Early bird learning: Learning for the under 5s

Within the last week there have been several reports about schooling and whether children under 5 should attend school.

Evidence from the Cambridge-based Primary Review suggests that starting age does not have a strong positive impact on attainment. Another research project by the National Foundation for Education Research (Nfer) found that early starting ages did not necessarily help a child’s achievement in school.

Other European countries like Finland and Denmark actually have later starting ages of seven and achieve some of the top scores in educational statistics. However some people are against such late starting ages as they believe the younger child can gain from learning through more formal education.

I believe that the main focus for not having an early starting age should not be on education but on a child’s morals and values. These are the skills we should be taking time to educate our children on, helping a child to understand and believe in respect, responsibility, and being happy.

Often in today’s society a lot of emphasis is placed upon children reaching high educational standards, but it is a worrying fact that often young people are in the news for all the wrong reasons.

Various people then point fingers toward what they consider to be the problem: the young people themselves, alcohol, parenting, education, lack of policing, etc

I think these early years can be spent helping a child to develop social skills, communication, understanding of others and how to have fun to name but a few.

The last point ‘how to have fun’, relates not necessarily to how the child is at five, six or seven years of age but what happens to them when they get older. If we can help children of a young age develop confidence in themselves and their abilities through communicating with others from an early age then this child will be much happier later on in life.

I mention this having worked with hundreds of children for many years and have seen how children of different ages can become easily caught up with worries they don’t need to have provided they are equipped with the necessary understanding and skills of how to communicate with others. Not all children have these skills in as high a abundance as others and as a result find themselves often unable to deal with certain situations as well as they could.

The reason for this is varied and complicated, it could be to do with parental up-bringing, our ever changing society, and what they think and feel about themselves. All these factors influence one another, and for some children it may impact upon how they interact with others.

With the teaching of some simple skills many children could develop and improve.

These skills can also impact upon educational achievement. For example if a less confident child develops their confidence they may then ask more questions in class and as a result learn more.

So I believe that we should begin to focus not so much on education but on developing our morals, values and social skills and understand respect for others and ourselves.

All of this can be achieved by children, and in many respects it will be easier whilst their minds are still fresh and they are still developing and open minded. If we teach them these basic skills early on they will be more open and receptive to the traditional education curriculum.