Beginning in the late 1960’s, a group of early childhood educators at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, headed by Dr. Joseph Sparling, began to look into development and learning at a revolutionary age. By studying the process and potential benefits of educating socio-economically disadvantaged children immediately after birth and continuing until traditional school age, the team hoped that they could improve children’s success in school. In their study of infants they developed the Abecedarian Approach (2A). Now, over forty years later, infants born from 1972 to 1977 who received 2A in the first five years of their lives are still being followed as adults. The research results show that high-quality adult-child interactions from birth onward improve IQ and stimulate development in multiple domains. These interactions can even work to counteract the negative impact of growing up in an impoverished environment.

To learn more about the large body of research supporting the effectiveness of this Approach, visit our Research page.