Education is an investment, and it pays off in the long run. But when do we start bankrolling our child’s education? From preschool, say child development and early education experts.
Apparently, juvenile delinquency and high dropout rates amongst adolescents are rooted in the early years, according to a 10-year study spearheaded by social psychologist Datuk Dr Chiam Heng Keng in the late-1980s. A collaboration between her and the Faculty of Medicine at Universiti Malaya, the research involved 4,000 subjects, ages three to six, from four different backgrounds: Urban advantaged, urban disadvantaged, rural and estates.
Dr Chiam found that school dropout and delinquency rates can be traced back to the subjects’ childhood experiences.
“From the study, we concluded that early childhood education is fundamental to a child’s development, and preschool teachers or childcare providers play a very critical role,” says Dr Chiam, who co-founded the first undergraduate programme in early childhood education in Malaysia in 1997.
The Malaysian expert is asked her opinions on early childhood education following Star2’s report last Wednesday about the 92-year-old German-founded Waldorf school. The system is based on the philosophy of Austrian educator Rudolf Steiner that children should experience the world through their hands, hearts and bodies, not just their minds. There are at present five Waldorf and Waldorf-inspired preschools/kindergartens in Malaysia: Pusat Jagaan Nania and Taska Lin in Penang; Waldorf Kelip-Kelip in Kota Kemuning, Selangor; Hilltop House Child Development Centre in Taman Tun Dr Ismail and Taska Cixin in Jalan Ipoh, Kuala Lumpur.
Long-term effects of early childhood education
In a breakthrough US research that looked at the long-term effects of early childhood education, studies revealed that those who went to preschool are more likely to graduate from high school, get much better grades, make more money, are less likely to be arrested, and more likely to stay married.
Called the Perry Preschool Project, the Michigan-based study spanned almost four decades, tracking 123 low-income African-American students from the ages of three to 40. Students were divided into two groups: One enrolled in high-quality preschool education and the other, no preschool at all.
When the experiment started in 1962, even the idea of preschool, non-existent in America at that time, was radical. The project’s initial aim was to increase the students’ ability to learn, to enrich their vocabulary and teach them the alphabet and numbers. But instead of direct instruction, teachers used play and hands-on activities to engage the students.
Interestingly, the Perry project disclosed that preschool may not increase one’s IQ scores but it makes one a better person.
Preschool seemed to help develop one’s “noncognitive” skills like perseverance, motivation, sociability and the ability to work with and relate to others. And these are “critical skills that help people succeed in school, at work and in life,” according to economist James Heckman, a Nobel laureate at the University of Chicago, who documents the wisdom of investing in preschool.
Not just any preschool
But the million-dollar question is, what kind of preschool?
“The best form of early childhood education should be child-centred and focused on hands-on learning,” says Dr Chiam, who has more than 25 years’ experience in child development studies.
“We (early childhood educators, childcare providers and parents) need to understand the child’s stages of development and provide a nurturing environment for the child to grow.”
In 1975, a study in Germany compared play-oriented with academic -oriented kindergartens. A total of 1,000 children and 100 classes were monitored until they reached fourth grade (9/10 years old). The study found that children from play-oriented kindergartens excelled over the latter group in all areas of development – physical, social and emotional and mental. Though children from academic-oriented kindergartens had a head start and were accelerating, they lost interest in learning or suffered from burnout by the time they were nine or 10.
Besides, “forcing” your child to learn ABCs or grasp the intricacies of maths before he is ready can be detrimental in the long run, experts warn.
Asking children to handle material that their brain is not equipped for can cause frustration, according to a neuroendocrinologist at the US-based Rockefeller University. (Rockefeller is world-renowned for biomedical sciences research.)
“Perceiving a lack of control is a major trigger of toxic stress, which can damage the hippocampus, a brain area crucial to learning and memory.” (Preschool Tests Take Time Away From Play And Learning; Scientific American, Nov 2, 2011.)
“If a child is forced to sit down and read flash cards but he is not capable of understanding the word yet, his brain is stressed and the body releases cortisol, the stress hormone,” Dr Chiam explains.
If high levels of cortisol are released over prolonged periods, they will impair the brain’s performance.
“It is like soaking your child’s brain in formaldehyde,” Dr Chiam says. “If the brain is compromised, the child will find learning more difficult and his potential may be killed off.”
Kids are naturally curious. Dr Chiam believes that when you provide the child with the right environment (for example, cultivate the enjoyment of reading through storytelling), he may be interested to learn or figure out what is in the book.
“We should encourage but not force the child,” she adds.
Although some children are far smarter and possess superior reasoning or language skills compared to their peers, their tiny bodies can’t cope and their maturity level isn’t up to par, cautions clinical and educational psychologist Selina Ding.
“Just like gifted kids, they can reason things very well yet they can’t fit in with their peer groups,” says the Klang Valley-based Ding. “For example, they know so much yet their tiny hands are not ready to write fast or they can’t express themselves verbally.” Some precocious kids lack the social skills or the ability to handle their emotions in times of crisis.
“Parents and educators need to respect the child’s need to be a child,” Ding adds.
Learning through play versus direct instruction is also a hotly-debated topic amongst early education experts today.
In the same article published by the Scientific American magazine, a study is quoted as showing that direct instruction inhibits children’s natural curiosity and their ability to learn. Unlike older children, very young children are not designed for focused, goal-directed behaviour. But preschool-age kids
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