The first 6 years of a child’s life last a lifetime

Why are early years so important?

Early years are the foundation on which children build their lives. Neuroscience provides compelling evidence that early experiences impact brain development, and can have a long term effect on children’s well being. Therefore, it is important for a child to have an environment which stimulates learning and prepares the child for schooling.

The goal of preschool should be the development of the whole child. It helps to ensure opportunities for holistic learning and growth.

A preschool makes a positive contribution to children’s long term development and learning by facilitating an enabling and stimulating environment in these foundation stages of lifelong learning. A good quality preschool programme helps children to generate a positive attitude towards learning through play-way activities.

The method in preschool should be based on play and activity- There are different types of preschool programs/methods available in India. Some of the famous ones are—

1. The Montessori Method

A key characteristic of Montessori education is that students move from concrete concepts to abstract ones, where students learn concepts from working with materials, rather than by direct instruction. For eg., learning how to trace an alphabet and recognising its physical structure before moving on to understanding the sound associated with it[i].

2. Playway Method

Playway method of learning is a child centric method where the method of teaching is informal and natural to suit the child’s interests. These kind of schools belief that learning is best through play activities. Playway may not be a structured and documented system but more an adaptation of best practices from across the world, with a greater emphasis on physical activities such as role-play, music and movement, art and crafts, stories[ii].

3. Waldorf Education/ Steiner Education

The approach emphasizes on the role of imagination in learning. Using the imagination is the child’s most important ‘work’ posits the Steiner Method. A Waldorf education encourages the child to create his own toys from materials which happen to be at hand. Similar to Montessori system, Waldorf approach follows a curriculum that is developmentally appropriate to the child. In Waldorf system, academics are de emphasized in the early stages. Waldorf early childhood education emphasizes oral language and reading and writing is not formally taught in the early years[iii].

4. Sri Aurobindo and the Mother

Another well recognized approach that has proved effective is the integral education system, instituted by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. This system lays emphasis on five principal aspects corresponding to the five principal activities of the human being; the physical, the vital, the mental, the psychic and the spiritual[iv].

Which method to choose?

The objective of these early years of learning is to provide a natural way for children to express ideas and feelings as well as to explore and understand the world around them. The curriculum must therefore give importance to every aspect of development. The key is maintaining the ideal balance is—

Every good preschool programme should provide children time for free play, where children should have the opportunity to do something of their own choice from among the materials available (such as beads, blocks, story books, doll’s house, toys for imaginative play etc,) and thus not only enjoy the activity but also in the process learn to make little decisions or choices for themselves.

A time for guided play where teachers can facilitate learning by using labels for objects and actions, providing explanations, and reading books aloud and engaging in conversation.

Since little children cannot sit in one position for long and have a limited attention span.  There should be separate and adequate time for outdoor play activities where children can experience or exercise gross motor skills through running, jumping etc.

For conducting all these activities, the preschool should have access to variety of hands-on materials for children to promote learning. In line with these key features, parents can choose a preschool programme for their child.

References

[i] Guide to the Early Years Foundation Stage in Montessori settings, 2008

[ii] Use of play way method and creating healthy environment in pre-primary school of Srinagar district: An evaluative study, 2013

[iii] Essentials of Waldorf Early Childhood Education. Retrieved from article

[iv] Life at Mirambika- A free progressive school, 2006 by Anjum Sibia