LEARNING IN PRESCHOOL CHILDREN

ABSTRACT

 

 
Knowledge of development in preschool children allows us to identify those who might have some problems
learning. Possible risk factors for learning disabilities are discussed. Suggestions of what parents can do at home
are offered. Encouraging growth and learning without pressure are stressed. 

Young children grow and learn according to their personal timetables and more or less in the same way as their peers. It is important to identify differences in development in the preschool years. Such differences may predict later learning disabilities, since school age children and adolescents with learning disabilities often have a history of early difficulties tha were ignored. 

Learning in young children is determined by their genetic makeup, their neurodevelopmental status, and the environment in which they grow. We cannot push that development faster than it is ready to go. However, we can work early to strengthen weak areas and manipulate materials and the learning environments, so children can learn. We may not prevent children from having learning disabilities, but we can provide the appropriate instruction so they acquire skills at the maximum levels of their capabilities. We can prevent their
regarding themselves as failures when they get to school. When problems are identified early and intervention provided, children begin their passages to successful learning.

During the preschool years young children explore their worlds using their senses and their motor systems. They relate their bodies to space, make visual spatial judgements, organize visual experiences, control objects and events through their actions, and develop visual motor skills.
During these early months and years they are also acquiring language. They understand the emotional tone of speech used by adults around them. They interpret sounds of speech and how different arrangements of sounds form different words; the individual words have specific meanings. They learn that words are
arranged in certain order. As young children use language to communicate, they discover that they can
think with words, ask questions, understand responses, solve problems, and control others. The can ask for help and offer assistance. As they interact with adults and  peers they learn to trust, take turns, play fair, seek help, and respect others.

To master any skill, children must have some sense of the possible, that there is a good chance that they will
be successful. As they try a new task they repeat what they have done when their action is praised by important adults. They wish to receive that praise again and again. With a sense of the possible and with encouragement from adults, children persist even with difficult tasks. Then they practice until acts become automatic.

NEEDS OF CHILDREN IN THE PRESCHOOL YEARS
Agreat concern with preschool children is how to prepare them for school. But children during the preschool years should not be hurried. It is through their play, language, and social interaction that they acquire skills, which will allow them later success in school. These foundations will develop when children are presented with tasks at which they can succeed. They must not be forced to cope with material that is too hard.

During the preschool years children need:
•Rich and varied experiences and hearing the words to match these experiences.
• Exposure to language models appropriate for their cultural and linguistic group.
• Conversational experiences to learn the give-and take of communication with opportunities to ask questions.
• Books and other printed material read aloud to them for exposure to new objects, actions, events, and ideas through listening.
•Opportunities to play with speech sounds to develop a sense of phonological awareness—knowledge that words have an internal structure of speech sounds.
• Play with blocks and puzzles to refine visual discrimination of shape, direction, and position as precursors to developing an awareness of printed letters.

   • Activities for developing a sense of number and a vocabulary of size, space, and quantity.
• Manipulation of implements (crayons, fingers, paints, pencils, pens) to make marks on paper.
•Activities that encourage sustaining attention—reading time, play with others, craft projects.

Stimulating Speech and Language

• Say “no” without long explanations.
• Be sure your child understands language before he is expected to carry out the request or command.
•Talk to your child while you are doing activities such as eating, bathing, and playing. Continuing to
feed in language means that he will develop vocabulary and verbal concepts.
• Say words many times for names of things that can be pointed to such as  

            a.) body parts (including elbow, neck and knee afte eyes, nose, mouth)
            b.) common objects (toys, furniture, eating utensils)
            c.) parts of objects (sleeve of shirt, laces on shoes,button on coat, handle of cup)

•Teach verbs associated with eating, bathing, play time, and other daily activities (eat, drink, chew; swallow, cough, sneeze, yawn; splash, spill; roll, hit, pat, throw).
• Use the correct verb forms to talk about an experience that will happen. After it is over, say that it happened. (“We will walk to the store.” “We are walking.” “We walked to the store”).
•Teach words for feelings (happy, and sad, but also angry or mad, disappointed, scared, worried, excited, tired, etc.) Having words tied to both negative and positive feelings replaces striking out, whining, or engaging in a high activity level of excitement that can lead to tears.
•Teach common adjectives (as  hot-cold, big-little, hard-soft, rough-smooth, etc.).
• Begin work on matching answers to question words (who? what? how many? where? why?). When the question word who is used, the answer must be the name of a person. Where requires a location. The goal is to establish that a certain question word requires a certain kind of response.
•Teach prepositions. Say the sentences at the same time the action occurs.
•Teach the language of manners, discipline, taking turns, and seeking help.
•Vary the questions for the type of response required: single word, phrase, or sentence. Don’t ask all questions requiring yes or no or one-word replies once children are able to use more than oneword answers.

•Teach meanings of first and last visually (first thin in line, first picture in a row) with objects and pitures that he can see. Then teach words (as  fir name,  first word in sentence, or  first word in  story) as the child listens.
• Do not try to teach or correct language when she is the midst of communicating, when she is tellin something of importance. During these times, communication is more important than correctness.