How Childhood Education Shapes Future Intellectual Abilities

Childhood education represents one of the most critical investments a society can make in its future. During the formative years from birth to age eight, children undergo rapid brain development that shapes their future cognitive, social, emotional, and physical well-being. The experiences and educational opportunities provided during these early years establish neural pathways and foundational skills that influence learning capacity, problem-solving abilities, creativity, and social competence throughout an individual's entire life. Understanding how childhood education shapes future intellectual abilities is essential for parents, educators, policymakers, and anyone invested in nurturing the next generation of thinkers, innovators, and leaders.

The Science Behind Early Brain Development

The human brain undergoes its most dramatic period of growth and development during the early childhood years. By age 6, the brain reaches about 90% of its adult size, underscoring the importance of early experiences in establishing a solid neural foundation. This rapid development period creates a unique window of opportunity where the brain is highly receptive to environmental influences, social interactions, and learning experiences.

The architecture of the brain is composed of highly integrated sets of neural circuits that are "wired" under the continuous and mutual influences of both genetics and environment. Genes determine when specific brain circuits are formed and individual experiences then shape how that formation unfolds. This interplay between nature and nurture means that while children are born with genetic predispositions, the quality of their early educational experiences plays a decisive role in determining how their intellectual potential develops.

Neuroscience research confirms that early experiences—such as responsive caregiving, language exposure, and exploratory play—strengthen neural architecture, promoting healthier development. These experiences create and reinforce neural connections, building the foundation for increasingly complex cognitive processes. The more stimulating and enriching the early learning environment, the more robust these neural pathways become.

Critical Periods and Windows of Opportunity

Neuroscience research in the last two decades is unequivocal that the period from conception through early childhood (i.e, at least the first three years) is foundational in terms of brain development. During these critical periods, the brain is particularly sensitive to certain types of learning and experiences. While learning continues throughout life, the ease and efficiency with which certain skills are acquired is significantly greater during these early windows.

Brain circuits that process basic information are wired earlier than those that process more complex information. This hierarchical development means that foundational skills established early become the building blocks for more advanced cognitive abilities later. For example, early language exposure and literacy experiences create the neural infrastructure necessary for complex reading comprehension and written communication in later years.

During the first five years, neurological growth is rapid. It's because of this that early childhood education can impact someone's entire life. Missing these critical windows doesn't mean a child cannot learn these skills later, but it often requires significantly more effort and may not achieve the same level of proficiency as when learning occurs during the optimal developmental period.

The Importance of Quality Early Learning Experiences

Not all early childhood education is created equal. The quality of educational experiences during these formative years makes a substantial difference in developmental outcomes. High-quality early childhood programs not only benefit individual children but also have profound societal impacts, promoting equity, community health, and economic growth.

Characteristics of High-Quality Early Education

Research has identified several key elements that distinguish high-quality early childhood education programs from less effective ones. The quality of the relationship between ECE educators and children is a critical part of a child's ECE experience that is associated with positive developmental outcomes. ECE educators' provision of sensitive, responsive care and support for children's emotions is associated with improvements in children's development of social skills, self-control, language development, classroom behavior, and academic skills.

High-quality programs emphasize several core components:

Play-Based Learning: Effective early childhood programs emphasize play-based and hands-on activities that spark curiosity and promote critical thinking. These approaches help children explore their environment, develop problem-solving skills, and foster a love for learning from an early age.
Responsive Caregiving: Educators who are attuned to children's individual needs, interests, and developmental stages create environments where children feel safe to explore, take risks, and learn from mistakes.
Language-Rich Environments: Exposure to rich vocabulary, conversations, and storytelling builds the linguistic foundation necessary for literacy and communication skills.
Interactive Activities: Hands-on experiences that encourage children to manipulate objects, experiment with cause and effect, and engage in problem-solving stimulate cognitive development.
Social-Emotional Support: Programs that help children develop emotional regulation, empathy, and social skills create the foundation for healthy relationships and collaborative learning.
Family Engagement: Establishing strong, trusting relationships with children and their families is vital. Open communication, cultural responsiveness, and personalized support ensure that each child's unique needs are met, creating a safe and nurturing environment.

