HumanBecoming - Preschool Experiences

Preschool Experiences

Technical Characteristics

Children join preschools already having their own differences in personality and temperament that affect their experience in the school system. Personality development research touches on the influence that traits like socialibility and emotional reactivity affect the childrens engagement with activities in classrooms. In early childhood, children experience a period of time where they go through neural blooming. Neural blooming is an explosion of new brain connections (synapses), this is a critical period for children to build foundational skills. During this time of plasticity, endogenous factors like intrinsic motivation and curiosity prove to be essential for developing executive function. It also propels children to explore, use their creativity and experiment with their environment. Temperment and personality research lead us in the understanding that young children differ in behaviors such as self regulation and exploration which affect how they absord learning curricula. The environment and curriculum depicted in the documentary Schools Out: Lessons From a Forest Kindergarten align like matching puzzle pieces, it supports childrens pre-existing internal developmental drives. It encourages children to take risks, explore, self direct use their curiosity and problem solving skills. Children flourish in this approach of education, it supports neural development naturally by letting kids follow their biological needs.

Preschool experiences are an important step in shaping how neural potiential is conveyed. Schools Out: Lessons From A Forest Kindergarten is a clear example of how well an outdoor, free-play environment support childrens social, emotional and cognitive development. In the outdoor school, children spend the majority of their time interacting with nature (e.g., making mud soup, climbing trees, rolling in mud) and eachother (e.g., make believe, collaberative activites, problem solving). Research proves that play like this aids in childrens cognitive and executive functions (Play In Cognitive Development, How Does Play Foster Development?). In these outdoor kindergartens its easy to assume that these children are educationally delayed compared to children in traditional institutions (e.g., American Preschools), considering the fact that they participate in outdoor school from ages 4 through 7. Evidence proves that these Swedish children are able to catch up to the traditional, academically motivated children by age 10. Meaning it is evident that childrens educational development is not impeded by play.

Expected growth trajectory / needs as a function of age

Preschools that put emphasis on exploration, risks and creativity provide support for an important developmental trajectory.

Early childhood (ages 3-5) preschool environments heavily impact childrens executive functions and cognitive development. Children this age benefit from environments that promote imaginitive free play, creativity, and self regulation, very similar to the Swedish preschool depicted in Schools Out.

Middle Childhood (ages 6-11) When children transition to this part of life, skills developed in early childhood make it easier for them to adapt to structured learning environments. Research presents that children who have well development problem solving and self regulation are set up to succeed in more traditional academically focused curricula (Diamond el al, How Does Play Foster Development)

Adolescence (ages 12-18) During this stage, children who were in free-play preschools showed to be as adequet as peers who studied in traditional preschools. Although those children in the free-play preschools were observed to have strengths in creativity and independence.

The information provided directly combats the assumption that academic quickening in childhood is essential for success in adulthood. Rather it sheds light on the importance of creativity and independence.

Ideal conditions to support flourishing

Children need experiences to help them flourish and learn how to grow and learn things about themselves as well as the outside world. Letting children use their imaginations and allowing play time with others helps children to develop their motor and communication skills. In the U.S, there is a tool to help children to learn to build and create called "Rigamig". The Rigamig is a buildable kit with wooden planks, wheels, pulleys, and connectors that help encourage children to be creative, build, and to collaborate. This allows children to use their imaginations while also learning how to share and communicate with others. While in Japan, there is a similar tool called "Anjali", this tool is a bigger tool than the Rigamig.

Expected Variations

In different parts of the world, schooling and trust look different. In Switzerland, preschoolers attend a school called a "Waldkindergarten," a preschool where children experience things independently and have free time, mainly in the woods. These children develop motor skills by doing things on their own and gain the confidence to be independent. In the U.S., preschoolers go to a school in a classroom to learn about many different topics and have only 30-50 minutes to play at recess. This gives kids time to socialize and develop skills outside of class time, but it's not enough time for them to grow and learn how to be independent. Children in Switzerland walk to and from school without any supervision or adults, while in the U.S., adults are always there, walking their kids to and from school. This does not give them enough opportunities to build the self-confidence they will need later in life. (School's Out: Lessons from a Forest Kindergarten)

Threats to flourishing

There is little overlap between EFs and most of what IQ tests emphasize (Diamond et al., 2007)
It has long been suggested that play helps the young practice skills in a low-stakes context, in preparation for later real-world demands (Bock & Johnson, 2004; Groos & Baldwin, 1901; Lillard, 2017a).
Different forms of play acts as crucial learning strategy wherein one practices culturally relevant skills and/or solves challenging problems in a constrained environment. Making something work. Interacting with materials. (Ian Bogost) / Since we think of kids as little science, where they are growing and up doing all sorts of spontaneous actions to try and figure out their surroundings. Having kids play allows them to test out their hypothesis and getting results. When we limit their playtime, we don't see their imaginations being put to use and we give kids exposure to different environmental context to allow them to problem solve.
Other countries such as Japan, make play a priority, issuing around two hours of play time for young kids and letting them work together as far as their imaginations will take them.

Field notes / Observation guide. What signs to look for?

The first notable issue we see especially with the US is how we utilize our educational time for preschoolers. Each kids begins there education journey at around 3 years old. Most schools divide their time with being mostly directed towards our current cirriculum which consist of basic mathematics, rules of our language, and simple historical pieces like holiday significance. While this is important for learning, kids should be having more time geared toward exploring their confined environment. They should interacting with others and using their minds to be creative with their surroundings.
The next issue we see is the types of toys we have. While some provide kids enough to mess around with and provide kids with different ideas, some toys are too simplistic with their purpose and goal of said toy. Kids need toys that can provide them with endless opportunities that can let kids use their imagination to create problems as group to figure out like creating a small structure.
The last issue we see gender based toys. We still see items to play with based off of stereotypical gender roles. This issue creates a ongoing narrative of what each gender should be not what they can become. Something as simple as building blocks should be provided to both groups.