Early Childhood Development
The smarter AI gets, the more children need well-rounded growth.
Machines now do more and more of our writing, math, and drawing for us.
But movement, language, social skills, thinking, focus, and self-care can only grow in childhood, as the brain builds them one pathway at a time.
Why build a system for kindergartens?
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The window is open for only a few years.
The brain circuits behind language, social-emotional skills, focus, and self-control have sensitive periods that mostly fall between ages 0 and 6.
The foundation laid in these years shapes learning and life for years to come.
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Teachers can't keep track of every child.
With dozens of children in a class, even the most dedicated teacher ends up writing comments from memory. Observation records often become paperwork rushed out at the end of term.
Children who need a little extra support often go unnoticed until primary school.
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Professional tools never reach the classroom.
Developmental assessment tools like Bayley and BASC stay in the hands of specialist institutions. Teachers are with the children every day, yet they can't use them.
Our job is translation. Without building any new facilities, we turn the fine-grained detail of clinical-grade assessment into things teachers can do every day.
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Parents want expertise they can see.
In 2024, the number of kindergartens in China fell by more than 20,000 (Ministry of Education, 《2024 年全国教育事业发展统计公报》, Statistical Bulletin on the Development of National Education in 2024).
When choosing a kindergarten, more and more parents ask one thing: will my child truly be seen here? Three sentences a day and a profile every month. That's expertise parents can see.
AI thinks a little more, so teachers do a little less.
Ages 0–6: when the brain lays its foundation
Well-rounded development isn't a slogan. It's brain science.
Core abilities like language, executive function, and social-emotional skills each rest on brain circuits with their own critical periods. Most of these windows fall between ages 0 and 6.
So the preschool years aren't about "learning things early." They're about laying the foundation for a whole brain.
Critical developmental windows, ages 0–6
- sensory and motor pathways
- language
- social-emotional
- executive function (attention and self-control)
Executive function opens last and stays open until after children start primary school.
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More than a million connections a second
In the earliest years of life, the brain forms more than 1 million new neural connections every second.
Source: Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University
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Self-control in childhood shapes the decades ahead
One study followed about 1,000 children to age 32. The better their self-control as children, the better their health and finances as adults.
Source: Dunedin Study, New Zealand; Moffitt et al., PNAS, 2011
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The earlier the investment, the higher the return
High-quality early education programs yield an annual social rate of return of about 7%–13%.
Source: research by Nobel economics laureate James Heckman
We break this foundation into six facets. Behind each one is a brain-development mechanism you can observe.
Growth Observation
Cognitive Neurodevelopment Program
Six facets
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Movement and coordination
The body is the brain's earliest teacher. Movement, balance, and fine hand skills are the foundation of all higher-level thinking.
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Language and communication
Language is a pathway in the brain that runs from understanding to speaking. What lights it up isn't a screen. It's back-and-forth conversation with real people.
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Social skills and empathy
Reading emotions and working with others take root through real interactions in the earliest years of life. This is the facet machines will find hardest to replace.
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Thinking and inquiry
AI's job is to supply answers. Asking good questions and testing ideas hands-on are habits that have to be built in childhood.
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Attention and self-control
The prefrontal cortex, which drives focus and self-control, develops rapidly in the preschool years. Being able to focus and to wait pays off for life.
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Concepts and order
Sorting, comparing, quantity, space, and patterns make up a child's earliest toolkit for making sense of the world. The more complex the world gets, the more this sense of order matters.【待确认：措辞（第六面改名后重写）】
Six facets on the outside, one structure inside.
- To parents, we present six facets they can easily understand.
- Behind them is professional observation across eight developmental dimensions. Beneath that are 24 abilities teachers can observe every day.
