Who is a child’s best teacher?
British author, Hilary Wilce, is proud to report that an American program, Parents as Teachers, helps parents get their children ready for school- by becoming their first teacher. This ground-breaking program, which originated in Missouri* around 1984, is showing spectacular results.
Did you know that parents are their children's best teacher? Parents need to start at home whether their children will attend public, private, or home school. Here’s why:
- Parents give their children an educational leap by being their first teacher.
- When parents are involved, children do better than their peers in math and reading.
- Usually their social and language abilities are also more advanced.
- Parents give emotional support along with cognitive stimulation, the two key factors in maximizing intelligence.
- A child's brain takes in more learning when s/he feels secure at home.
- The best educational investment is prevention with parental preschool.
- The years from ages 2 to 5 are critical to a child's learning capacity, imagination, and IQ.
- Public education is in a quandary. Parents are the solution.
This system seems deceivingly simple. It helps parents give their children an educational leap by assisting them in their role as ‘first teacher’. Parents choose to get a monthly personal visit from a trained PAT worker, as well as the opportunity to join in group meetings with other parents.
The results are ‘brilliant’. In the US, where PAT is now available in every state, research has shown that children who have been in the program do better at math and reading than their peers. Teachers also feel that the social and language abilities of PAT children are more advanced.
At each monthly visit, the trained PAT project worker chats with the mother about her preschool child, checks off his developmental milestones, and gives her suggestions about how she can enhance this stage of her child's growth.
The PAT worker also provides a listening ear for the aggravations and dilemmas of parenthood. Thus the program helps parents give their children cognitive stimulation and emotional support, two of the key factors in maximizing intelligence.
The latest neuroscience is now inserted into these plans, too. So workers can tell parents what's happening with their children's brains, and why it's important to do the things suggested. The brain also takes in more learning when a child is secure and has food, sleep, and warmth.
Training programs for educators are held in St Louis, MO. It has been so successful that from there it spread across the United States. About 1991, PAT even spread to England (and at least 16 other countries), which recognized the fact that the best educational investment it can make is in the preschool years, spending money on preventing educational problems, rather than on expensive remedial cures (that rarely work).
All of this just shows that good parents are usually proactive in stimulating their children’s minds and providing safe havens at home. They practice purposeful parenting.
(Note: I applaud PAT for helping at-risk children, but my message is that proactive parents don't need this extra help. They do it on their own with The Godfrey Method. The main point is that parents are their child's best teacher, and that preschool is not the best option for most children. Your children are not severely at-risk. How do I know? You are reading this. Your kids need you, not a teacher.
Knowing that the years from ages 2 to 5 are critical to a child's learning capacity, imagination, and IQ - and public education may be in a quandary - now more than ever, parents need to find ways to teach their children to read at home before kindergarten. They need to give their children the best foundation possible without relying on, nor waiting for, public education to do it.
Brain growth can be speeded by increasing the frequency, intensity and duration of that stimulation, according to Dr. Glenn Doman and The Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential. The process of brain growth can be speeded through the increase of visual, auditory and tactile stimulation, in recognition of the orderly way in which the brain grows.
It can further be enhanced by creating the ideal environment for mobility exploration, language development, and manual competence, and by providing the maximum opportunity to use that ideal environment. Dr. Doman’s methods include using flashcards with young children to teach Bits of Intelligence®, which will be discussed in Volumes 3, 4, & 9 of It's Not Rocket Surgery!
[We strongly suggests, however, that parents NOT use whole-word flashcards until after phonics (Godfrey Method picture-letter phonics cards) is mastered, and the words have been sounded out many times first!]
The Teaching Philosophy of The Institutes for AHP:
- Learning is a joyous process.
- Children love to learn.
- They can learn absolutely anything that can be taught to them in an honest, factual, and joyous way.
- In order for teaching to be effective, it must always be a joyous process.
- Parents know and love their children more than anyone else does.
- They are the best teachers for their own children.
- Parents are the answer, not the problem.
You, mom and dad, are the key!
http://thegodfreymethod.com/blog/head-start-8-reasons-you-are-your-childs-best-hope
No comments:
Post a Comment