The Role of Guided Play

Learning through guided play with an adult can be just as beneficial, if not more, compared to traditional classroom instruction. This approach combines the child-directed nature of free play with intentional adult guidance that extends learning. During guided play, educators scaffold children's exploration, ask open-ended questions, and introduce new concepts in the context of activities that children find engaging and meaningful.

Having meaningful opportunities for play at school away from the classroom impacts a child's socioemotional development. Play is not merely recreation; it is the primary mechanism through which young children make sense of their world, practice new skills, and develop the executive functions necessary for academic success.

Impact on Cognitive Development and Executive Functions

Early childhood education has profound effects on the development of cognitive abilities and executive functions—the mental processes that enable us to plan, focus attention, remember instructions, and juggle multiple tasks successfully. These skills are essential for school readiness and long-term academic achievement.

Building Foundational Cognitive Skills

Early brain architecture sets the stage for reasoning, language, emotional regulation, and social skills. Quality early education helps children develop essential cognitive abilities including:

Working Memory: The ability to hold and manipulate information in mind, crucial for following multi-step instructions and complex problem-solving
Cognitive Flexibility: The capacity to shift attention between different tasks or perspectives, essential for adapting to new situations
Inhibitory Control: The skill of resisting impulses and distractions, fundamental for focused learning and appropriate behavior
Attention Control: The ability to sustain focus on relevant information while filtering out distractions
Problem-Solving: The capacity to identify challenges, generate solutions, and evaluate outcomes

Cognitive abilities are essential to children's overall growth; thus, the implementation of early and effective training interventions is a major challenge for developmental psychologists and teachers. Research demonstrates that targeted interventions during the preschool years can significantly enhance these cognitive abilities with effects that persist over time.

Fluid Reasoning and Visuospatial Skills

Fluid reasoning is considered one of the most important factors in learning, critical for a wide variety of cognitive tasks. This ability to think logically and solve novel problems without relying on previously acquired knowledge is fundamental to intellectual development. FR and visuospatial abilities showed training-related increases at the end of the training and 1-year follow-up (moderate effect size).

Interestingly, positive correlations with working memory and mathematical abilities were found. This interconnection between different cognitive domains highlights how strengthening one area of intellectual ability can have cascading benefits across multiple aspects of cognitive functioning. Early childhood education that targets these foundational skills creates a robust cognitive architecture that supports increasingly complex learning throughout life.

Long-Term Academic and Educational Outcomes

The benefits of quality early childhood education extend far beyond the preschool years, influencing academic performance and educational attainment throughout the school years and into adulthood.

Immediate and Short-Term Effects

Results indicate that early childhood programs can produce large short-term benefits for children on intelligence quotient (IQ) and sizable long-term effects on school achievement, grade retention, placement in special education, and social adjustment. Children who participate in high-quality preschool programs typically enter kindergarten with stronger pre-literacy and pre-numeracy skills compared to their peers who did not attend such programs.

Researchers found clear benefits for participating children's early literacy skills in 17 out of 18 where such skills were evaluated. These early advantages in foundational academic skills provide children with a stronger starting point for formal schooling, enabling them to engage more successfully with kindergarten and early elementary curricula.

Sustained Benefits Through Elementary and Secondary School

Some studies show sustained benefits into later elementary, middle, and high school (e.g., fewer social-emotional challenges, better mathematics achievement, better vocabulary, reduced grade retention). While the magnitude of effects may diminish over time as children who did not attend preschool catch up in some areas, significant advantages often persist in key domains.

Children who attend high-quality early care and education programs in infancy and early childhood perform better in science, technology, engineering, and math classes, even in high school. The link between high-quality ECE and STEM success is even stronger for children from low-income families. This finding is particularly significant given the growing importance of STEM skills in the modern economy.

Research shows that children in such programs are more likely to graduate high school, pursue higher education, and enjoy better employment prospects. These long-term educational outcomes demonstrate that the benefits of early childhood education compound over time, creating trajectories toward greater academic success and opportunity.

Reducing Educational Disparities

Importantly, early education especially benefits children from disadvantaged backgrounds, helping to reduce social inequities and lay the groundwork for lifelong success. High-quality early childhood education serves as a powerful equalizer, helping to narrow achievement gaps that would otherwise persist and widen throughout the school years.

The developmental gaps continue to grow through elementary and secondary school unless other learning opportunities intervene. Early childhood education provides a critical intervention point where targeted support can alter developmental trajectories before gaps become entrenched and increasingly difficult to remediate.

