What is Developmentally Appropriate in Preschool and Kindergarten?
“Play is the highest form of research.”
~ Albert Einstein
Preschool and kindergarten have changed since the days when we built things with blocks. We see an academic push into those early childhood classrooms that didn’t exist in years past. Today, our goal is to get students to read texts and memorize many sight words in kindergarten.
The “push down” of skill instruction is cause for alarm. Our push to create “ready” first graders is causing us to lose sight of what is developmentally appropriate for our early childhood learners. We ask our youngest learners to master skills early and lose sight of language development, independence, curiosity, and self-control. Frequently, we ask our preschool teachers to focus on learning letter names and sounds to prepare for kindergarten and ask kindergarten teachers to concentrate on word learning and reading texts.
New research sheds light and warnings on the practice of focusing on constrained skills (skills you learn quickly to mastery). Focused skill instruction could be harmful to young preschoolers’ educational success. In Iowa, our preschool classrooms are often housed in elementary school buildings and usually run parallel to kindergarten classrooms.
According to Dale Farran from Vanderbilt University, “A greater focus on academics for three- and four-year-olds is not the solution. Several large studies of the instructional strategies used by teachers in current pre-k classrooms focused on basic skill instruction.” The findings suggest that early childhood classroom programs “fail to stress different competencies in young children, capabilities like “participation” or being a functioning member of a group. We need programs that stress self-reliance and independence, the ability to make good decisions and be responsible for one’s actions” (2022). The focus on skill instruction in early childhood is detrimental to our youngest children.
Kindergarten teachers also feel the “push down” of academic-focused instruction from higher grade levels. In general, the kindergarten curricula focuses on word learning and reading. We worry about letter names and sounds and beginning reading skills but forget to focus on language, vocabulary, and even self-control. According to David Kilpatrick, author of Equipped for Reading Success, “In kindergarten, children usually work on letter names and sounds alongside phonological awareness (with extensive reading to children). It would be difficult to find scientific research to support teaching all children to read in kindergarten. Teaching a limited number of high-frequency words and word families is sufficient to develop the skills necessary to learn to read in first grade” (2016, p. 48-49).
The growing body of evidence in early childhood education suggests we focus too heavily on skill development and need to adjust instruction that supports language development. In today’s preschool and kindergarten classrooms, we are pushing too hard to learn letters and words and instead need to focus on building language, communication, comprehension, and vocabulary skills.
To ensure equity for all students, the focus in Early Childhood (preschool and kindergarten) learning should revolve around the value each child brings to the classroom, including independence, creativity, language learning, reading literature, decision-making, and, in general, the developmentally appropriate needs of the child. They will then be well-suited for the academic focus in the first and second grades.
If you’d like more information, please contact:
- Andrea Raber – araber@centralriversaea.org
- Ashley Bultje – abultje@centralriversaea.org
- Holly Ritter – hritter@centralriversaea.org
- Blohm, Jessica – jblohm@centralriversaea.org
- Michelle Haberman – mhaberman@centralriversaea.org
- Sue Longcor – slongcor@centralriversaea.org
- Teri Boezinger – tboezinger@centralriversaea.org
- Melissa Blohm – mblohm@centralriversaea.org
References
Farran, D. C. (2022, February 15). Early developmental competencies: Or why pre-K does not have lasting effects. Defending the Early Years. Retrieved March 14, 2022, from https://dey.org/early-developmental-competencies-or-why-pre-k-does-not-have-lasting-effects/?fbclid=IwAR2t2Anxr6rAbYUkBLva35bSIi6WdIbUauIdchFkHCM2PMinEifjyqsPba4
Kilpatrick, D. A. (2016). Equipped for reading success: A comprehensive, step-by-step program for developing phoneme awareness and fluent word recognition. Casey & Kirsch Publishers.