I will use the continuum concept to direct my educational design research towards creating an early years curriculum that incorporates the continuum concept, epigenetics, and contemporary research on child development. My goal is to create a wholistic timeline of instructional experiences from ages 0-5. This will be a chronological list of specific experiences for children to directly experience without theoretical or cultural narrative overlayed.
While I do believe a world narrative is an important continuum experience and helps the child ground the story of their existence into a broader story – the specifics of the narrative should be provided by that child’s born-into-community. Direct experiencing of specific continuum experiences is the foundation and the world narrative is the superstructure. Ideally, no narrative would be provided for the most basic experiences and a culture of conjecture and discussion cultivated.
An important addition to the continuum concept is the idea of epigenetic development. Our DNA is programmed by important experiences in our own life-time. These experiences switch genes on and off and direct our early neurological and physiological development. This also means our bodies and minds are waiting for specific input about our social and ecological environment.
Be it epigenetic or otherwise, our early development is directed by our first experiences and the presence or absence specific stimuli. Our emotional and cognitive capacities as adults is largely determined by our first 5 years of experience. I will focus my design research on developing a 5 year curriculum of social, emotional, mineral, and physiological experiences for both the parents and child.