Don't Push Preschoolers
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     Early academics has become a popular notion in this country, much of it driven by policy makers and legislators. This makes parents worry about their children succeeding in school (and life). Some worry that their child will be in a rigorous environment beginning in kindergarten while others worry that their child's school won't be challenging enough. In either situation, parents want their children to be prepared to succeed in life and so often they feel the solution is to push the preschools into formal reading in the early years.
     We believe the best foundation for learning in the schools (and life) is to let a preschooler be a child and learn from her play, listen to stories, and respect others.
     One of the reasons parents push their preschoolers to read is that they think reading is the only gateway to knowledge, that a child is shut out from learning until he can read. In reality, children are learning from birth and they learn a great deal in a preschool setting where reading is not taught. For example, to their parents astonishment, many children can recognize and rattle off the complex names of dinosaurs just by looking at their silhouettes.
     Academics has become a euphemism for early reading. But it doesn't have to be. There are many ways to enrich a child's preschool years that could be termed "academic" but have nothing to do with reading or other skills that are pushed too early. Learning the names of the animals on a trip to the zoo. Or learning about all the planets, their order and names, or the names of flowers in your garden or in the park.
     A child will learn about what he is naturally interested in, and what that is will be readily observable to parents. A child may show an insatiable curiosity about bugs or birds. That's what should be encouraged. When a young child reels a joy from learning new things, that will build a strong foundation for later years when learning really is academic.
     Sometimes children who are taught to read before they are really ready, do so in a rote fashion. They may be able to sound out the words on the page and make their way through a simple storybook that way, but can they retell the story? That's the true test of reading: comprehension.
     Preschoolers love stories and learning to remember a story, from start to finish, is an important developmental step. But at that age, it can be done verbally. A preschooler who can retell his favorite stories is preparing for the school years.
     A three-year-old who is ready to read will read by himself, whether you teach him or not. And there are three-year-olds who, by virtue of their own individual development, are able to read and comprehend. But most children aren't. Many other countries, with highly esteemed public school education, don't teach reading until children turn seven.
     And some children react quite badly to the pressure of too-early academics. Pediatricians are reporting an upswing in the number of over-stimulated and over-pressured young children they see: headaches, stomachaches, sleeping disorders, even chest pains.
     Some children who have been pushed to read as preschoolers turn out to be bored in elementary school. Or they have had the joy of learning extinguished by being forced to read when they really wanted to play.
     A preschooler's job is to play. Activities should be geared to their mental and physical development. Fantasy play, costumes, storytelling, and storymaking, learning to work with other children, swinging, playing ball-these are the tasks for preschoolers. These activities are not frivolous. They are essential to this stage in life. Through these games, children learn to relate to people, to develop their imagination, to test reality.