Do children need preschool before entering kindergarten?

As your baby grows older, education is certainly one of the inevitable needs. The decision in determining children's education is of course an important thing because it involves their future. Which school is the best, what curriculum is provided, and what often makes parents confused - is early childhood education (PAUD) aka preschool (pre-school) required?

Along with the development of the times, preschool education is certainly no stranger to your ears. Many parents send their children to paud schools before letting their children enter higher levels. But the question is, how important is the school of paud alias pre-school?

Early childhood education (PAUD) is carried out during the golden age of child development

Todd Grindal, an education expert from the Harvard Graduate School of Education said that children need to develop strong, healthy brains. He explained that the experiences that children get at an early age will greatly influence their lives in the future. This has to do with the fact that a child's brain will reach 90% of the size of an adult's brain by the age of five, therefore, the first years of their life are very important.

Support Todd statement, American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) also states that quality early education is very important in helping the development and learning process of children. This early childhood education includes children's experiences at home, children's experiences at daycare, and children's experiences in the preschool environment.

When entering the world of preschool, for example in the old school, children will be exposed to numbers, letters, shapes, and more importantly, they learn how to socialize — make friends with peers, share, and contribute in groups. Children are put in preschool or early childhood school or pre-kindergarten will have better reading skills, richer vocabulary, and better basic math skills than those who do not.

The advantages of getting a child into a paud school

Broadly speaking, preschool education helps child development in the following areas:

1. Academic achievement

Research shows that preschool education has an effect on increasing academic gain at school age, decreasing the likelihood of remaining class, and increasing graduation rates at the senior secondary level. A quality paud school can provide benefits for children.

2. Readiness of children to enter school

A large-scale study shows that the quality of preschool education affects children's readiness to enter the next level of education. These positive effects include improved scores on each test, the ability to read and count early on, and good social and emotional development.

3. Emotional development

Nobel Laureate James Heckman, an economist from the University of Chicago noted that one of the most important long-term effects of early childhood education is the development of children's emotional and social skills. This ability makes a person able to interact effectively, well, and correctly with others.

At paud school or pre0-school, children will be taught to know themselves, explore the environment, play with their peers, and build self-confidence. They will learn that they can do small things independently. In addition, through quality early childhood education, children will be taught to answer their curiosity about the outside world through exploration, experimentation, and conversation.

4. Social development

Heckman's research shows that early childhood education is the perfect time to teach 'soft ' skill to the child. Skills that can be taught include the ability to focus on a specific goal, be open-minded, and control emotions — things a person needs to be successful in the world of work.

In addition, preschool education can also reduce the dependency rate of a person in the future and the possibility of someone being involved in criminal acts. Research from the Ounce of Prevention Fund shows that children at risk who do not receive quality early education are 25% more likely than their peers to drop out of school and 70% more likely to be detained for violence.

How important is it to get children to school for paud orpreschool?

As a parent, of course you have a lot of considerations to get your child into a paud school. Consideration of cost, can be one of the most frequently encountered. The soaring price of education is certainly a problem that cannot be denied. Many parents then begin to wonder, is preschool education a necessity or a "necessity"? Is not the children also can learn what they learn on pre-school, at home?

A meta-analysis of 123 studies in 2010 demonstrated the far-reaching and long-lasting benefits of preschool education. Some of these advantages include:

improve achievement at higher school levels
increasing graduation rates at the high school level
improve the development of social skills
improve emotional development of children

In this study it was also found that although there was a slight decrease in the impact of pre-school education on children, on average, this impact did not completely disappear and remained an important fundamental thing for children.

Conclusion

In the end, the conclusion to send your child to pre-school or not in your hands. However, the most important part of preschool education is education that is carried out to develop children's social and emotional abilities. Children need to learn how to interact with adults in addition to their parents and peers.

They need to learn how to solve a problem, be independent, share and communicate. While formal education hones children in academia, pre-school education equips children with emotional and social intelligence. So, if you can give your child the best possible chance, why not?