Landmark Studies and Research Evidence

Decades of rigorous research have documented the profound and lasting impacts of early childhood education on intellectual development and life outcomes. Several landmark studies have been particularly influential in shaping our understanding of these effects.

The Abecedarian Project

The Abecedarian Project: Demonstrated that children in high-quality care were four times more likely to graduate from college. This groundbreaking study followed children from infancy through adulthood, providing some of the most compelling evidence for the long-term benefits of early educational intervention. The program provided comprehensive early childhood education beginning in infancy, and the results showed sustained cognitive advantages and improved life outcomes decades later.

Chicago Child-Parent Center Program

Landmark studies of the Chicago Child-Parent Center Program: Improved outcomes for low-income children, including better education and lower juvenile arrest rates. This large-scale public program demonstrated that the benefits of early childhood education extend beyond academic outcomes to include improved social adjustment and reduced involvement in the criminal justice system.

Meta-Analyses and Systematic Reviews

Integrating results across 35 preschool experiments and quasi-experiments, the primary findings were: (a) preschool effects on standardized measures of intelligence and academic achievement were statistically significant, positive, and large; (b) cognitive effects of relatively intense educational interventions were significant and very large, even after 5 to 10 years, and 7 to 8 of every 10 preschool children did better than the average child in a control or comparison group.

These comprehensive reviews of multiple studies provide robust evidence that the benefits of early childhood education are not limited to a few exceptional programs but represent a consistent pattern across diverse settings and populations. The consistency of findings across different research methodologies and contexts strengthens confidence in the causal relationship between early education and improved intellectual outcomes.

Adult Outcomes and Societal Benefits

The impacts of early childhood education extend well beyond the school years, influencing adult functioning, economic productivity, and broader societal outcomes.

Economic and Employment Outcomes

Evidence shows that even when positive associations between ECE and children's later development dissipate over time, ECE is associated with lasting adult and societal benefits such as completion of more years of education, higher high school graduation rates, and improved employment outcomes. There is increasing evidence (mostly from high-income countries) that delivering quality interventions in the early years is cost-effective, reduces health inequities, improves learning and academic attainment, lowers crime and violence, and can substantially improve adult health and economic productivity.

Early childhood investments substantially boost adult health. The benefits of early education ripple throughout the lifespan, influencing not only cognitive and economic outcomes but also physical and mental health. This comprehensive impact underscores the far-reaching consequences of early developmental experiences.

Social and Behavioral Outcomes

Beyond academic and economic benefits, early childhood education influences social adjustment and behavioral outcomes. Cumulative incidences of an array of personal and social problems were statistically significantly and substantially lower over a 10- to 25year period for those who had attended preschool (e.g., school drop out, welfare dependence, unemployment, poverty, criminal behavior).

These findings suggest that early childhood education helps children develop not only cognitive skills but also the social-emotional competencies, self-regulation abilities, and behavioral patterns that contribute to positive life outcomes. The ability to form healthy relationships, manage emotions, persist in the face of challenges, and make responsible decisions—all fostered through quality early education—proves as important as academic skills in determining life success.

The Role of Dosage and Timing

The amount and timing of early childhood education exposure significantly influence the magnitude of benefits children receive.

Duration and Intensity Matter

The amount of time that children spend in ECE varies, both in terms of the duration of time enrolled and the number of hours per week. Dosage differences may affect how much children benefit from high-quality ECE. For example, children who participate in two years of Head Start (as opposed to one year) have stronger academic, cognitive, and social literacy skills upon exiting Head Start and at the end of their kindergarten year.

Research consistently shows that longer participation in quality programs produces stronger effects. Children who begin early childhood education as infants or toddlers and continue through preschool often show greater cognitive gains than those who enter programs closer to kindergarten age. However, it's important to note that quality matters more than quantity—extended time in low-quality care does not produce the same benefits as shorter exposure to high-quality programs.

Critical Windows for Intervention

While learning occurs throughout life, certain developmental windows offer particularly powerful opportunities for intervention. This rapid development period is highly receptive to positive stimulation, environmental influences, and social interactions. Interventions during these sensitive periods can have disproportionately large effects compared to similar interventions delivered later in development.

