As a parent, it’s important to know that the education program you choose for your infant will produce real and lasting benefits. You need to be sure that the lessons you give won’t be a waste of time, or even have a negative effect.
While many in the field of child psychology are excited about the ease and speed with which babies and small children can learn skills associated with reading, math and music, for example, other child experts believe it is unnatural or even dangerous to introduce such lessons before children begin school.
In this article, we look at the most common arguments levied against baby education. As you will see, many of them are based on incorrect assumptions
“Giving lessons to young children is stealing their childhood from them”
This argument is based on the assumption that lessons are being substituted for the child’s normal activities – i.e. play. The critics assume that teaching a baby is the equivalent of sending her to school for several hours each day.
In fact, lessons for babies run no longer than five to ten minutes. More importantly, babies don’t see the difference between learning and playing. Nothing is more fun for a baby than learning something new!
“Forcing children to learn makes children hate learning”
This is a classic case of grown-ups projecting their issues onto the younger generation. Plenty of us can remember being forced to pay attention to boring lessons at school, or worse still, being disciplined for our failure to do so.
Small children carry none of the baggage that comes from being sent to school; they harbor none of the fear and apprehension that come from enduring quizzes, tests and examinations. And since babies’ brains are hardwired to learn, babies are the most eager students in the world. We’ve all the experience of our mind going blank when forced to remember something. When children are not tested, they find retention effortless.
Teaching babies and small children requires zero coercion. An enjoyable lesson is a successful lesson, and it is our job as parents to follow our child’s lead and be sensitive to her needs. Begin a lesson when your child is in a receptive mood, and end it before she begins to lose interest. Before you know it, she’ll be looking forward to that special time you spend together – and probably asking you to extend her lessons!
“Early learning produces no long-term benefits”
According to the critics, the benefits of, say, learning to read before starting school wear off by about the third grade. While this is a matter for some debate, the US’s Center for Public Education believed the evidence for the long-term benefits of having children attend pre-kindergarten programs was strong enough to include in its March 2007 synthesis of research on the effectiveness of such initiatives.
Citing the results of various research studies, the report says, “[C]hildren from [Michigan’s] pre-k program had higher pass rates on the fourth-grade literacy and math tests compared with non-participants.” The difference was 24 percent for literacy and 16 percent for math. The report goes on to cite the following results from other states:
“Attendance: New York found statistically significant effects, with higher attendance of pre-k children at fifth and sixth grades. Maryland documented similar effects at tenth grade.
Standardized tests: Texas found statistically significant gains for pre-k students in third grade, while Maryland documented similar impacts in reading and math at fifth, eighth and ninth grades. New York found gains for former pre-k children in reading and math at sixth grade.
Retention: Maryland, Michigan, and Florida all found gains for former pre-k children, with Maryland documenting progress at fifth, eighth, and tenth grades.”
“Learning ‘academic’ subjects at an early age hampers children’s ability to learn social skills”
We put “academic” inside quotation marks, because babies and small children do not perceive reading or math as academic subjects, any more than they perceive learning to speak their native language (arguably, their biggest challenge) as an academic subject.
As the critics believe that “lesson time” will take away from playtime, they believe children will miss out on acquiring valuable social skills. We have already mentioned that lessons for babies hardly impinge on their playtime. More importantly, they are a great source of regular and positive interactions between parents and children. As every child expert knows, such interactions form the basis for small children’s emergent social skills.
“Unless children learn phonics, they’re not really reading”
This is a funny old criticism – why criticize the method if it brings you to the correct answer? And yet, it’s one that’s often repeated. Successful reading in English involves more than just knowing phonics – otherwise, how would we ever get over the irregular spelling of words such as “through”? Besides, languages like Chinese are devoid of phonics in the written language, yet no one accuses their readers of not reading properly!
Educators such as Glenn Doman and Robert Titzer, as well as parents who have taught their baby or small child to read, attest to the fact that children who start reading early soon begin filling in the gaps – and understanding phonics all by themselves. This is very similar to the way in which children come to understand grammar rules without ever being formally taught them
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And finally…
Got a concern not addressed here? Share it with us by emailing the Editor, and help us to grow the debate!
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