- Every layer maps to China's national 《3—6 岁儿童学习与发展指南》 (Early Learning and Development Guidelines for Children Aged 3–6).
| Six facets (what parents see) | Eight developmental dimensions (professional observation) | 24 abilities (what teachers observe daily) | Guidelines domain |
|---|---|---|---|
| Movement and coordination | Motor (gross and fine), sensory integration | Visual tracking and hand-eye coordination, fine manipulation and two-handed coordination, body awareness and motor planning, oral and breathing control | Health: motor development |
| Language and communication | Language | Receptive understanding, expression and description, conversational turn-taking and asking questions, symbolic representation | Language |
| Social skills and empathy | Social-emotional | Joint attention, recognizing and regulating emotions, cooperation and negotiation, sense of self and agency | Social |
| Thinking and inquiry | Cognition | Curiosity and active exploration, trial-and-error and persistence, planning and adjusting, cause-and-effect reasoning | Science: scientific inquiry |
| Attention and self-control | Behavioral execution | Sustained focus, waiting and impulse control, following multi-step instructions and working memory, flexible shifting | Health: emotional stability; Social: following rules |
| Concepts and order | Learning readiness, adaptive behavior | Sorting and comparing, quantity and correspondence, spatial position, sequences and patterns, attribute recognition | Science: early math; Health: daily habits and self-care skills |
Movement and coordination
- Eight developmental dimensions (professional observation)
- Motor (gross and fine), sensory integration
- 24 abilities (what teachers observe daily)
- Visual tracking and hand-eye coordination, fine manipulation and two-handed coordination, body awareness and motor planning, oral and breathing control
- Guidelines domain
- Health: motor development
Language and communication
- Eight developmental dimensions (professional observation)
- Language
- 24 abilities (what teachers observe daily)
- Receptive understanding, expression and description, conversational turn-taking and asking questions, symbolic representation
- Guidelines domain
- Language
Social skills and empathy
- Eight developmental dimensions (professional observation)
- Social-emotional
- 24 abilities (what teachers observe daily)
- Joint attention, recognizing and regulating emotions, cooperation and negotiation, sense of self and agency
- Guidelines domain
- Social
Thinking and inquiry
- Eight developmental dimensions (professional observation)
- Cognition
- 24 abilities (what teachers observe daily)
- Curiosity and active exploration, trial-and-error and persistence, planning and adjusting, cause-and-effect reasoning
- Guidelines domain
- Science: scientific inquiry
Attention and self-control
- Eight developmental dimensions (professional observation)
- Behavioral execution
- 24 abilities (what teachers observe daily)
- Sustained focus, waiting and impulse control, following multi-step instructions and working memory, flexible shifting
- Guidelines domain
- Health: emotional stability; Social: following rules
Concepts and order
- Eight developmental dimensions (professional observation)
- Learning readiness, adaptive behavior
- 24 abilities (what teachers observe daily)
- Sorting and comparing, quantity and correspondence, spatial position, sequences and patterns, attribute recognition
- Guidelines domain
- Science: early math; Health: daily habits and self-care skills
- The Guidelines' arts domain is covered through art and music activities in the weekly curriculum, not as a separate facet.
- Each ability is rated on three levels: Emerging, Developing, Stable. There are no hard cut-offs by age in months.
Three, four, five: every age looks different.
The table below shows what most children can do at each age. A year's difference between children of the same age is perfectly normal. That's why we only talk about "pace," never "normal" or "abnormal."
| Junior class (ages 3–4) | Middle class (ages 4–5) | Senior class (ages 5–6) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Movement and coordination | Walks up and down stairs with alternating feet. Feeds themselves with a spoon and scribbles with a pen. | Walks steadily a short way along a low, narrow surface. Eats with chopsticks. | Jumps rope and bounces a ball without stopping. Cuts out curved shapes along a line. |
| Language and communication | Happy to talk in front of familiar people and can say what they need. Can retell a short story. | Describes what they've seen and heard in reasonable detail. Enjoys talking things over with others. | Tells about an event clearly and in order, using descriptive words to bring it to life. |
| Social skills and empathy | Likes playing with other children. Asks nicely to join a game. | Has regular playmates. Takes turns and shares when everyone wants the same thing. | Has close friends and enjoys making new ones. Works out disagreements with peers on their own. |
| Thinking and inquiry | Curious about many things around them and loves to ask and tinker. Counts up to 5 objects, pointing to each one as they count. | Often asks questions about new things. Counts up to 10 objects, pointing to each one as they count. | Digs into questions that interest them. Finds ways to test their own guesses. |
| Attention and self-control | Mostly calm, and rarely cries for long over small things. Follows game rules with reminders. | Bounces back fairly quickly when upset. Calms down gradually with an adult's reminder when feelings run high. | Knows why they're upset and tries to feel better. Shifts feelings and attention as activities require. |
| Concepts and order | Sorts objects by obvious features such as color or size. Compares two groups of objects by matching them one to one. | Sorts objects by two features at once. Uses words like above, below, in front of, behind, inside, and outside to say where things are. | Spots simple patterns and tries making up their own. Can tell their own left from right.【待确认：第六面改名后按《指南》科学领域"数学认知"目标改写，请教研组核对】 |
Adapted from the typical behaviors for each age group in the Ministry of Education's 《3—6 岁儿童学习与发展指南》 (Early Learning and Development Guidelines for Children Aged 3–6).
