Henderson kids participating in early childhood education study

Researchers from Chicago will be doing a study on pre-schoolers in Henderson, and the goal is to underscore and better understand the importance of early childhood education.

The group from the University of Chicago were in Henderson on Wednesday discussing the study.

The group says the early years of a child's life are important in their development. They'll be interacting with pre-schoolers at Henderson's Thelma B. Johnson Early Learning Center to gather data for their study.

They're trying to understand what the important factors are for childhood development.

We're told the group selected Henderson from a site visit in July.

"It's really something that is important for the U.S. in general. In the end, the lessons that we learn from those type of analysis are lessons that can be applied to everywhere and can really help in solving big problems," Stefano Mosso, with the university.

"We just want to show our good data collection and the fact that we are making decisions based on every individual child, that our program is more than the building, that we do have an early childhood program that is investing in the children and making a difference for them and their families," Principal Aleisha Sheridan said.

The researchers say the study should take a few years to complete. Once they're done, they'll put together a publication they hope could help with policy change.

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