Massachusetts Preschools

The phrase “learning through play” is so prevalent in the preschool nomenclature it is easy to dismiss. So many preschools taut that their students “learn through play” that many of us dismiss it. In a recent e-mail a parent put it this way. “Learning through play is just marketing hype to take credit for what kids do naturally. I need a preschool that will teach my kid how to read and write. Learning through play is just an excuse for preschool teachers to take time off when they should be teaching the kids.

Recent research has demonstrated how very wrong this approach can be. NPR recently did a story on this research. You can listen to it here or read the transcript here. In short, the research repeated a study conducted 60 years ago - before the advent of television - in which researcher measured preschool children’s ability to pay attention, demonstrate self-control and several other measures of executive function. All of these abilities have been shown to be essential to both academic and career success as well as basic happiness and fulfillment. When today’s scientists conducted the same study they have found that the ability of children to demonstrate these functions - particularly self-control and concentration - has dramatically declined. A five year old child today has the same ability to concentrate and exhibit self control that a 3 year old did 60 years ago!

It may be easy to blame this on television. While the advent of television is clearly part of this dramatic change, it is not the core of why children have back slid rather than making advancements in executive function. The real issue is that children and more importantly parents and schools have fundamentally changed they way children play. Play prior to television was both a physical and imaginative process in which children challenged themselves to come up with new forms of entertainment and fun. In the process, children taught themselves and each other skills that we have now learned are essentially “executive function“. When you look at the problems that many parents and school administrators lament, most are associated with diminished executive function. Other research indicates that the high and increasing prevalence of attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is associated with this diminished executive function.

We understand the precipitating event that television represented so many years ago. But why have we not overcome this issue? Indeed, the problem seems to be getting worst and even accelerating. Well that parent inadvertently pointed out the problem in her e-mail. The advent of standardized testing, most recently the MCAS here in Massachusetts, has resulted in the public preschools, and even many private preschools, in allocating less time to imaginative play and more to drills that that prepare the child for these exams. Parents are impressed with the results as their child begins to read. But this success appears to have a high cost. Children today may be able to read and write at an younger age - but their executive function is grossly debilitated. The result is children that can read and write - but don’t want to or can’t concentrate long enough to read more than a paragraph.

The high quality preschools have know the importance of “learning through play” for decades and have resisted the pressure to diminish its role in the curriculum. When evaluating preschools, it is essential that you challenge the faculty about what “learning through play” means for them. As that parent pointed out, all schools will say they instruct using “learning through play“, but the high quality schools know how important it is and have a very well defined process by which they challenge children to fully benefit. If a school describes their curriculum as - “That is our imaginative play area. That’s where the children can have their own play time and relax.” - you have found a low quality preschool that may be guilty of that parent’s indictment of “learning through play”. More on and find a school that will actually give your child the benefits of imaginative play and preschool in general.

Tags: attention, concentration, executive function, Learning through play, massachusetts preschools, preschool, preschool ma