From easy to read to precisely measured
To parents, we present six facets. Behind them is professional observation across eight developmental dimensions.
Each month, parents get a growth profile they can actually read, in just three colors: Established, On the way, Needs support.
It's about pace, not judgment.
What the three colors mean
- Established
- Can now reliably do what's expected at this age.
- On the way
- Still growing. It just needs time and opportunity.
- Needs support
- The teacher makes a point of giving extra help.
We don't use red, and we never say "behind."
No new facilities
We turn the detail of clinical-grade assessment into things teachers can do every day, using four spaces the kindergarten already has.
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Sensory integration room
- What it builds:
- Sensory integration, which also lays the groundwork for attention.
- How support is tiered:
- Children rated On the way come 3 times a week, 20 minutes each time. Children rated Needs support also get one-on-one time with an adult.
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Reading corner
- What it builds:
- Language comprehension, expression, and empathy.
- How support is tiered:
- Children rated On the way in self-expression get 15 minutes of one-on-one dialogic reading every day.
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Dramatic play area
- What it builds:
- Social initiative, understanding what others think, and emotion regulation.
- How support is tiered:
- Peer buddies take turns. Each week, 2–3 buddies take the lead in inviting classmates in and showing them how.
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Block area
- What it builds:
- Spatial thinking, fine motor skills, and problem solving.
- How support is tiered:
- Difficulty is matched to each child's learning-readiness profile, so children aren't all playing the same thing.
灵悟心愈 · Curriculum【待确认：英文产品名】: Teachers' time belongs with the children
AI thinks a little more, so teachers do a little less.
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Weekly curriculum plans, drafted automatically
The teaching team sets next week's theme. The system then drafts the whole week's curriculum outline from the 《3—6 岁儿童学习与发展指南》 (Early Learning and Development Guidelines for Children Aged 3–6), EYFS, and the kindergarten's own ability bank. Every lesson comes with built-in observation levels: Emerging, Developing, Stable.
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Shared scheduling
Grade leads manage templates and the activity pool. Teachers pick activities from the curriculum library for their own class, and the system starts them off with a suggested timetable.
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One yardstick for observation
24 abilities, three levels each. One tap adds it to the child's record.
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Say it once on your phone, and it's logged
A teacher tells the assistant by voice how a child did today, and the system adds it straight to the child's record.
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Observation records, drafted automatically
Each term, kindergartens must submit observation records for every part of the day. The system drafts them each month, and teachers review and export them.
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Growth record
Every observation a teacher logs goes straight into the child's growth record: a hexagon comparing the start and end of term, a small hexagon for each month, trajectories for all 24 abilities, an observation feed, and a note from the teacher.
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Tiered permissions
Principals, grade leads, and teachers each see only what's relevant to them.
Home–school communication
Illustrative
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Every day at pick-up
Three sentences plus a short video
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Every week
One specific moment
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Every month
A three-color growth profile
Inclusive Support Program
The point of tiering is simple: reach every typically developing child without adding to families' burden, and let no child slip through the cracks.
Three levels of assessment, so no child is missed
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Level 1 On-track assessment · For everyone
Done for every child.
Teacher and parent observation (36 items from teachers, 30 from parents) produces a three-color profile.
Sample dataSource Items Teachers 36 Parents 30 -
Level 2 In-depth developmental assessment · Targeted
For children who need a closer look.
