What do babies and toddlers learn in preschool? Social-emotional skills, reading, writing–even math and science! Babies are terrific observers, with brains that are as elastic and expanding in ways they will not experience quite the same way again for the rest of their lives.
PLNY Blog
Should I be looking at schools? This is New York City, after all, and there are so many options to consider. But remember: preschools typically do not accept children until they are 2 years or older. Yet so much happens during that special period before your little one is ready for formal schooling.
Research tells us that many adults believe that literacy begins at 2 years of age, often when the child is beginning to use understandable speech. However, much development has happened prior to 2 years of age so that the child is able to utter understandable words. From the moment of birth, the baby instinctively responds to language, eye contact, touch.
Children learn about their world and their place within it in many different ways. Nursery school is an excellent source of social and emotional learning (as well, of course, as many other kinds of learning). Children explore relationships; they also observe relationships. They experiment with behavior and they watch other children behaving … and misbehaving.
When I was asked to write an article on what it takes to run a good child care program for children under the age of five, I thought “What an impossible question. I want to answer it!”