No, it's not a revival of the Beatles or Jackson Five. The FAB Five here refers to the first five years of a child's life. Be aware of how important these early years are compared to the remaining years in a person's life. When it comes to human development, insults of illness or mistreatment to young children (Birth to Five) are much more dangerous and potentially destructive than similar insults to older children or adults.
Sigmund Freud focused intensely on the stages of early childhood. He presumed that childhood experiences formulate the roots for adult behavior. This belief is still widely accepted, even while some of Freud's other beliefs have fallen out of favor in recent years. Freud recognized that early childhood experience becomes a foundation for all future thinking and feeling that occurs throughout a person's life.
During the first five years of life, healthy children develop certain basic mental rules for empathy and logical thinking that govern future behavior. If these basic mental rules are not learned during early childhood, it becomes more and more difficult for them to develop at all. It is even possible that some mental rules may never develop, no matter what remedies are applied, if they are not developed during the first five years of life.
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Another reason the first five years of life are so important is because the staggering amount of information that is learned early in life surpasses what will (or can) be learned at any other time. Kids are born to learn fast and efficiently; the same cannot be said for middle aged men and women. If children are deprived of learning experiences during their early years, or are inundated by physical or emotional hardships, then they lose a once in a lifetime opportunity to build their mental structures under optimal circumstances.
Spend as much time as you can with your infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. Hold them, crawl with them, talk to them and listen to what they say. Show them books and let them play with anything that does not pose a threat to their well-being, even if what they want to play with seems a bit unconventional. Treat your children with care and expose them to the wonders of the world until they are five, and then watch how they will flourish for the remainder of their lives.
