Knowing your Preschoolers (Part 1)

As the teacher, the more you understand the children you are trying to teach the better job you can do. Knowledge of what a preschooler can and can't do also leads to less frustration as we understand more about their abilities. With this in mind, I want to provide you with some charactereisitcs of preschoolers. The following are taken from the Walk With Me Coordinator's Handbook, © Faith Alive Christian Resources, www.faithaliveresources.org Used with permission.

Intellectual Characteristics

Children at this age:

• think very concretely and literally, not abstractly or figuratively as youth and adults do; to a preschool child, things are as they appear to be.
• are not capable of reasoning or organizing abstract faith concepts along logical lines.
• learn through their experiences at home, church, preschool, caregivers.
• learn with their whole bodies; love to taste, touch, move, explore, smell, watch, and wonder.
• are just beginning to develop some literacy skills; some can write their own name, recognize the letters of the alphabet, and count to twenty.
• love to use language to please adults; “right answers” do not necessarily indicate comprehension.
• enjoy being told stories and read to; repetition an important way to learn.
• are often easily distracted from staying “on task.”

Tips for Leaders:

• Try for a reasonable balance between times of quiet listening and active, “hands on” participation
• Relate learning to the experiences children already have or to new experiences you can share with them.
• Give your little ones plenty of opportunity to move around.
• Keep games, stories, and other activities short, with transitional periods that enable movement from one part of the room to the other.
• Provide a variety of learning experiences: stories, art, music, words, numbers, group interaction, etc.
• Avoid using figures of speech, symbolism, analogies.
• Remember that each child develops at his or her own pace; nurture each child’s strengths.

Look for social and spiritual characteristics in the next two articles.