This doesn't mean that older children cannot benefit from educational interventions, but it does suggest that investing in the earliest years offers the greatest return on investment in terms of cognitive development and long-term outcomes. Early intervention can prevent the emergence of developmental delays and learning difficulties that become increasingly difficult and costly to address as children age.

Parental Involvement and Home Learning Environment

While formal early childhood education programs play a crucial role, the home learning environment and parental involvement are equally important factors in shaping children's intellectual development.

The Power of Parent-Child Interactions

Mothers who show high levels of nurturting and affection to their children tend to raise children who are more open, conscientious, and agreeable. These personality traits may influence children's later economic success, educational achievement, and health and wellbeing. The quality of parent-child relationships and interactions profoundly influences children's cognitive and social-emotional development.

Responsive parenting—characterized by sensitivity to children's cues, warm and supportive interactions, and appropriate stimulation—creates the secure attachment relationships that provide the foundation for exploration and learning. When parents engage in conversations with their children, read together, play interactive games, and provide rich language exposure, they are actively building their children's cognitive architecture.

Supporting Parents as First Teachers

These services should begin soon after birth for mothers and fathers with limited education to help them create a home environment that provides the kind of rich language exposure, positive social interactions, and early literacy experiences that increase the probability that their child will enter school with the skills needed to succeed. Parent education and family support programs can help caregivers understand child development and learn strategies for promoting learning at home.

Effective early childhood education systems recognize parents as partners in children's learning and provide resources, guidance, and support to help families create enriching home environments. This two-generation approach—supporting both children and their parents—produces stronger and more sustainable outcomes than programs focused solely on children.

Addressing Adverse Experiences and Risk Factors

Early childhood education plays a particularly important protective role for children facing adversity or developmental risk factors.

Buffering Against Adversity

Many of these children, however, continue to live in conditions of adversity – marked by extreme poverty, under-nutrition, conflict and insecurity – and are not afforded the level of care required to ensure that they meet their developmental potential. High-quality early childhood education can serve as a protective factor, helping to buffer children against the negative effects of poverty, stress, and other adverse circumstances.

Harsh parenting practices can have long-term impacts on brain development. Increased hitting, shaking, yelling, and anger are related to smaller brain structures in adolescence. Early childhood programs that provide stable, nurturing relationships with caring adults can help mitigate some of the neurobiological impacts of adverse experiences, supporting healthier brain development even in challenging circumstances.

Early Identification and Intervention

Quality early childhood education programs also serve as important settings for identifying developmental delays or learning difficulties early, when intervention is most effective. The majority of longitudinal studies show that participating in high-quality ECE prior to elementary school is associated with a lower likelihood of special education placements. Early identification allows for timely intervention that can prevent minor delays from becoming significant disabilities.

Children with identified disabilities also benefit substantially from inclusive early childhood education settings where they learn alongside typically developing peers. These inclusive environments provide natural opportunities for social learning, language development, and skill acquisition while ensuring that children receive necessary specialized support.

The Interplay Between Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Skills

While much attention focuses on cognitive outcomes, early childhood education also develops crucial non-cognitive skills that significantly influence intellectual functioning and life success.

Social-Emotional Learning

Success in school and the labour market relies on more than high intelligence. Associations between 'non-cognitive' skills in childhood, such as attention, self-regulation and perseverance, and later outcomes have been widely investigated. Skills like emotional regulation, persistence, cooperation, and self-control prove as important as cognitive abilities in determining academic success and life outcomes.

Early childhood education provides crucial opportunities for children to develop these social-emotional competencies through interactions with peers and adults. Learning to share, take turns, manage frustration, and work collaboratively are not merely social niceties—they are foundational skills that enable children to engage successfully in learning environments and navigate social relationships throughout life.

Motivation and Approaches to Learning

This developmental process is fueled by a self-initiated, inborn drive toward competence that is an essential characteristic of human nature. Quality early childhood education nurtures children's natural curiosity and intrinsic motivation to learn. When children experience learning as engaging, meaningful, and achievable, they develop positive attitudes toward education and a growth mindset that serves them throughout their academic careers.

Programs that emphasize child-directed exploration, provide appropriate challenges, and celebrate effort and progress help children develop the persistence and resilience necessary for tackling difficult intellectual challenges. These approaches to learning—curiosity, persistence, flexibility, and confidence—become enduring characteristics that shape how individuals engage with new information and challenges throughout life.

