Most teachers persist in using highly structured teaching methods with pre-school pupils and in trying to teach academic skills for which young children are not prepared. This is the case because many teachers teach as they were taught or in ways that students' parents and relatives want. But researchers find these practices dangerous, and stress…

This paper contends that a person's readiness for academic learning should be based on his/her developmental readiness, not on chronological age requirements. Human beings develop at their own neurological rates (biological clock). The paper first cites research on a "sensitive learning period" in which learning is mastered in a more efficient…

The appropriate age for starting school is discussed in relation to the ideas of Piaget, Hunt, and Moore. (SB)

Noting a developmentally inappropriate trend toward earlier instruction in mathematics, a study examined the effects of a systematic, process-based, developmentally appropriate program for the development of number readiness in Indian kindergarten (preschool) children aged 4 and 5. An experimental group of 20 children received the process-based…

The Early Childhood Prekindergarten Assessment Instrument is a criterion referenced approach designed to help locate the child along a developmental curriculum sequence. Certain skills are analyzed according to auditory, visual, motor, and verbal learning processes, and determine what level the child has attained prior to entering school. Along…