Does school readiness matter?
There h is h heavy pressure to ensure your child gets a good educational foundation. But does this mean getting a head start on ‘school’ by starting before the usual preschool age of three?
T he first six years of your child’s life are crucial: it’s the time when brain functions develop and the foundation for their future education is laid. Dr Maria Montessori, the founder of the Montessori method of education in the early 1900s, called this time in a person’s life “the absorbent mind stage” – when a child is most receptive to new experiences and learning.
During this time windows of opportunity for different types of learning open. If one or more of these opportunities are not used, that part of the brain may shut down and your child’s ability to learn a particular skill may be impaired. Dr Montessori called these “sensitive periods” for learning – periods that never recur during a person’s lifetime. Put another way, if you miss these windows of opportunity, they may be lost forever.
What this means for parents and caregivers, according to Wilma Tindall from the Centre for Early Childhood Development, a non-profit organisation dedicated to ensuring quality early childhood development for South African children, is that young children need a wide range of stimuli every day. And they need this long before starting preschool in order to reach their developmental milestones with ease.
“From a very young age
children need things to look at, listen to, smell, touch, taste and explore,” she explains. “They need physical play outdoors to strengthen growing muscles and build stamina. They need space to move about and learn as much as they can about their environment and their own bodies, and what they can and can’t do. Above all, they need to hear language so that they can begin to map out the structures of language during the first year of life.”
DIY STIMULATION
The big question is: can you provide all this stimulation in the first one to three years, or is it better for your child to go early to pre-school or another organised learning programme?
That depends whether or not you or your child’s day-today caretaker are able to “meet all the early developmental needs of the child,” says Nicolette Rodseth from the South African Montessori Association, which represents Montessori pre- and primary schools across the country. “If the child receives intelligent and sensitive care with lots of opportunities for play and stimulation, then the child will not have missed out on any important learning by staying at home,” she explains.
Wilma agrees and says this early stimulation can happen anywhere – at home or at school – provided the adult knows what to do and how to do it. “Adults need to talk to their children, sing songs, say rhymes, read stories and explore books together,” she advises. “Children need to run and jump and climb over and onto things, play in the sand pit and with water. They need to play with interesting and challenging resources and objects and go on outings to interesting places – all the activities we associate with children’s play. Play is the way children learn and should never be underestimated.”
Nicolette adds that simply involving children in the jobs around the home, such as helping to clean and prepare food, can also be a great learning experience for young minds. “Being part of the family socially and being involved in the daily lives of the family are big lessons,” she says.
CHOOSE WISELY
Some parents are able to provide all the stimulation children need in the early years, but others may be unable to due to work and other commitments, in which case Wilma advises parents to consider sending their child to preschool early, or to other organised programmes such as play group or an educare centre.
“Some parents may need or want to leave their children with a nanny or a family member, in which case these care providers should be informed of ways to stimulate development,” she adds.
Whatever option you choose, make sure your child is getting the full range of stimulation he needs and, most importantly, is never being “babysat” by the TV or ipad, cautions Nicolette. “Many children spend the first two vital years of their lives immobile and placed in front of a screen with poor opportunities for development. Such a child will definitely have missed out on vitally important learning and development and he will be playing catch up [ when he begins school]. Sadly such a child may never quite catch up again.”
READY FOR PRESCHOOL?
While there is no absolute right age to begin preschool, Wilma points out that “early learning experts believe many children are ready by around the age of three for greater challenges than most homebased situations can provide consistently”.
Montessori schools traditionally begin at age three, says Nicolette, but many offer infant and toddler programmes from as early as 18 months. Other schoosl may offer places for two-year olds. When to start all depends on your child and on what stimulation you or her caretaker can provide. “A busy, inquisitive child may need to begin school earlier,” she explains. “Preschool is often a much sounder option than inadequate home care.”
Nicolette says signs that your child may be ready to try preschool – even if she is not yet three – include a curiosity in the greater world and an interest in other children. She adds that children with a “sound attachment to primary caregivers, which has made the child happy and confident, are likely to be ready to detach comfortably”.
Wilma notes that for some children the transition from home to preschool is easy and joyful, for others it may take longer to settle in, while some may not be quite ready yet. “If a child frets for longer than two weeks, it may be wise to delay the separation just a little longer,” she advises. “Increased crying, bedwetting when dryness has been established and clingy behaviour where previously there was none are red flags that should be discussed with the early learning centre staff,” she adds.