Whole-child development…

…in the early years.

Hello all. Welcome to the 144th edition of TEPS Weekly!

It’s 9:30 am in a Balvatika classroom. Children sit in neat rows. The first half of the day is called ‘whole-child time’: 20 minutes of reading aloud after the teacher, then 10 minutes of exercise in the corridor, then a video on shapes, and finally a worksheet. The day has a little bit of everything, so it feels like whole-child development, like the NEP 2020 and NCF-FS have emphasised on.

Yet, all of these activities have some common features – they are all teacher-controlled and compliance-based. Children are told when to sit, when to run, when to watch, when to speak and when to stop. However, whole-child development means supporting children’s growth as one connected whole – not treating learning, behaviour, health and emotions as separate “periods” in the timetable. It is an integrated approach that builds children’s physical, language, cognitive, socio-emotional and ethical development together, through everyday classroom experiences.

Why is whole-child development crucial in the early years?

In the early years, whole-child development is not an extra programme. It is the main work – because this is the age when the brain is being shaped by everyday experiences, all day long.

1. Neuroplasticity: When a child is born, the brain is not fully developed. And so, in the early years, neuroplasticity simply means that a child’s brain is rapidly being developed and shaped by experience. Between ages 3 and 6, the brain is doing two jobs at the same time. First, it is making new brain connections whenever a child does something new – like listening to a story, talking to a friend, climbing, sorting blocks or learning to wait for a turn. Second, it is also keeping only the connections that are used often. The connections that are not used much become weak and slowly get removed. In short, the brain builds more of what the child practises daily, and builds less of what the child rarely gets to do. 

What does this mean in the context of a classroom? If a child has to spend the day sitting quietly, copying from the board and listening to the teacher, the brain gets better and better at following commands and copying, because that is what it practises most. And because the child does not get any chance to talk in full sentences, ask questions or explain her thinking, the brain gets fewer chances to build strong language and thinking pathways, so these skills grow more slowly.

2. Serve-and-return: In the preschool years, children’s brains grow best through serve-and-return interactions with adults. Serve-and-return simply means this: the child starts the interaction (a serve) by asking a question, making a comment, telling a story, showing their work, pointing something out or sharing a worry. Then the adult responds (the return) by listening, replying with words, asking a small follow-up question, naming the child’s feeling or helping the child add one more idea. When this happens, brain connections are built and strengthened.

What does this mean in the context of a classroom? During drawing time, a child comes to the teacher and says, “Teacher, I finished.” In a traditional classroom, the teacher might say, “Okay, sit down.” But in a serve-and-return classroom, the teacher returns with, “Tell me, what did you make?” The child says, “It’s my house.” The teacher adds one more return: “Who stays in this house?” Such simple serve-and-return interactions build up over time and are crucial for the child’s development.

3. Web of knowledge: In classrooms in India, we treat academic skills and non-academic skills as two different things. First we finish literacy and numeracy. Then we do motor time or SEL time. But the brain does not work in separate boxes. Movement, language, attention and emotions are deeply connected in the form of a web inside the brain.

Let’s take movement, for example. When children do fine-motor work like stacking blocks, threading beads, tearing paper and using tongs, they are not “only using their hands”. They are also building control, coordination and spatial understanding. Later, these same skills show up in writing, drawing shapes and even organising work on a page.

Now take emotions. If a child is anxious, angry or overwhelmed, the brain is busy managing that feeling. At that moment, it is much harder for the child to focus, think or learn. So socio-emotional development is not an add-on after academics. It is the skill that decides whether academics can happen at all.

What does this mean in the context of a classroom? Imagine it is writing time in an LKG class. The teacher gives everyone a pencil and a tracing sheet. One child’s pencil keeps falling, and her letters are shaky. In a traditional classroom, the teacher scolds her and says, “Sit properly. Finish.” But in a whole-child development classroom, the teacher gives the child a 3-minute hand warm-up – pinching clay, tearing paper, picking up beads with tongs – and then encourages her to try writing again.

So, we see that whole-child development is not just a buzzword. It has its foundations in neuroscience and how the brain develops in the early years.

What are the domains of whole-child development in the early years?

The NCF-FS has emphasised on 5 domains of development (panchakosha), which we have broken down into the following: 

1. Physical and Motor Development: The growth of a child’s body, coordination and senses, including gross motor skills (big muscles for stability and movement), fine motor skills (small muscles for handling and control), and the sharpening of the five senses as key ways children take in the world

2. Cognitive-Sensory Development: How a child uses their senses to notice the world (see, hear, touch, smell, taste) and then uses the brain to make meaning by paying attention, comparing and understanding what they are experiencing

3. Socio-Emotional-Ethical Development: A child’s growing ability to understand and manage their own emotions, empathise with others, build positive relationships with peers and slowly develop a sense of right and wrong

4. Cultural and Artistic Development: A child’s growing creativity and joy of learning, along with their appreciation of arts, music, and culture.

5. Development of Communication and Early Language, Literacy and Numeracy: The child’s growing ability to listen and speak clearly (oral language), build reading readiness (like print awareness and hearing sounds in words), build writing readiness (through drawing and scribbling), and develop foundational numeracy by understanding quantities, shapes, spatial ideas (near/far, up/down), and measurement, moving from real objects to pictures to number symbols

6. Development of Scientific Thinking Skills (EVS): A child’s growing awareness of their own body, their surroundings, and other people, and their ability to make sense of the world around them through everyday noticing and questioning.

For detailed explanations and activities based on each domain, check out the online, self-paced TEPS Course National Curriculum Framework: Foundational Stage. Complete the course, take an assessment and earn a certificate.

How can we integrate the domains of development with the neuroscience principles?

Example 1: The Seed Corner routine 

Every morning, the class visits a small seed tray near the window. Children take turns to spray water, touch the soil and look closely: Is it taller today? The teacher keeps a simple chart on the wall with pictures (Day 1, Day 2, Day 3…) and children add one mark or one drawing daily. The teacher does tiny back-and-forth talk: “What do you notice?” “Why do you think it is bending?” and accepts children’s guesses without rushing to “the right answer”.

Domains: EVS + fine motor + numeracy + language

Neuroscience principles: neuroplasticity + serve-and-return

Example 2: The classroom Mini Market

The teacher sets up a pretend market with real empty packets, vegetables, baskets and play money. Children choose roles like shopkeeper, customer and helper, and run the shop in small groups. They count items, compare ‘more/less’, and use polite language: “How much?” “Please give me two.” When conflicts happen (“He took my turn”), the teacher steps in calmly: “Tell him what you need,” and helps them solve it with words.

Domains: cultural + numeracy + language + socio-emotional

Neuroscience principles: web of knowledge + serve-and-return

Example 3: Story + Movement Path

The teacher tells a simple story: “We are going on a jungle walk.” She places a few chairs/ropes as a path, and children step over the “river”, crawl under the “cave” and balance on a “bridge”. Children move in small groups while the teacher narrates and pauses: “What should we do next?” Children suggest ideas and the teacher builds the story from their responses. After the movement, children draw one scene and share one line about it.

Domains: gross motor + language + emotions + arts

Neuroscience principles: web of knowledge + neuroplasticity

Whole-child development matters because in the early years the brain is rapidly wiring itself based on everyday experiences – what children repeatedly do, talk about and feel safe doing becomes the foundation for later learning. And since the brain grows as a connected web, we cannot separate “academic” from “non-academic”: movement, language, emotions, relationships and thinking must be built together, through daily classroom routines.

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Edition: 4.51