It is fashionable. Advancing stages or accelerating the acquisition of certain skills is an aspiration that many mothers and fathers they have in mind thinking that with this, they are going to give the world brighter and more suitable children for this competitive and tremendously demanding society.
Somehow, it is as if we immerse our children in that world of "Alice through the looking glass" where the Red Queen indicated to the girl that to survive in her world it was not enough to run, "she had to run faster" to stand out from the rest. However… Do we thereby guarantee that our children are actually better than the rest? Furthermore ... will we get those students to achieve good academic results? In "Mothers today" we talk about this interesting topic so topical.
The consequences of advancing stages and accelerating skills
Not long ago some of us were surprised at the current goal of many families British: getting 5-year-olds to acquire the literacy process early. The idea is that at the age of 6, children go through entrance tests that will guarantee them the most select and elitist education in the United Kingdom, so that with this, they supposedly have a guaranteed future.
The parks in many London neighborhoods have been emptied of preschool-age children because "they are preparing their exams." It is a somewhat frightening fact, especially if we consider that they are being deprived of something recognized by all world organizations: the right to freedom. childhood.
The risks of advancing stages
The case of the United Kingdom is not something isolated. At present, there are many preschool or infant centers that seek to accelerate the reading-writing process, in addition to various notions mathematics. No more coloring notebooks, doing puzzles, getting dirty in the yard or planting lentils in empty yogurts to see how the plants grow day by day. Now there is a rush, now it is forbidden to leave the line or simply enjoy that stage in which you do not worry about anything and look skeptically when mom tells us that she is stressed.
Now, we have 5-year-olds with stress and anxiety. However, let's see what possible consequences have the fact of accelerating certain stages in children:
- Our children's brains will not be fully mature until they are 6-7 years old.. This is when all neural networks are covered by myelin, when the electrical impulse is strongest and information can be transmitted more quickly.
- Until then, a child's brain is purely receptive and learns by discovery not by imposition.
- There is no use accelerating or trying to integrate knowledge if there are no neurological structures prepared to receive that learning. A child who does not yet control fine motor skills, who has not yet acquired any type of laterality or that his right hemispheres are not yet ready to decipher letters, sounds and graphics, he will hardly be able to assume the reading process.
- Nor can we forget something essential: a stressed brain is not receptive to learning. If we subject these children to such situations early, it is most likely that they will condition the academic world to fear and pressure that they are not yet ready to take on.
Introducing intellectual content early delays intellectual development
It may seem somewhat shocking to us, but The fact of introducing intellectual content early not only does not guarantee the child's academic success, but also interferes with their intellectual development. What is the use of skipping stages if we have not yet integrated the previous ones? It is like someone who wants to put the roof on a house without first having built the walls.
Walter gilliam is director of the Center for Childhood Studies at Yale University. In his own experience, children who had studied in pre-schools where the acquisition of reading, writing and mathematical notions had accelerated, had dropped out in the upper cycles of education.
Accelerating stages is not synonymous with success, not if the child does not need it, as would be the case with children with high capacities, who, in addition to that intellectual support adapted to their interests, must always be accompanied by good Emotional Intelligence strategies.
Advance intellectual processes before academic
Let us now differentiate between two essential terms: intellectual and academic processes. While the latter would encompass, for example, instrumental areas such as language and mathematics, the intellectual processes reflect another much more interesting and beneficial reality:
- Curiosity
- The discovery
- Infer relationships
- Understand other points of view
- To make conclusions
- Control frustration
- Improve attention
- Enhance imagination and creativity
- Develop critical sense
All these processes are the ones that really stand out as truly useful when transmitting to a child so that they can integrate them at their own pace but early. This is where the true "substrate" is found that tomorrow will be able to allow a good academic learning.
The pleasure of stepping out of the box
A child who is forced to read and write at age 5 is a child who learns early what frustration is. Above all, he is a student who is going to see with terror everything that his future will bring him: more pressure, more stress, family disappointments and, above all, fear. No one can grow up in fear, no one can do their best if they are brought up with fear.
- Let the children go out of the way when they paint and, above all, respect what nature dictates: its rhythms.
- We must understand that each child is unique and exceptional. There will be those who, indeed, do benefit from the advancement of the stages because that is how their brain clock marks it, their maturation. To do this you have to be intuitive and receptive and above all, fight in an academic and school environment that has the bad habit of educating equal children to give the world similar people educated in the mold.
It is not the right thing to do. In Finland, always a benchmark in education, children enter school at the age of 7. Before, they have had time to grow at their own pace through play and the pleasure of enjoying their early childhood. Later, they will be evaluated qualitatively, not quantitatively.
We must ensure the harmonious and comprehensive development of our children, respecting times and looking only for their happiness, not for the demands of society itself.