Educators Articles: Teach Them When They Are Ready to Learn

From Our Educators

Teach Them When They Are Ready to Learn

Debra Hasbrook, M.Ed.

04/16/2015

I walked into a four year old classroom environment that was beautifully done and filled with developmentally appropriate materials and equipment. The teacher was warm and engaging. Unfortunately as the day progressed the children spent most of that their time sitting at the table doing worksheets or in teacher directed activities. Even their outdoor recess was teacher directed, with a short free play time. In many classrooms this is becoming the norm instead of the exception.

The latest trend in Early Childhood education is to put information into the small child’s brain, creating learning outcomes and assessing what they have learned. We need to continue our focus on physical and emotional development first. Children will have thirteen years to master academic skills. Presenting information and expecting every child to internalize it before they are ready is frustrating for both the child and teacher.

Maria Montessori observed that children learn specific skills more easily during what she called “sensitive periods.” This means that a child must be ready developmentally to learn a specific skill for the information to be understood and mastered. A child that leads the inquiry and directs the pace of learning will learn more and retain more.

You have probably seen this in the children you care for, but may not have understood what it meant or how to support their learning. The early talker, the early walker, the child who is obsessed with letters and learns them almost on their own, the child that spends long periods of time taking things apart and trying to put them back together. A child may be interested in practicing a skill over and over, and then move on to something else. When you see this happening it is time to support their skill practice by providing materials and equipment that are relevant to their learning.

It is important to remember that a child may be delayed in one area, and take off in another. I know a two and half year old girl who was speech delayed. Then out of the blue she became obsessed with learning the letters of the alphabet. Her teacher recognized this and as she supported learning the alphabet, she encouraged language development. The two skills supported each other and the child felt successful and challenged at the same time.

This idea supports intentional teaching. Don’t let the busyness of day, the schedule that must be kept, and the paperwork that must be filled out distract you from meeting the learning needs of each student in your class. Provide more learning activities that are play-based and supported by the teacher instead of teacher directed activities that take the place of play based learning. It’s ok to introduce a variety of topics, to scaffold learning and encourage pre-kindergarten basics. Just remember to watch your students for the opportunities when this information will be relevant and understood.