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8 Little-known benefits of preschool

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michelletan83898
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8 Little-known benefits of preschool

Post by michelletan83898 » Wed Sep 22, 2021 9:04 am

8 Little-known benefits of preschool
Preschool offers many hidden benefits to children and their families, from encouraging healthy development to providing parents a more affordable alternative to day care. Read on to hear expert opinions about the many benefits of preschool!

1. Preschool teaches children to follow directions.
Every parent knows the frustration of repeating themselves over and over while their young child completely ignores them. What parents may not realize is that following directions is a skill that children hone over time—and preschool can help make this happen.

Elizabeth Malson, president of the Amslee Institute, shares that preschool gives kids additional opportunities to follow basic directions like when to line up or how to wash their hands. Even through these simple tasks, “children learn to listen to adults and view them as authority figures.”

2. Preschool helps children adjust to kindergarten.
It can be a big adjustment for a young child to navigate the workings of a classroom for the first time in kindergarten. Preschool programs, even those that are only part-time, can help kids make the transition.

“Exposure to school routines in preschool prepares them for the structure and expectation of kindergarten,” says school psychologist Dr. Ari Yares. In addition to seeing the basic rhythm of a school day, “children also learn hygiene routines like washing hands before eating and how to take care of their belongings in their cubby.”

3. Preschool establishes social and emotional development.
“Preschool is much more about developing social-emotional skills than it is about developing academic skills,” says Dr. Yares. These social-emotional skills include learning to share and take turns, showing empathy for classmates and self-regulating their own strong emotions. Without skills like these, children will have a hard time moving on to academic achievement in later years.

“Preschool provides a safe but challenging environment for children to learn how to manage the loss of a toy to another child during play or sit quietly and listen to a short story without interrupting,” Malson says. “These experiences help them explore different feelings and create the foundation for self-regulation.”

4. Publicly funded preschool can save parents money.
There’s no arguing with the fact that childcare in the United States is expensive. The Center for American Progress reports that it costs an average of $760 per month to send a preschooler to a licensed childcare center, an amount that puts many working parents in a financially tight spot.2

Preschool is an option that can help offset this cost while providing high-quality education to kids in their formative years. Head Start programs are available for free to families who meet income eligibility requirements. Many areas also offer free or low-cost preschools that are publicly funded. Preschool programs like these can add up to thousands of dollars of savings for parents who are currently funding full-time childcare.

5. Preschool provides opportunities for play.
Is play really a benefit of preschool? It might seem simple, but research shows that playful experiences prepare children for “deeper learning,” especially in essential skills like executive functioning.3 Preschool exposes children to many different types of play that they may not have access to at home.

“Ultimately, the greatest value of preschool is inherent in the power of play and exploration,” Dr. Jones says. “The early brain is insatiably curious, and quality preschools provide vast opportunities for children to have exposure to various subjects, the arts, creative processes and literature.”

6. Preschool encourages physical development.
Believe it or not, physical development directly impacts a child’s ability to learn. Fine motor skills are necessary for kids to hold a pencil and learn to write as they get older, and gross motor skills are the whole-body movements that allow kids to balance and coordinate their actions.

Preschool environments give kids what they need to make progress in these important physical developments, including plenty of time spent outdoors. “Preschool helps children make mind-body connections that not only develop these skills but boost their self-confidence as children feel physically capable and self-sufficient in their bodies,” Dr. Jones says.

7. Preschool can reduce the need for special education services.
Special education services are often available to children who aren’t achieving developmental milestones or performing at a rate comparable to their peers in the classroom. Though these services are an essential intervention for kids who need them, the research is clear that preschool can often prevent kids from falling behind in the first place.

A report from the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) states, “Children who attend high-quality preschool programs are less likely to utilize special education services or be retained in their grade, and are more likely to graduate from high school, go on to college, and succeed in their careers than those who have not attended high-quality preschool programs.”4

8. Preschool contributes to education equality.
Preschool makes a difference that goes far beyond individual children and their families. The same DOE report shows that access to high-quality preprimary education can be the key that unlocks education equality across races, geography and income.4

The report states that children who don’t have access to the benefits of preschool may begin kindergarten at a strong disadvantage in both academic and social-emotional skills. “For some children, starting out school from behind can trap them in a cycle of continuous catch-up in their learning,” according to the DOE. Grants and publicly funded preschool programs like Head Start are working to expand access to early education so that the benefits of preschool are available to all children across the nation.

https://www.rasmussen.edu/degrees/educa ... preschool/

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motherhood
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Re: 8 Little-known benefits of preschool

Post by motherhood » Fri Oct 01, 2021 9:33 am

Thanks..

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