What Does My Child Need? Cognitive Development and Preschool Selection

All young children need preschools that develop the four core developmental areas, at a minimum, to age-appropriate levels. The four core developmental areas are:

• cognitive,
• social,
• emotional and
• physical (including large motor and fine motor).

But as a matter of fit, when should your child's capabilities in these four core areas affect your choice of preschools? The general answer is this: when your child has strengths or weaknesses, and your child's development will be affected by the quantity of coverage or level of difficulty/advancement offered at preschool. To help parents here, we have combined research with pragmatics.

Research very strongly indicates that children who have differing levels of cognitive advancement fare better cognitively, socially and emotionally with instruction of matching, differing levels of difficulty - with more advanced materials when each child is ready. Struggling children also need more time on cognitive tasks to master them. Pragmatically speaking, preschools in fact differ significantly in how committed and capable they are of meeting the needs of children who are not on a "typical" cognitive development trajectory. We strongly recognize that this issue can be trying for parents who really don't want an academic bent in preschool, but whose children will greatly benefit from preschools that vary the cognitive/academic difficulty and time on task for children who need it. Understanding each child's cognitive advancement will help many parents choose a better-fit preschool for their individual children. Cognitive development is covered in the category "Basic Learning Capability" here.

Basic Learning Capability (BLC) is a combination of classic "intelligence" (or I.Q.) and advancement in core cognitive skill areas such as literacy and number/math concepts. BLC is a better predictor of what a child is ready to learn next cognitively than chronological age. Even two years olds show markedly differing advancement and needs in this area, although most won't begin to show the social and emotional effects of a preschool mismatch until ages 3-5. Many preschools determine what materials and activities are available in each classroom by the typical cognitive development of children. Your child may need something different. Research clearly shows long-term cognitive, social and emotional benefits of a great preschool fit for children who are ahead of or behind typical Basic Learning Capability.

Other developmental areas - including but not limited to social, emotional and physical development - are not as clearly researched nor as well developed in educational practice. The education field has a much less rich understanding of how differing child needs should be met with differing levels of advanced learning and/or time coverage in preschool. Pragmatically speaking, preschools do not differ as significantly in meeting differing levels of advancement in social, emotional and physical development as in cognitive (except some extreme weaknesses classified as disabilities). We hope that these categories will be better researched over time and that more preschools will tailor developmental offerings to fit children with differing developmental needs. For now, we are thankful that so many preschools address the non-cognitive developmental areas, even if not yet in tailored fashion. Nonetheless, if your child is extreme in one of these areas - or in another valued content area - you'll want to try to find the best fit that you can.

Remember, the most important question to ask yourself is what major strengths and weaknesses in your child should affect your choice of preschools?