The American Academy of Pediatrics has issued a policy statement calling on its members to advocate high-quality early-childhood education.
The statement, published in this month’s edition of the journal Pediatrics, notes that high-quality early-childhood education has particularly strong benefits for children from low-income families and lays out what pediatricians can do to ensure young children in their communities are getting that strong foundation.
In addition to lobbying government leaders for more early-childhood funding, the AAP cites several areas where programs would benefit from more pediatrician involvement. For example, the quality-rating and improvement system, which is used in most states to measure and improve the quality of early-childhood education, could benefit from more input from pediatricians.
