Preschool education
The most important years of learning begin at birth. During these early years, humans are capable of absorbing more information than later on and the brain grows most rapidly. High quality teachers and preschools have a long term effect on improving outcomes.
Attendance at school for children under six isn’t compulsory, and the provision of schools for children under six varies according to the finances and circumstances of local communities. Most public elementary schools provide a pre-school kindergarten year for five-year-olds, which is usually the first year of elementary school. Pre-school education programmes maintain a close relationship with the home and parents and are intended to introduce children to the social environment of school and concentrate on the basic skills of co-ordination. Activities are often expanded to include alphabetic and numerical orientation, so children entering kindergarten or grade one at the age of five or six who haven’t attended pre-school are usually at a disadvantage.
The areas of development that preschool education covers may vary from school to school. However, most schools offer the following main topics for child development:
• Personal, social, economic and emotional development
• Communication, (including sign language), talking and listening
• World knowledge and understanding
• Creative and aesthetic development
• Mathematical awareness
• Physical development
• Physical health
• Play
• Teamwork
• Self-help skills
• Social skills
• Scientific thinking
• Literacy
Preschool systems observe standards for structure (administration, class size, student–teacher ratio, services), process (quality of classroom environments, teacher-child interactions, etc.) and alignment (standards, curriculum, assessments) components. Curriculum is designed for differing ages. Different methods of teaching, such as Montessori, Waldorf, Head Start, HighScope, Reggio Emilia approach, are developed for the smaller ones.