After-school programs give children a boost, survey says
If you’re worried that after-school programs might interfere with your child’s homework or classroom performance, there’s no need to, according to a poll of parents.
A large majority of parents in Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley — 79 per cent — say their children aged six to 12 perform better in school because of enrolment in out-of-school programs, according to a poll by Insights West.
And fully 93 per cent said outof-school programs have allowed their kids to learn something they wouldn’t have learned in school, the United Way-commissioned poll found, while 82 per cent reported their children are more sociable as a result of attending out-of-school programs.
“I’d certainly agree with that,” Coquitlam parent Tiffany Glasco said. Her youngest daughter has begun cooking classes, while her 10-year-old has moved on to activities at a community centre.
“It’s good for the kids after school, they socialize and enjoy what they’re doing,” Glasco said. “They’re not enrolled in any program unless they want to do it.”
Of the out-of-school activities parents enrol their children in, athletics is the overwhelming favourite: 82 per cent of the parents surveyed have kids playing sports, 39 per cent have their children taking music lessons and 20 per cent taking art classes.
“It’s not as if it’s a situation where parents are just looking at something to occupy their kids’ time for a couple of hours,” said Mario Canseco, vice-president of public affairs at Insights West. “Their kids are learning and benefiting from out-of-school programs.”
Anecdotally, pollsters wondered whether there existed a perception among parents that out-of-school programs, whether it was sports, dance class, music lessons or what have you, would interfere with homework, Canseco said.
“But what you see is kids do better in school and are more sociable when they’ve enrolled in outof-school programs.”
Canseco also found it intriguing that while so many parents enrolled their kids in sports and to a lesser extent music, one-third of parents also said they wished their children were enrolled in computer skills or programming courses.
“There is a bit of a disconnect in what kids are doing and what they and their parents would like to do,” Canseco said.
Canseco suspects a factor is once kids join, say, a soccer team, they want to continue playing with their soccer friends year-after-year. There is also considerable investment required in equipment, especially if the sport is hockey.
“Parents are happy with their kids being in sports and music, but now they look and realize maybe their child won’t play in the NHL or become the next Yo-Yo Ma,” Canseco said. “They’re realizing computer skills are more useful once their children get older.”
As for parents who don’t have their kids enrolled in out-of-school programs, two-thirds cited cost as the inhibiting factor. Furthermore, 42 per cent of them cited difficulty getting their child home from programs and 35 per cent cited getting their child to programs as reasons their kids aren’t enrolled in extracurricular activities.
The online survey was held Sept. 18-22, with 402 parents taking part.