Preschool: Preparation for learning

By MIKE JAMES
The Independent

February 09, 2008 08:09 pm

— Some things we take for granted in school.
Walking indoors. Raising hands and lining up. Working quietly and playing cooperatively.
And not just social skills: we expect children to know what to do with scissors and pencils and how to manipulate a computer mouse.
Of course, language skills, motor skills, social and cognitive skills develop at home and out in the world, but a preschool program for 3- and 4-year-old children can give them a head start when they get to kindergarten, where the serious stuff starts.
In fact, that’s where the name of the federal preschool program for at-risk and economically challenged children comes from: Head Start.
Research indicates children get three-fourths of their knowledge by the time they are 3.
In other words, their tiny brains are soaking up information at a blistering rate.
So an appropriately challenging preschool environment can keep that rate of knowledge and skill acquisition going.
Preschool teachers focus tasks such as counting and alphabet, to lead children into reading and math, said Elizabeth McLaren, a professor of education at Morehead State University.
The good ones also instill a spirit of inquiry, “fostering a sense of exploration and curiosity, getting kids to ask questions, sort of prescience,” McLaren said.
A good preschool program employs developmentally appropriate practices, which means making sure materials and activities are matched to each child’s age and abilities.
The Boyd County School District’s Head Start/preschool program uses the Montessori approach in which children work independently and set their own pace.
The district’s preschool in Summit is an auditorium-sized room divided by partitions into class areas.
A typical class includes about 10 students of varying ages and developmental stages, a teacher and an aide.
The class areas have child-sized tables and chairs as well as shelves stuffed with what appear at first glance to be toys and games.
Actually, they’re educational activities, each designed as a self-contained practice session for one or more academic or developmental skills.
For instance, on a recent day, 3-year-old Lori Hughes took from the shelf a red plastic bin of interlocking building blocks.
She set them on a table and proceeded to assemble them into various configurations. While the blocks don’t have a clear academic purpose, they help children develop their fine motor skills — manipulating items with their fingers and so forth — which they’ll need for writing, typing and other more grown-up activities.
Fine motor skill development is a component of most of the activities.
After a while Lori put the blocks back into the bin and replaced the bin on the shelf. Then she chose a puzzle.
In addition to the motor skill component, the puzzle uses pictures to match with numbers. Lori can count, and she’s just starting to recognize numbers, said her teacher, Ashley Waddell. The puzzle will enhance her number recognition.
Other children were similarly occupied. The school is strangely quiet, at least compared with the layperson’s expectation for congregations of children. Montessori experts explain this placidity as the product of intense concentration because children pursue each activity when and for the length of time they choose.
That’s not to say the classroom is a free-for-all. Teachers monitor closely and children get lessons in each of the activities as they attain the appropriate developmental level.
From time to time teachers and aides will assist children in activities or coach them through to completion.
A guiding principle is working with children from what they know to more challenging activities, said Jennifer Watts, director of the center.
So activities are sequenced from the concrete to the abstract.
And the routine promotes challenges to children of varying skill levels, because they can repeat activities at their own pace and learn through repetition.
At the same time, the children aren’t challenged to the point of frustration, which might provoke them into giving up.
Fostering their ability to concentrate will reap benefits when the children move up to the kindergarten level, where there are likely to be more children in the class and teachers will have less time for individual attention, said Ginger Clark, director of early education for the district.
Starting children off in preschool has the added benefit of an arena in which experts can identify learning disabilities and other issues, Clark said.
It’s important for preschool teachers and aides to remember their young charges are for the most part away from their parents for the first time, she said. “We have to be gentle but at the same time prepare them for a higher level.”
Boyd County has a strong parent involvement program. That’s highly important, said McLaren, the MSU professor.
Whether a preschool program has a formal parent component or not, parents can remain involved through telephone calls, e-mails, notes and face-to-face talks, she said.
Some parents volunteer in the classroom and others take part in home activities.
Many preschools have evening programs such as parent trainings, potlucks and open houses, she said. “Communication is the key.”
In Kentucky, certification is required of all new teachers in state funded preschools. However, there are no restrictions on the use of the term “preschool” so parents would be well advised to research the program they’re interested in.
Much information is available through the Cabinet for Families and Children’s Department for Community Based Services and the Child Care Resource and Referral Office.
MIKE JAMES can be reached at mjames@dailyindependent.com or at (606) 326-2652.

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