Head Start (US)

USA — federal programme since 1965, serves ~800,000 children annually

The US federal programme for low-income children ages 3–5. Emphasises school readiness, parent involvement, and health services alongside educational preparation.

Domain coverage

Framework vs developmental baseline — higher is more coverage

Language

15 / 12 baseline

Academic

Over-indexed12 / 5 baseline

Thinking

10 / 12 baseline

Social

14 / 11 baseline

Character

6 / 10 baseline

Physical

6 / 10 baseline

Creative

8 / 8 baseline

Nature

4 / 6 baseline

Practical

Severe gap2 / 7 baseline

Inner

Severe gap0 / 4 baseline

Framework scoreDevelopmental baselineSevere gap <30% of baselineModerate gap <60% of baseline

Developmental conflicts

Where this framework under-serves development

These domains receive significantly less coverage than developmental science recommends. The gap creates a mismatch between curriculum expectations and what children actually need at this stage.

Severe gapInner0 vs 4 baseline (0% covered)

Self-regulation, attention, and emotional awareness are developed through contemplative practice. These are the meta-skills underlying all learning — yet rarely appear in formal frameworks.

Severe gapPractical2 vs 7 baseline (29% covered)

Practical life skills (cooking, tool use, care of environment) build agency, competence, and intrinsic motivation. Children need to do real things with real consequences.

Over-emphasis

Where this framework over-indexes

These domains receive far more emphasis than the developmental baseline suggests is proportional. Intense focus here may crowd out other developmental needs — particularly where time and attention are finite.

2.4× baselineAcademic12 vs 5 baseline

Premature academic pressure before age 6–7 competes with developmental tasks (play, motor, social) that have narrower windows. Post age 7, academic engagement should accelerate.

How conflicts are identified

Domain scores reflect how many distinct skills each framework defines in that area (sourced from official documents and research summaries). The developmental baseline is derived from the organic distribution of our canonical milestone set — what actually emerged when we clustered skills cross-culturally. A severe gap means the framework covers less than 30% of the developmental baseline in that domain. A moderate gap means 30–60% coverage. Over-indexed means more than 2× the baseline.