Wednesday, July 31, 2002

Preschool

By GREGORY K. MOFFATT, PH. D
Child's Play

It is hard to believe, but another summer is more than half over and within just a few weeks, our children will be back in the classroom.

You may be debating whether or not to enroll your children in preschool or not. Generally, I discourage parents from putting their children in preschool, but there are both pros and cons with preschool. I've outlined some advantages and disadvantages below so you can make an informed decision on what to do with your child.

Advantages: Perhaps the biggest and most obvious advantage to preschool is academic preparation. If the preschool program is well designed, the child should be more than ready to enter kindergarten after a year in 4-year-old preschool. The child should know basic colors, shapes, and many if not all of the letters of the alphabet. He should be able to count to 10 and he most likely will be able to write his name. He may even be able to read simple words.

Children who are in preschool programs are more prepared for the social environment of kindergarten. While they may be slightly more aggressive, they are more social and more they more easily accommodate to the structure of the classroom in kindergarten than children who have not been in a preschool or academic day care environment.

There are also advantages for the primary care giver, often the mother. She has more time to herself once her children are in school and she can focus on household chores or a job without needing child care. If it is a public preschool, there is a savings of day care expense, as well.

Disadvantages: The greatest social and academic advantages are seen in children from deprived backgrounds. However, most children in preschool are not underprivileged and the same gains can be achieved by providing educational toys and books for the child at home.

Investing time with one's child in one-to-one instruction is and advantage one will not likely find in any preschool and is actually more likely to provide long-term cognitive results than preschool. Playing with other children in varied environments, church, clubs, etc., can help the child learn social skills, as well. Preschool is simply unnecessary.

While the academic advantages of preschool linger through the first few grades, after the third grade there is no research that demonstrates any measurable academic difference between preschooled and nonpreschooled children (with the exception of underprivileged children). Likewise, many people seem to have forgotten that the purpose of kindergarten is to prepare children for first grade. Given the logic of some preschool advocates, one might suppose that eventually we will have pre-preschool so that toddlers will be prepared for preschool.

Prior to age five or six, children need lots of play time, free time, and face-to-face interaction with mothers and fathers. These needs are obviously compromised if the child is out of the house. Also, children develop at differential rates and most four-year-olds are unprepared cognitively, emotionally, physically, and socially to sit in a classroom for five to seven hours. In fact, many children repeat kindergarten because they were not developmentally prepared even then. This doesn't mean they can't do it, but it is much more difficult for them. Three-hour programs, as opposed to full-day programs, and three-day-a-week programs as opposed to five-day programs can offset this disadvantage.

Perhaps the biggest disadvantage of preschool, however, is that children are only small once. Those three short years between toddlerhood and kindergarten will be gone before you know it. Rushing around the house in the early morning, getting breakfast, dressing, brushing teeth, and rushing the child out of the house for several hours at school shortens the time parents and children have together. There is no need to rush them through their early years enjoy them. You will never find any parent who looks back and says, "Boy, I wish I had spent less time with my child when she was a toddler."

In summary, parents can provide the same benefits that preschool offers without the disadvantages that come with having the child out of the house most of the day at such an early age. If caregivers need some free time, a babysitter once or twice a week can provide free time without the potentially the disadvantages I've listed. This is why I discourage preschool. There is no known long-term "damage" that is done to children who are preschooled, but regret for a lost year is hard to measure.