Tools:Bayley-4, BASC-3, Sensory integration, Bracken
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Level 3 Specialized screening · Duty of care
Trigger-based. Very few children ever need it.
Tools:M-CHAT-R/F, CARS-2, SNAP-IV, Conners-3
Medical diagnosis is made by the partner children's hospital.
Four adults for every ten children
| Role | Number |
|---|---|
| Teachers | 4 |
| Children | 10 |
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Mixed-age classes, open to all families.
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4 teachers for every 10 children, including one resource teacher.
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Once a year, children's health specialists from a partner Grade-A tertiary hospital visit the kindergarten to carry out in-depth developmental assessments.
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Children who need it get an individual growth plan with clearly written goals. Progress is reviewed with parents every week.
Why inclusion, not separate classes
Typically developing children of the same age are ready-made social teachers, right beside children with special needs.
So we don't split classes. We tier support within the class, then pull children out for a half-day of individual reinforcement.
Research basis: A randomized controlled trial found that social interventions involving typically developing peers did more to improve autistic children's peer relationships in class than one-on-one training alone (Kasari et al., 2012).
Children with special needs: same classroom, targeted support
No separate classes × Tiered in-class support × Half-day intensive pull-out
In 2025, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that 1 in 31 eight-year-olds in the United States is on the autism spectrum. Sooner or later, every kindergarten will face the question of inclusion.
Higher-functioning children with autism-spectrum traits (flagged by CARS-2)
- Visual structureCards that show what happens now and what comes next, picture schedules, and a heads-up before each change of activity.
- Peer mediationJoint-attention games turn typically developing classmates into their social partners.
- Shadow teachersCertified, and equipped with a standard template for individualized support plans.
- SafetyEarly warning for high-risk behavior, backed by physical safety standards.
Children who need support with attention and hyperactivity (flagged by SNAP-IV, Conners-3)
- Self-regulation10 minutes of sensory integration a day, plus 5 minutes of mindful breathing.
- Smaller tasksWork broken into 5–8-minute chunks, with a visual timer.
- Low-stimulation seatingA focus corner, and wobble chairs that allow a little movement.
- Descriptive praiseSaying "You stacked the blocks nice and steady, one by one" instead of "Good job."
Changing classes takes a parent's yes
- Any child in any class
- → Teacher sees a need for more support
- → One-on-one informed consent
- → Joins the Inclusive Support Program
If parents say no, the child stays in their class as before, and the door to referral stays open.
Two-way feedback that closes the loop at every stage
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Teachers write down clearly what was adjusted in this stage and how the child has changed.
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Parents read it and give feedback on the spot: how satisfied they are, plus any comments.
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If anything falls short, the person in charge follows up with a point-by-point reply and keeps a record.
Model kindergartens
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Heyue Experimental Kindergarten, Wuxi Economic Development Zone【待确认：英文译名】
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Poly Experimental Kindergarten, Binhu District, Wuxi【待确认：英文译名】
Questions principals ask
How much extra time will teachers need?
As little as possible. An observation can be one sentence spoken into a phone, and the system logs it straight to the child's record. The monthly observation records for each part of the day are drafted by the system, so teachers only need to confirm them.
Do we need new equipment or classroom changes?
No. Nothing new gets built. We use the sensory integration room, reading corner, dramatic play area, and block area you already have.
Do parents pay extra?
Developmental assessments within the kindergarten carry no extra charge. If further medical evaluation is needed, parents decide for themselves whether to visit a medical institution.
Will children be labeled?
No. Parents see what support their child needs and in which area, never labels like "autistic" or "hyperactive."
Will children with special needs be asked to leave, or put in a separate class?
No. We don't split classes. We tier support within the class.
Children who need more support join the Inclusive Support Program after their parents give informed consent. If parents say no, the child stays in their class as before.
Our teachers aren't psychology experts. Can they still do this?
Yes. The system breaks professional observation down into steps teachers can take every day, and we add training and professional supervision.
05Kindergarten partnerships
Want this at your kindergarten too?
We bring the curriculum system, teacher training, and professional supervision to you as one package. Your teachers don't need to become psychology experts to see every child.
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