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Having come across news of a "New Survey Revealing Two-Thirds of Kindergarten Teachers Say: “Children Are Not Adequately Prepared for School”, we wanted to know more.

The survey, conducted with more than 500 kindergarten teachers across the country, reveals that America’s kindergarten teachers believe most young children are unprepared for school when they enter kindergarten, and veteran kindergarten teachers believe that this situation is deteriorating.

Interestingly in some countries, kids do not start school of any kind until 6 or 7, yet produce some of our greatest scientists, athletes and artists alike. Age when kids enter full time school in other countries :

Age 4

Northern Ireland

Age Five

United States, England, Malta, Netherlands, Scotland, Wales

Age 6 Six

Austria, Belgium, Cyprus2, Czech Republic, Denmark3, France, Germany, Greece4, Hungary5, Iceland, Republic of Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg6, Norway, Poland7, Portugal, Romania8, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey ,

Seven

Bulgaria, Estonia,Finland, Latvia9, Lithuania, Sweden

When asked, “On average, how well prepared academically would you say children are when they first enter your kindergarten classroom?” two-thirds of teachers (66 percent) stated that students were only somewhat or not at all prepared, and only 6 percent felt that students were very well prepared academically.

We wanted to know what our Experts in Education had to say and this is what Nadine, our Super Nanny and Behaviorol Expert has to say :

The statistics in this article may seem alarming but an important point is being overlooked: academics are not everything, especially at the Kindergarten level. Children at the ages of 4-5 need to learn how to regulate their emotions, share and negotiate with their peers, and learn how to function as part of a group (in the classroom) and as a part of a community (outside the classroom). The suggestions provided in the article for promoting academic learning are very good ones; however, we need to keep in mind that if our 4-5 year olds are not confident, social, and inquisitive little beings, then learning academics won't be easy for them. Furthermore, I find that in my work, many parents do everything for their 4-5 year olds instead of allowing them to problem-solve and try things out on their own, regardless of failure. It is essential that we encourage young children, even as young as 18 months and 2 years old, to try things out on their own (eating, dressing, bathing themselves) and teaching them to seek out adults for help if they need it, instead of doing everything for them. It is only in this way that children will learn how to be independent and tackle everyday issues with confidence and strong will. The academics will be there for them every day when they are in school and during those "teachable moments" with parents and caregivers.

                                                        Nadine Maher, M.Ed., BCBA

SEIT/ABA Therapist

Developmental Delay and Autism Specialist

Family Training Specialist

Nadine can be contacted for a Consultation by e-mail : Nadine@momtomomsadvisor.com

We also asked Miss Christine, a Licensed Teacher currently teaching a class of 1st Graders in New York City and a Mom with two kids in College what her opinion was and this is what she had to say:

The statement that so many children enter kindergarten unprepared is alarming. It brings to mind the longitudinal, language acquisition study (1995) conducted by Betty Hart and Todd Risley that reported a whopping 30 million word gap between the vocabularies of families on the lower social-economic status and those of professional families by age three. There is no doubt that children living in poverty are academically disadvantaged to those who don’t; but, in my years of experience, I noticed that even children of families of higher SES encounter similar problems if they are not exposed to a wide range of written and oral language.

Children are born explorers; their brains act like sponges, absorbing new information incredibly fast. From birth to age 1, children’s’ brains already form millions of millions of synopses which can either support the creation of more or can be lost if not used. This means that every experience a child makes directly influences brain development. A child that is exposed to a wide variety of positive learning experiences from birth on such as a rich vocabulary, social interactions with peers, read-aloud, and hands-on-activities, will more likely make mental connections and organize thoughts, understand written and oral language and become a problem solver. A child deprived of meaningful experiences will not only lack vocabulary but also understanding of the world around it. Subsequently, the gap between vocabulary acquisition of children who are exposed to a rich vocabulary and those who aren’t will only increase during the first years of elementary school.

These kindergarten teachers are not saying that parents have to work on creating a clone of Einstein; they are bringing to light a phenomenon that is widespread across this country: too many young children come to school with no prior exposure to elementary understandings such as simple print concepts (e.g. reading directionality and letters) and basic knowledge in mathematics (e.g. shapes and counting 1-10).

This survey supports my belief as well that children need to be engaged in learning from birth on. The earlier we allow children to understand the world around them, the better they are prepared for school and for life.

