– Ritesh Rawal, founder, Dudes & Dolls World, Adhyay School and Ritesh Rawal Foundation

If you are seeing, you are feeling, you are hearing, you are writing, you are reading, you are deciding, you are thinking, all this is your brain in action. 95% of our brain develops during the first five years of our life.

From the neuroscience research in brain development, three factors influence children’s brain development and their development overall. The first one is Genes: We all start our life with a genetic blueprint and that’s our starting point. The second one is Experience: Everything you do with your baby from day one helps create that platform for their future development. The third one is Relationships which has a big impact on children’s growth.

For many children, preschool is the first experience in a structured way with teachers and other children.

Here are the reasons your child should attend preschool:

Neuro Connections: During the first five years, the brain is optimized for learning and is capable of extraordinary change. A baby brain can create more than a million new neuro connections every single second. Every time your child experience or learn something new, it detects a change and that change forms connections which help build the foundation of a powerful brain.

Perfect Platform: During the age 0-5 when the brain is at its most active, is when the roadmap of our lives is first designed. Children are natural learning machines. They are born ready to learn. Preschools provide the needed platform to let them explore more and more.

Stronger the foundation, stronger the future: Children who get a really good early childhood education foundation are more likely to have a brighter future.

Pre-literacy Skills: Preschool prepares children for kindergarten and provides a launchpad for a child to get success in school by focusing on pre-maths and pre-literacy skills.

Provides Choices: Children have several choices of activities in preschool. A child who is wandering is encouraged to choose the one that interests him/her.

Teach Empathy: Children learn to take care not only of themselves but of others as well. They grow a sense of self-worth and competence. They learn to find themselves as a resource and help others.

Milestones: It’s very important for parents, especially mothers as they spent most of the time with children, to be aware of the fact that their kids have developmental milestones. This means that by certain ages they are supposed to accomplish certain tasks and be able to do certain things. Preschool helps to recognize your child’s interests and learning pace.

Enhances Skillset: Studies have shown that the human brain is never more receptive than it is during the first 5 years of life. Lots of connections during those years are being made and they do get right down to the level of the neuron. Be it logical skills, leadership skills, or other highly valued skills, these are the skills that kids learn in pre-school by playing together, communicating, and understanding other people’s emotions and empathy. The key to maximizing a child’s potential for growth is to provide purposeful learning opportunities in a nurturing environment.

Preschool gear up everything keeping your child on track, so he doesn’t fall further behind. No matter which path you use for your child, it’s important to know that you have options and that by enrolling your child into the right early education system when he is under 5 years of age, you are making him ready not only for kindergarten but for their entire lifetime.

Also Read:
Teacher-Student Connect Programme: Why it is Indispensable!

Guidelines by ECA to preschools for keeping children engaged during lockdown