years shape everything that follows. By the age of five, ninety per cent of a child’s brain development has already happened. How that time is spent – the experiences, the interactions, the opportunities to explore – lays the foundation for learning, relationships and resilience.
For parents navigating the early years, the choices can feel overwhelming. Nursery or childminder? Structured learning or free play? Screens or crayons? The evidence points to something reassuringly simple: children learn best through hands-on, physical, interactive experiences with the adults around them.
What early childhood education actually does
The strongest research on early childhood education focuses not on academic outcomes but on the cognitive and social foundations beneath them. Children who have rich early experiences – conversation, storytelling, creative play, mark-making – develop stronger language, better self-regulation and greater readiness for the demands of school.
This is not about pushing children to read or write before they are ready. It is about building the systems that reading and writing will depend on. A child who has spent time drawing, scribbling and experimenting with marks is developing fine motor control, concentration and – crucially – an understanding of what symbols can do. A three-year-old who makes different marks when asked to “write” versus “draw” is showing early symbolic understanding, one of the most important cognitive shifts in the pre-school years.
Choosing the right setting
Early years provision in the UK ranges from state-funded nurseries to private settings and childminders. The right choice depends on your child, your family and your circumstances. What matters most is not the type of setting but what happens inside it: whether children have opportunities to talk, play, create and interact with attentive adults who respond to them.
If your child is aged three or four, you may be eligible for 15 hours of funded childcare per week, rising to 30 hours for working families. The government’s Childcare Choices website has the details.
When visiting a setting, look beyond the facilities. Watch how staff talk to the children. Notice whether mark-making materials are accessible. Ask how they support early communication and creative play. These are the things that make a measurable difference.
Social and emotional development starts here
The early years are when children learn to share, take turns, manage frustration and express what they feel. These skills do not develop in isolation – they grow through daily interactions with other children and responsive adults. A good early years setting creates the conditions for this to happen naturally, through play, routines and gentle guidance.
Children who develop strong social and emotional skills in the early years tend to settle more easily into school, form better relationships and cope more effectively with the demands of the classroom. This is not about hothousing. It is about giving children the time and space to develop at their own pace, with the right support around them.
What you can do at home
The most valuable thing you can do in the early years costs nothing. Talk to your child. Read to them. Let them see you writing – a shopping list, a birthday card, a note on the fridge. Provide crayons, paper, paint and chalk. Let them make marks without correcting or directing.
These everyday moments are where development happens. A child watching you write a list is learning that marks carry meaning. A child scribbling on paper is building the motor pathways that handwriting will later depend on. None of this requires a curriculum. It requires presence, materials and encouragement.
Understanding where your child is
Between two and a half and three and a half, children reach a cognitive milestone that most parents never hear about: they begin to understand that writing and drawing are different. This shift is visible in their marks – but the differences are subtle and require trained analysis to detect.
The Scribble Report is built on the research behind this milestone. A 10-minute activity with crayons and paper, analysed against developmental criteria, giving you a clear picture of where your child is and what comes next.
For children aged seven and above, Handwriting Scan and Handwriting MOT identify specific difficulties with letter formation, fluency and automaticity – the skills that underpin everything children are asked to do in writing at school.
More Handwriting creates tools for parents and schools that are grounded in developmental research. Visit morehandwriting.co.uk to find out more.
