Episode 28 - Importance of high quality pre-k

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 for children and families. 

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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

• 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

Quality PreK

• 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

Benefits of Play

• 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​

Play vs. Academic Preschools

• 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

Engaging Children at Home

• 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

Show and Tell

• 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
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