Global Perspectives and International Evidence

The benefits of early childhood education are not limited to any single country or culture. Research from around the world consistently demonstrates the positive impacts of quality early learning experiences.

Investing in the early years is one of the smartest things a country can do. Early childhood experiences have a profound impact on brain development – affecting learning, health, behavior, and ultimately, lifetime opportunities. International organizations including the World Bank, UNICEF, and WHO have prioritized early childhood development as a critical component of human capital development and poverty reduction strategies.

In Uzbekistan, preschool enrollment rose from 0.7 million to 2.44 million after the World Bank Group increased its investments in Early Childhood Education in Europe and Central Asia. Large-scale investments in early childhood education in diverse contexts have demonstrated feasibility and effectiveness across different economic and cultural settings.

Early childhood interventions benefited 14 million mothers and children in Senegal between 2020 and 2024. These international examples demonstrate that the principles of effective early childhood education can be successfully implemented at scale, producing meaningful improvements in child development outcomes even in resource-limited settings.

Contemporary Research and Emerging Insights

Ongoing research continues to deepen our understanding of how early childhood education shapes intellectual development, with new technologies and methodologies providing unprecedented insights into early brain development.

Researchers at University of California San Diego, part of the national HEALthy Brain and Child Development (HBCD) Study Consortium, have announced the first data release from this landmark study, providing scientists around the world with new ways to answer critical questions about human brain development in early childhood. This inaugural data release includes comprehensive biomedical and behavioral data from more than 1,400 pregnant women and their children, collected across three early developmental stages from birth through nine months of age.

These large-scale longitudinal studies are providing rich data on the complex interplay between prenatal factors, early experiences, brain development, and developmental outcomes. Such research will continue to refine our understanding of how specific aspects of early childhood education influence particular developmental pathways and outcomes.

Our results are consistent with the inference that improving long-term cognitive outcomes might require interventions that more specifically target early cognitive ability. Emerging research emphasizes the importance of interventions that directly target cognitive development through stimulating activities, responsive interactions, and rich learning opportunities, rather than focusing solely on physical health and nutrition.

Practical Strategies for Supporting Early Intellectual Development

Understanding the importance of early childhood education is only valuable if translated into practical strategies that parents, educators, and policymakers can implement.

For Parents and Caregivers

Engage in Rich Conversations: Talk with children throughout daily activities, using varied vocabulary and asking open-ended questions that encourage thinking and expression
Read Together Daily: Shared book reading builds vocabulary, comprehension, and print awareness while creating positive associations with literacy
Provide Hands-On Learning Opportunities: Offer materials and experiences that allow children to explore, experiment, and discover through play
Support Emotional Development: Help children identify and manage emotions, providing the secure base necessary for confident exploration
Limit Screen Time: Prioritize interactive, hands-on experiences over passive screen exposure, particularly for young children
Create Predictable Routines: Consistent schedules and routines help children feel secure and develop self-regulation skills

For Early Childhood Educators

Build Strong Relationships: Develop warm, responsive relationships with each child and their family
Create Language-Rich Environments: Engage children in extended conversations, introduce new vocabulary in context, and encourage verbal expression
Implement Intentional Teaching: Use play-based approaches with clear learning objectives, scaffolding children's development of specific skills
Individualize Instruction: Recognize and respond to each child's unique developmental level, interests, and learning style
Foster Executive Function Skills: Provide activities that build working memory, cognitive flexibility, and self-control
Partner with Families: Maintain open communication and provide resources to support learning at home

For Policymakers and Community Leaders

Invest in Quality: Prioritize funding for high-quality programs with well-trained educators, appropriate ratios, and evidence-based curricula
Ensure Access: Work to make quality early childhood education accessible to all families, particularly those facing economic disadvantage
Support the Workforce: Invest in professional development, competitive compensation, and supportive working conditions for early childhood educators
Implement Quality Standards: Establish and enforce standards that ensure programs meet minimum quality thresholds
Promote Continuity: Create systems that support smooth transitions between early childhood programs and elementary schools
Fund Research: Support ongoing research to continue improving our understanding of effective practices

Challenges and Considerations

While the evidence for early childhood education's benefits is compelling, important challenges and considerations remain.

