Is winning at the start important: Early childhood family cognitive stimulation and child development

•We study the influence of early childhood family cognitive stimulation on child development, using the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) survey data in China.•Employing accumulative value-added model, we find that early childhood family cognitive stimulation at the preschool stage plays an important role in young children’s later development.•Effects of preschool family cognitive stimulation are heterogeneous between urban cohorts and rural cohorts and is substantially significant for children in rural regions. We study the influence of early childhood family cognitive stimulation on child development. Using the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) survey data, we find that early childhood family cognitive stimulation at the preschool stage plays an important role in young children’s later development. Our findings mainly demonstrate that the preschool stage family cognitive stimulation can significantly improve the school-aged children's cognitive outcome based on the cumulative value-added model with other factors controlled. However, this impact is different between urban cohorts and rural cohorts, and is substantially significant for children in rural regions. Moreover, early childhood cognitive development delays at the toddler stage also have significant adverse effects on children's later cognitive outcomes, especially language delays. Finally, we also explore behavioral factors of attention and priority of study as potential operating mechanisms of early family cognitive stimulation. The results imply that the effect channels of preschool family cognitive stimulation are complex and cannot be captured by these two measures.