Teacher Interaction Key to Pre-K Success: Study

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Teacher Interaction Key to Pre-K Success: Study

Kids spending most time in free-choice play make fewer gains, researchers find.

THURSDAY, Sept. 16 (HealthDay News) -- Interaction with teachers plays a crucial

role in pre-kindergarteners' development of language and math skills, especially

for children from low-income families, finds a new study.

U.S. researchers looked at more than 2,700 children in public pre-k programs in

11 states and categorized the children according to how they spent most of their

time in the classroom, including free-choice play or individual or group

teacher-directed activities that focused on areas such as early literacy

instruction and the development of fine motor skills.

Children who focused on free-choice play spent little time on academic

activities and made smaller gains in language and math than the children who

took part in teacher-directed activities. More than half of the children in the

study spent the majority of their time in free-choice play.

The findings suggest that free-play activities may not be best for children's

early development, the researchers said.

The study authors also found that children from low-income families who received

individual instruction from teachers made greater gains in language and math

skills than those who spent most of their time in other activities. This

supports the belief that poor children do better in programs that focus on

learning and provide more individual instruction.

The study is published in the September/October issue of the journal Child

Development.

" If early childhood education is to level the playing field by stimulating

children's academic development, more quality instructional time spent with

teachers and less free-play time without teacher guidance may prepare children

better for starting kindergarten, " Nina C. Chien, a postdoctoral fellow in

pediatrics at the University of California, San Diego, said in a news release

from the Society for Research in Child Development. " Our work has implications

for policy and practice. "

More information

The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association offers parents activities to

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(SOURCE: Society for Research in Child Development, news release, Sept. 15,

2010)