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Educating the Toddler

© Lucy Appadoo

Before owning my Kumon Study Centre franchise, I would never have thought that children as young as one or two could master the basics of English and Maths. Before researching Montessori education and before having my own baby daughter, I would never have considered toddlers old enough to learn.

As a Kumon Supervisor, I was amazed at how children as young as three displayed genuine skills in Language and Maths. Preschoolers knew how to write, or understood geometry and trigonometry. In learning these difficult tasks, they previously gained a grasp of tracing around letters and numbers repetitively and also 'timed' themselves for the tasks. The quicker they performed the exercises, the more mastery they had over the work.

Other students with difficulties in the basics, such as spelling and handwriting, quickly improved in a matter of weeks, astounding the parents and schools. This proved how understanding the basics of language in terms of spelling, phonics, or the reading of familiar words/phrases/sentences could lead to success in the more difficult work. Tasks needed to be learned in sequence, in order of difficulty. If a child didn't understand an easier concept, then moving on to a more difficult step/concept proved impossible.

Montessori education teaches in sequence, so that children learn particular tasks when they are ready to. These learning tasks come in certain stages of a child's life, known as 'sensitive periods.' Therefore, in the first two years of life, a toddler is sensitive to acquiring the learning of 'movement.' If the toddler misses out on the opportunity to practise movement in that time, then they'll lose this ability after the two-year sensitive period has passed.

During the first three years lies the foundation of the sensitive period of 'language'. Therefore, if language learning or preparation doesn't occur at this crucial time, development later on is lost or delayed. Children are ready to master the basics of language in order to succeed later in life, thus the opportunity is there for them to absorb language.

According to the Herald Sun newspaper, a Federal Government (Australia) report states that children's intellectual level would radically grow by commencing school soon after birth. The Education Department also mentions that early childhood education leads to higher-paid occupations, as well as more success at primary and secondary school.

The Government of NSW is working on a curriculum to teach children from birth to 8 years of age.

A director of Kensington child-care centre believes that child-care workers must be more than just baby-sitters. The policies within the industry do not require workers to show professionalism, which is what toddlers need.