CULTURAL INFLUENCES ON EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT
Early years in life are the most important to the formation of intelligence, personality, and social and cultural behaviour of a child. The year before a child reaches Kindergarten are among the most critical in his or her life to influence learning. That is why modern societies show serious concern for the education of their young ones by providing needed support to prepare them to succeed later in school (Ejieh, 2006). Obidike (2012) states that it is common practice in most societies to make provision for early childhood education programs of various sorts for children below the official school-going age (usually 6years) mainly to prepare them for education in primary schools. The Federal Government of Nigeria recognizes the importance of early childhood education in Nigeria and as a result it was given prominence in the National Policy of Education (FRN, 2004) as one of the programs in the Nigerian educational system.
Keywords: childhood, cultural, development, early, influences