“How old is she?”
“She is two years old, didi.”
“Now it is the time to send her to preschool.”

“This early? But I was thinking that I would send her when she turns three. Why should I rush her with the preschool? They do nothing in preschool either. Just eating and sleeping, and that my child can do at home too.” 

I just said “hmmm” and hung up the phone. This was the telephone conversation between me and my relative about sending her two-year-old daughter to preschool. Both the parents are working and are very busy. They have a maid who looks after the kid.

After a few days, I got one of the enquiries for my preschool. The parents visited the school. They liked it and said their daughter is just 2.5 years and they did not want her to be in the playgroup but instead wanted her to be rushed to Nursery where she could read and write to prepare for some renowned formal school. I talked about the age milestones with the parents and they chose another preschool.

Some days ago I was going through some internet articles and saw a link of a national daily where the reporter had mentioned about the preschool age and how kids are being rushed by preschools to get into reading and writing before the age of three. He also talked about delaying the preschool age and having them at home till the age of three.

In all these instances, we are actually worried about the future of our children. I believe not a single parent want to do it wrong. Here I just want to share few research articles so that the things are clearer to us so that we can make the right decision. 

So let’s talk about the early childhood and its importance in a child’s life .According to a research paper by Geraldine French, it is defined as the period before compulsory schooling; in Ireland the early childhood period extend from birth to six years and in Nepal the early childhood stage extends from birth to eight years (Early Childhood Development handbook, 2062). 

But only three and four years of age are included in early childhood program in the government curriculum. Five years and above is formal schooling and no specific instructions are given about the years below the age of three. The Centre on developing child at Harvard University has shown that early year experiences and environment have larger impact on learning, behavior and health relative to their experiences at school or beyond. 

Vocabulary is the basis of language learning and language learning is the precursor of mathematics learning. Vocabulary building can be simply done by reading books, singing songs, dramatic plays, telling stories and talking to the children. These days’ parents are busy and working; taking out quality time for themselves and their kids is a luxury. It becomes difficult for them to keep pace with all the child’s developmental needs along with work and home chores. The caregivers at home are not qualified enough to provide stimulations to brains. 

The early brain makes 1 million neural connections at the age between 1-3 years. The brain is more active and 80 percent of the brain development takes place during this age. We just can’t let go of this golden period of brain development without any intervention. The simple example of the effect of environment is shown by the differences in the size of children’s vocabulary which first appear at 18 months of age, based on whether they were born into a family with high education and income or low education and income. 

By age three, children with highly educated parents or primary caregivers had vocabularies two to three times larger than those whose caregivers are not educated. By the time these children reach school, they are already behind their peers unless they are engaged in a language-rich environment early in life. High quality preschool focuses on early childhood years and their holistic development can have powerful long-term impacts.

I think no parent would like to take away this opportunity from their child. So the best tagline for when to preschool would be ‘sooner is better’. Choice is yours. Take it or break it. I highly suggest the parents to admit their children to preschools at the age of 18 months or two years.

Sharma is the Principal at Kids Care International Preschool, Jhamsikhel.