Importance of High Quality Pre-K
Episode 28
Dr. Suzanne Bouffard, Author of the Most Important Year: Pre-Kindergarten and the Future of our Children, joins us to discuss her research studying pre-K classrooms, and why high quality programs are so valuable to children and families.
Benefits of Attending PreK
The Most Important Year - Pre-Kindergarten and the Future of Our Children by Suzanne Bouffard
The Batman Effect: What My Research Shows about Pretend Play and Executive Functioning by Stephanie Carlson
Benefits of Attending PreK
- First 5 years of life are fastest time for brain development
- Brain more flexible and pliable than at any other age, gets rid of pathways not being used
- Social and emotional capabilities to help them be successful in school just as important as cognitive skills
- Children on average are more successful if they have gone to high quality PreK
- Less likely to be held back and placed in special education if attended PreK
- Cost-benefit studies have found that for every dollar invested in high quality preschool, country saves $3-10 over the long-term
- Benefits for peers of children who attended preschool - More kids have the skills to function successful in the classroom
- Children learn how to wait and listen
- No matter how well teach at home to be self-regulated, cannot simulate the classroom environment
- Taps into natural curiosity of children
- Environments are set up for children to thrive
- Develop Curiosity in Kids
- Teach children how to think about problems
- Think about how things work
- Try new things
- Experience and understand what they are learning ex. walk through a garden and really understand the parts of plants
- Learn how to be part of a group
- Teach routines such as waiting their turn
- Opportunity for children to learn independence
- Not about controlling children, but teaching skills to help children learn to self-regulate
- Helps children learn to exert strategies later on their own and will not have to rely on external reinforcements
- Help develop cognitive skills in the context of getting excited about learning and self-regulation
- Meet children where they are
- Children retain more when they learn through play, especially scaffolded play
- Asking kids questions while playing
- Pretend play is a fun way to teach a lot of cognitive skills
- Helps a lot with self-regulation skills
- When you take on a role, need to take on expectations of that role ex. Child who is the food server will learn to bring the food over and customer learns to wait for food
- Help other children learn social expectations and then learn to regulate themselves
- Pretend play can also help with impulse control and waiting
- Stephanie Carlson’s study “What Would Batman Do” showed that when children were given a role as a character were able to wait longer and had more impulse control. Kids have distance and can step away from the situation and are less tempted
- When children have distance from a situation, and can step away from the situation, they are less tempted
- Does not need to be either academic or play-based
- Strongest prediction of reading comprehension is background knowledge
- Greater vocabulary and knowledge of word leads to better comprehension
- Need challenges to meet them where they are
- Focus on fundamentals rather than outcomes
- Word play really important - play with rhymes and alliteration
- Have children express needs in words
- Help develop strategies for waiting
- How to work out conflicts
- Give children language to use when someone is unkind
- Teachers can give parents strategies they can try at home
- Encourage curiosity
- Teach children to notice things in their environment ex. what do you think will happen next?
- Everyday challenges - count stairs as you go up and down, pointing out when you see something that start with a letter of their name
- Take a look at teachers when touring preschool
- Do they look happy, are they engaging the children?
- What are the children in the classroom doing?
The Most Important Year - Pre-Kindergarten and the Future of Our Children by Suzanne Bouffard
The Batman Effect: What My Research Shows about Pretend Play and Executive Functioning by Stephanie Carlson
