Read past storytime features: Robin, David, Terry, Holly, Prany, Amari, Cheryl, Sue and Kathy.

Storyteller: Carie Haley, Franklin Elementary School Pre-K, Merced City School District

I have been teaching pre-kindergarten for 5 years and I have seen how much more prepared the kids are for kindergarten after having gone to preschool.  I especially notice the benefits of preschool in the kids’ language development.  This past year I had a girl who came into my class speaking no English, only Spanish.  I don’t know very much Spanish myself, but I worked closely with the parents to make her feel more confident in class.  I had her in the front of the room during group time to give her more opportunities to speak.  Now she can speak fluent English, it’s amazing.  Her language skills grew so quickly once she was in the preschool environment.

I have also seen the benefits that preschool has for socialization.  I had a boy in my class once who was a foster child.  He had severe behavior problems and would jump off chairs, throw fits and hit people walking by.  We had just implemented a new positive behavior support system and we devised a reward system for his constructive behaviors.  Whenever he did something positive he got a Velcro penny and after 5 pennies he was allowed to choose a prize.  Soon he was doing very well: sitting in group time, participating, sharing stories of his own.  Preschool really helped him learn how to act around other children.

As a teacher I observe the concrete benefits in learning and socializing that come from preschool.  The kids learn early literacy skills such as how to identify letters and sounds that put them ahead once they reach kindergarten.  My youngest child is going into 1st grade and amazingly, we are further in preschool in terms of literacy skills than they are in my kid’s class.  Once kids go through pre-k, kindergarten becomes much less overwhelming and the kids are confident in their work.

Another aspect that is important about preschool is its ability to help children with and without disabilities.  My daughter was diagnosed with autism and we put her into a pre-k program called Language and Learning that only met 3 hours per week.  After that, we tried putting her into a child development program and it solidified everything she had learned before.  She learned to talk and to write and she became social and made friends.  The teachers were so compassionate and open-minded.  They always paid careful attention to each child’s needs.  That’s what makes preschool so effective, the quality of the teachers.  They need to have bachelor’s degrees, it makes all the difference when a teacher knows about child development and can understand why a kid is doing what they are doing.  Teachers also need to work with parents to ensure that the learning experience for the child is a collaborative one.  We sponsor a lot of parent and education nights and we teach parents things about child development.  With the support of parents, a child’s education extends beyond the classroom and into the home.