Although enrolling your child into preschool can seem daunting (where did your baby go?) research shows that 90 per cent of a child's brain development happens in the first five years of their life, making it an ideal opportunity for early education.
A new campaign from the NSW Department of Education hopes to make families more aware of the benefits of preschool.
Leslie Williams, the NSW Minister for Early Childhood Education, says that the goal of the campaign is to give parents the facts, so they can make better and more informed decisions about their child's educational needs.
"A child needs a great parent, and a great teacher. Many do not know that a preschool program, whether it's in a dedicated preschool or a through long day care, provides the foundation for your children's future health, happiness, growth, development and learning achievements at school and in life," explains Williams.
"It's a confusing area and there are many myths about cost, availability and the real benefits to children – which is why it's so important to break down the barriers.
"This platform will give parents eye-opening facts, debunk myths and go deep into a child's brain to show them what makes them think."
The campaign will give parents more insight into how their child's brain is developing and show that early education such as preschool and long day care is much more than playing.
"Our social and emotional skills known as 'soft skills' are critical to success in school and life – for instance, how to control emotions, take turns, share with others and pay attention to instruction, actually begin forming in childhood and learning these skills in preschool could prevent harder problems later in life," says Williams.
The importance of preschool has also been the subject of new research from Victoria University. In a new report, researchers recommend that universal pre-school be extended to include three-year-old children.
Speaking to the ABC, Dr Stacey Fox from the university's Mitchell Institute said there is an overwhelming consensus that two years of preschool gives children the best start.
"It means children are much more ready when they start school, they start school on a much more equal footing, it has flow on impacts to their NAPLAN scores, to their rates of Year 12 graduation," she said.
Samantha Page from Early Childhood Australia said that she agrees with the recommendation to extend preschool access.
"Children who go to a quality preschool are much more likely to make a successful transition into school," she said.
"We know that we have nearly a quarter of children starting school at a disadvantage to their peers, that means they're coming into school behind where their peers are and it's fairly difficult for those children to catch up.
"In fact most of them don't and we can correct that by investing more in the preschool years."