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​Parent's interaction with pre-school children boosts skills development: Nobel Laureate James J. Heckman

"Parents play a crucial role in creating and motivating children's skills especially in early childhood," James J. Heckman, the Henry Schultz Distinguished Service Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago and a Nobel Memorial Prize winner in economics, delivered a lecture at Jinan University in Guangzhou recently.

"Early childhood is a period of malleability and opportunity in the life of a child. Featured early childhood interventions have shown significant positive impacts for long-term outcomes," said Heckman, adding "The learning which occurs at home is much more than we used to think. The relationship between the parent and the pre-school children is critical."

He introduced a home-visiting project, namely China REACH (Rural Education and Child Health Project), which showed empirical evidence of the mechanism of skill formation.

In the project, trained members visited the families with pre-school children once a week and instructed the families in early childhood education. The home visitor's interaction with the parents helped boost the children's skills development while the interaction between home visitors and the children didn't help as much.

Heckman noted that the key mechanism is parenting, through which effective interventions produce children's skills development. The effects are not only on the children's intelligence but also on social, emotional skills and health. 

He also pointed out that the earlier the interventions are carried out, the easier for the children to acquire knowledge with more productivity later, which means that parents' investment in interaction with the children promotes their skills.

"If I invest today in the life of a disadvantaged child, even though the child initially has a very low base, I'm building that base, and so down the road, that child can take advantage of schooling, job training, and all the other future opportunities," Heckman elaborated.

He suggested that parents should learn how to interact with children and spend more time with them, especially in their early childhood.


Reporter丨Nina

Editor丨Wing, Nan, Jasmine, Jerry

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