Miss Christine is a Licensed Teacher and certified to teach from Pre-K to Grade 7 in New York City and bi-lingual German and English and available to offer private tuition. Special needs children very welcome. Please enquire for details by e-mailing Info@momtomomsadvisor.com

According to the teachers who were surveyed, children entering kindergarten are weakest academically in their knowledge of the alphabet and phonics, with two-thirds of teachers reporting that the majority of children do not know their alphabet when they enter kindergarten.

 Though many early learning researchers cite the crucial importance of a child’s oral language development in relation to future academic success in reading and other subjects, less than 9 percent of responding teachers described the oral language skills of entering students as “very good.”

Many early childhood education experts advocate for preschool and pre-k programs that better prepare children for kindergarten. Of the kindergarten teachers who participated in this survey, 95 percent agreed that preschool attendance is, in fact, “beneficial,” with most of those (75 percent of all respondents) believing it is “very beneficial.”

Teachers were also asked about the value of technology in preparing children for kindergarten.

Seventy-seven percent (77 percent) of respondents view technology as “very useful” or “useful” in this respect. Specific benefits of technology cited most often were engagement, helping children learn the ABC’s, educational games, number recognition, and interactive learning.

Teacher Recommendations

Kindergarten teachers have several recommendations regarding what parents should do to prepare children for entering kindergarten, including the following:

• Actively participate in your child’s education with pre-reading and reading activities, such as reading books together and practicing the alphabet.
• Expose children to new experiences and talk with them about those experiences in order to improve their ability to speak and understand oral language and increase vocabulary.
• Practice identifying numbers and counting with both verbal and written activities.
• Work with children to identify shapes, colors, and objects in the world around them.
• Place children in social settings with other young children so that they can learn together while they also develop manners and the ability to share and be respectful.
• Parents can read Age of Learning’s Special Report to Parents: Preparing for Kindergarten for specific suggestions about how to work with their children to carry out these recommendations at www.ABCmouse.com/PreparingforKindergarten.

Dr. Rebecca Palacios, pre-k teacher of more than 25 years and co-founder of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS), as well as a Senior Curriculum Advisor for Age of Learning, commented: “This survey offers additional evidence for something that teachers of young children know very well—when children have effective academic learning experiences prior to kindergarten, not only are the children more successful, but the kindergarten teachers are then more able to concentrate on making sure their students are well prepared for what they should be learning in first grade. So everyone benefits, all the way through elementary school and beyond.”

Kim Oliver Burnim, 2006 National Teacher of the Year, who has more than a decade of experience teaching kindergarten in a highly diverse setting and is also a Senior Curriculum Advisor for Age of Learning, noted: “Young children are able to learn a great deal if it is presented to them in the right way, in settings where they are encouraged to explore and interact with their environment and engage in active play. As a nation, we would get a huge return on investment by helping every child enter kindergarten prepared.”

And as one surveyed teacher observed about the importance of knowing the alphabet and other basic skills as they enter kindergarten, “Those who don’t are behind from day one.”

The objective of this survey, which sheds light on the significant gap between what children should know when they enter kindergarten and what they do know, is to provide parents with specific suggestions on how to better prepare young children for school during the critical years from birth through age five.

(See www.ABCmouse.com/KindergartenPreparednessSummary for a summary of the survey findings.) The results described above represent the responses of more than 500 kindergarten teachers to an online survey conducted between October 7th and October 23rd. The margin of error for this survey is ±4.3% at a 95 percent confidence interval.

 About Age of Learning, Inc. / ABCmouse.com Early Learning Academy

Age of Learning, Inc. is a Glendale, California, company that has launched a global education initiative intended to provide young children with a strong foundation for future academic success. One of the goals of this initiative is the collection and dissemination of information about early childhood education in the United States and English language learning around the world.

Age of Learning, Inc. is also the creator of the award-winning early childhood education website ABCmouse.com Early Learning Academy®, described by many educators as the most comprehensive early learning curriculum available online. The website has received special recognition from Parents magazine, and has been honored with the 2011 Parents’ Choice Gold Award, the 2011 Mom’s Choice Gold Award, and the 2010 Children’s Technology Review Editor’s Choice Award. Also, the WMA presented ABCmouse.com with the 2010 Outstanding Achievement in Web Development award in two categories—Education Standard of Excellence and the Family Standard of Excellence.

For more information about ABCmouse.com, visit these links:

www.ABCmouse.comwww.ABCmouse.com/AboutUswww.ABCmouse.com/mobile-appswww.ABCmouse.com/lettersongsFacebook: www.facebook.com/ABCmouse

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