Early childhood development is a global, integrated process that takes place in various interrelated areas—physical and motor, social, emotional, cognitive and language. All children need to grow in all of these areas, through interactions with their physical and social environments.
Although many researchers have shown that early childhood development follows a relatively predictable order or sequence, it is not, however, linear or regular. In a single group of children in an educational facility, there are major differences between each child's skills, although without any learning or developmental delays.
The document entitled Favoriser le développement global des jeunes enfants au Québec : une vision partagée pour des actions concertées, featured in this section, is the fruit of a combined effort by the Ministère de la Famille; de l'Éducation et de l'Enseignement supérieur and the Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux, in collaboration with the organization Avenir d’enfants. The document presents the governmental vision of early childhood development and interventions to support it.
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