Preschoolers Chapter 4 Summary

Chapter four introduced the different developments preschoolers are experiencing and how to adapt teaching to each development. For example, it said that because toddlers are undergoing lots of physical development a majority of their day needs to be active learning. The different developments chapter four talked about were physical development, social and emotional development, cognitive development, and language and literacy development. I agree that teachers need to use these developments to teach the children. What is the point of teaching if nothing is getting through? When teachers use the children’s weaknesses and strengths to teach they are going into the child’s world and by doing so can give that child a better understanding of the

real world.
Something I still don’t understand is why people doubt the need for preschool. If parents looked into the psychology behind preschool they would understand the benefits it gives their children. They would also learn how much effort and thought teachers put into every activity. They would also have someone to help find their child’s weakness and strengths and improve on each.
Both chapter four of Developmentally Appropriate Practice and chapter two of Preschool Guidelines helped to answer my big question. One of the reasons I chose my big question was because I knew it had lots of different answers. Chapter four taught that preschoolers need their teachers to work with their development. For example, to support preschoolers emotional and social development a teacher might have the children work in pairs or groups. In chapter two it taught that preschoolers need the teacher to make learning positive or fun. For example, it said that research showed that children who approached learning in a positive way were more likely to succeed in preschool and elementary school. When I have my own classroom, I will strive to make learning both educational and fun. I want my class to learn while they are young that learning is fun so that as they grow they will look forward to new learning experiences.