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The five sensitive periods are: 1. Social relationships and skills; 2. Sensitive period for order; 3. Senses refining; 4. Language; and 5. Movement. Several of these sensitive periods overlap. For example, the sensitive period for social relationships begins at age 2 1/2 and ends around 4 1/2 years of age, while the sensitive period for language has its beginning at birth but extends to age 6.
A developmentally appropriate learning environment for children under the age of 6 requires careful attention and preparation to ensure maximum opportunities that honor these sensitive periods. During the sensitive period for language, for example, children can absorb a language easily and with perfect pronunciation. After age 6 it is much more difficult and is seldom accomplished without an accent.
Preschool aged children are not required to be in school and, for the most part, the opportunity of providing a developmentally appropriate learning environment for all 4-year-olds has been missed. In recent years, however, preparing children for kindergarten has been garnering more support from the standpoint of “readiness.”
The Florida Department of Education (DOE) is responsible for creating performance standards, recommending curricula, providing professional development and educational accountability requirements. Through the Voluntary Pre Kindergarten program (VPK), private providers are permitted to design their own curriculum as long as it meets the Pre-K performance standards to prepare students for the statewide kindergarten screening.
Most of these programs and preschool curriculums approach curriculum from a readiness perspective, or from the top down. A top down approach asks what students need to learn in kindergarten to be prepared for first grade. If children enter kindergarten and are not prepared for the selected curriculum, what baseline standard can we initiate in preschool to ensure they are “ready” for kindergarten?
This is far different from a ground up developmental approach that understands and acknowledges the sensitive periods from birth to age 6, and nurtures them as they arise naturally. In this approach, a kindergarten and/or first grade curriculum would be a natural extension of what children are ready to learn when they enter that level.
Of course, all are agreed that an amount of readiness needs to be in place for a child to acclimate to their learning environment. For kindergarten this means children, the teacher, his/her expectations and the instructional curriculum must be taken into account. Kindergarten teachers provide opportunities for children to work independently and in groups both small and large. They expect them to be able to delay gratification by waiting their turn, finish an activity that they start, pay attention, share and follow simple directions when they are given. Students are also expected to follow rules and respect space and property of others as well as not disrupting the learning environment for the other children.
Children come to kindergarten with a range of motor skills. Many children today have not had the same amount of gross motor opportunities as children of past generations. Today’s children have been very protected during the sensitive period for movement. It is not uncommon for today’s kindergartener to not be able to skip or gallop. Teachers expect children entering kindergarten to have mastered many gross and fine motor skills.
By the age of 5, children should be able to communicate their thoughts and understand stories. Their vocabulary should include an amount of shapes, numbers, colors, etc. For example, a child should be able to use his/her communication skills to ask another child to give him/her back a pencil instead of physically snatching it back.
Readiness also depends on the qualities and expectations of the kindergarten or first grade program in which they will enter. Program differences such as whole language reading versus a phonetic approach, the matching of learning styles, whether the program is geared for group instruction dictated by the teacher, independent choice, or a combination can make a difference on whether a child will be successful.
In conclusion, the preschool years are the most formative and learning is specialized through the sensitive periods. A developmentally appropriate program honors and appreciates how children at this age learn. Children are busy with the task of creating their conscious minds. Through the sensitive periods, they absorb information like a sponge. Only when an individual is ready can the point of consciousness occur. It can’t be forced, predicted or hurried.
While expectations of readiness would have to take into account behavioral criteria to maintain a non disruptive learning environment, a developmentally appropriate program would have curriculum with a scope and sequence that allows for the children to work at their own level and at their own pace. Expectations of teachers and curriculum restraints should neither over nor underestimate the ability of children during these sensitive periods.
By Christina Miller