06/08/2023
Every early childhood educator I know and have talked to about this topic has expressed frustration with the fact that administrative policies are forcing them to teach age-inappropriate, developmentally-inappropriate academics.
And I work, as an occupational therapist, alongside a clinic of psychologists, speech-language pathologists, other OTs, physical therapists, and developmental pediatrics, in a setting that has been absolutely drowning in referrals for children struggling to meet expectations and struggling with mental health.
Why are we doing this to our kids??
[Image description: A four-panel image by . In each of the four panels, there is text and a woman reacting to the text with an expression on her face of exasperation or frustration, like “What, why??”. The first panel reads, “Children are taught sight words in preschool yet the visual word form area of the brain doesn’t develop until 6-7 years old.” The second panel reads, “Children are taught grammar in kindergarten yet they have minimal meta-linguistic skills at that age.” The third panel, “Young children are expected to provide multiple ways to solve a math problem despite the fact that their executive functioning systems aren’t yet developed enough to provide multiple sequencing scenarios.” The fourth panel, “And we wonder why we are seeing so much anxiety around school in our children these days.” End description.]
