Choosing a preschool for your little one is extremely challenging as it carries a long-term effect on your child’s future. Parents emphasise how important high school is, but did you know that your child’s early development years plays a key role in their cognitive development that helps them increase their potential for their elementary years? According to research, Preschool years pave the way for a child’s future school performances. There are several elements to investigate prior to choosing the best, most suited preschool for your child.
Preschool teaching philosophies
One of the first things to look into while searching for a good preschool is their teaching philosophies. There are several teaching methods followed by different preschools such as the Montessori method, the play-based method and so on. Children learn a lot during school years but not at the pace and intensity they learn during the first 6 years of their childhood. A child's brain until the age of 6 captures information twice the rate of an adult brain. Everything that they process and learn is done through play, and this is why it is important to understand that play-based learning will have an enormous impact on the child’s growth and performance. Therefore, make sure they encourage play!
Student teacher ratios
Low student-teacher ratios enable teachers to offer individual attention and support to each child separately and to understand their requirements. Understanding a child’s requirements fosters communication skills, problem-solving skills, cognitive skills and ultimately the overall growth and development of the child. Therefore, while looking for a preschool for your child, make sure to understand how their ratios work!
Qualified and first aid trained teachers
It goes without saying that every preschool requires a qualified set of teachers. Make sure that the preschool you plan to put your kid into, choose to have teachers who carry training in early childhood education. This enables teachers to care better for your child as they are qualified to manage, motivate, communicate, and inculcate the required set of skills to the children. Another vital training requirement that a teacher must possess is first aid training. Preschool teachers care for little kids and it is obvious that kids may fall into an emergency where they require immediate first aid. Make sure your preschool teachers are first aid trained!
Teachers approach towards kids
It is important for a preschool teacher to have a clear know-how on how to approach, treat, and discipline kids. Teachers need to have a positive, patient, and fun-loving mindset at work. This enables them to nurture your kid and solve their concerns. They also need to interact positively to provoke a child’s mind to facilitate deeper thinking. Look into how teachers discipline kids. It is pivotal that teachers discipline kids using a positive approach by patiently explaining and teaching them instead of punishing them. Makes sure that your preschool does not punish kids!
Make sure that the preschool is spacious for your child to explore and learn. Finally, do a site visit and see the space for yourself to gain an understanding on how the preschool operates and how teachers behave with the kids in the preschool. Remember that your child’s development starts here!