Preschool can dramatically change quality of adult life

HIGH QUALITY preschool programmes can reduce the likelihood of living in poverty, getting involved in crime and taking sleeping pills or sedatives, a conference will hear tomorrow.

The findings have come from the High/Scope Perry Preschool study which began tracking the effects of a preschool programme on a group of children in Michigan more than 40 years ago.

They took a sample of 123 children and randomly assigned almost half of them to a high quality preschool programme. Not surprisingly, participants in the preschool programme significantly outperformed the children who did not receive the education.

But the experiment also found that, by the age of 40, the men who had taken part in the programme were more likely to own their homes, be employed and be raising their own children. They were less likely to be arrested, or to use sedatives, sleeping pills or illegal drugs.

Lawrence Schweinhart, the study’s lead researcher, will outline these findings to Young Ballymun’s early education conference at the Axis Centre in the north Dublin suburb tomorrow.

Young Ballymun, which works to improve the health, education and wellbeing of young people in the area, is running the High/Scope programme.

Its co-ordinator, Antoinette Gibbs, said it differed from some preschool programmes as it emphasised high quality teacher training, low adult/child ratios and strong parental involvement.

She said home visits made a “huge contribution” to better outcomes for children and were being reintroduced in some primary schools after a drift away from this approach.

Ms Gibbs said the value of good quality preschool education went much further than success at school and gave children lifelong skills such as problem solving and conflict resolution. “If you want to change anything, you really have to begin very early,” she said.

The conference will also hear from Betsy Evans, a US behavioural consultant who has been promoting problem solving and conflict resolution techniques for children. Her technique sounds obvious but it “absolutely works”, according to Ms Gibbs.

It involves listening to the children involved in the dispute, asking them to come up with a solution and supporting them as they solve the problem. She said children readily accepted this technique, but adults sometimes found it more difficult, as it meant they had to relinquish some control to the children.

People who used this technique with children also found that it was equally effective with spouses and work colleagues, she said.

youngballymun.org