Quality Variation

Not all programs produce these benefits, perhaps because of differences in quality and funding across programs. The quality of early childhood education varies tremendously, and low-quality programs may not produce the same benefits as high-quality ones. In some cases, poor-quality care may even have negative effects on development. Ensuring consistent quality across programs remains a significant challenge.

Fade-Out Effects

Some research has documented "fade-out" effects, where initial cognitive advantages from preschool diminish over time as children progress through elementary school. However, even when test score advantages fade, other important benefits often persist, including reduced grade retention, lower special education placement, and improved long-term life outcomes. The fade-out phenomenon may reflect inadequate follow-up support in elementary schools rather than limitations of early education itself.

Access and Equity

Despite growing recognition of early childhood education's importance, access remains uneven. Families facing economic disadvantage—who would benefit most from quality programs—often have the least access. High costs, limited availability, and geographic barriers prevent many children from accessing the early learning experiences that could significantly improve their developmental trajectories.

The Economic Case for Investment

Beyond the moral imperative to support children's development, compelling economic arguments support investment in early childhood education.

Allocating resources to support the health and learning of young children is a critical economic development strategy that yields substantial returns on investment. Economic analyses consistently show that high-quality early childhood programs generate returns that far exceed their costs through multiple pathways:

Increased Earnings: Better educational outcomes lead to higher lifetime earnings and increased tax revenues
Reduced Remediation Costs: Lower rates of grade retention and special education placement reduce educational costs
Decreased Social Costs: Reduced involvement in criminal justice system and lower welfare dependence
Improved Health: Better health outcomes reduce healthcare costs across the lifespan
Workforce Productivity: Parents' ability to work while children attend quality programs increases economic productivity

These economic benefits accrue not only to individuals but to society as a whole, making early childhood education one of the most cost-effective investments a society can make in its future prosperity and well-being.

Looking Forward: The Future of Early Childhood Education

As our understanding of early brain development and effective educational practices continues to evolve, the field of early childhood education is poised for continued innovation and improvement.

Emerging technologies offer new possibilities for supporting early learning, from educational apps that adapt to individual children's learning needs to tools that help educators track developmental progress and individualize instruction. However, technology should complement rather than replace the human interactions and hands-on experiences that remain central to early learning.

Growing recognition of the importance of early childhood education is driving policy changes and increased investment in many jurisdictions. Expanding access to high-quality programs, improving educator preparation and compensation, and strengthening quality standards represent important priorities for the field.

Continued research will further refine our understanding of how specific program features, teaching practices, and environmental factors influence different aspects of development. This knowledge will enable increasingly effective and efficient approaches to supporting children's intellectual growth during these critical early years.

Conclusion: Investing in Our Collective Future

Overall, the evidence underscores that investing in early childhood is an investment in the future well-being and productivity of society. The science is clear: early childhood education profoundly shapes future intellectual abilities through its impact on brain development, cognitive skill acquisition, and the establishment of foundational capacities that support lifelong learning.

The early years represent a unique window of opportunity when the brain is maximally receptive to environmental influences and when interventions can have disproportionately large and lasting effects. Quality early childhood education—characterized by responsive relationships, rich language exposure, play-based learning, and intentional teaching—builds the neural architecture and cognitive skills that enable children to reach their intellectual potential.

The benefits extend far beyond early academic skills to encompass executive functions, social-emotional competencies, and approaches to learning that influence success throughout the school years and into adulthood. These advantages are particularly pronounced for children facing adversity, making early childhood education a powerful tool for promoting equity and social mobility.

Supporting early childhood development through nurturing environments and educational opportunities is crucial for maximized lifelong health, learning, and social outcomes. Every child deserves access to the high-quality early learning experiences that will enable them to develop their intellectual capacities fully. Parents, educators, policymakers, and communities all have important roles to play in ensuring that children receive the support they need during these foundational years.

By investing in early childhood education, we invest in human potential, economic prosperity, and social well-being. We create the conditions for children to develop into capable, creative, and contributing members of society. The question is not whether we can afford to invest in early childhood education, but whether we can afford not to.

For more information on supporting early childhood development, visit the National Association for the Education of Young Children, explore resources from the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University, or learn about early childhood research at the National Institute for Early Education Research. Additional insights on brain development can be found through Zero to Three, and parents can access practical strategies at Reading Rockets.