This is the startling finding of a recent study at the University of B.C. They found that only 70% of children entering kindergarten were able to follow instructions or tell a story- basic skills that children need if they are going to learn.
They even went so far as to state that these unprepared schoolchildren cost the Province $400 Billion in lost opportunities and potential.
This report is being used by the business community to press the government to support parental leave, child care and income support policies.
But this is not the only way to support families. Parents need to know how they can help their children be ’school ready’. Parents need to know how to set the scene for learning.
My research indicated that many parents do not know how to help their children develop the foundational learning skills they need to be able to benefit from their schooling. As a result children struggle to learn in school and if they are not helped to develop these basic ‘learning how to learn’ skills they never achieve their full learning potential.
Parents need more than financial support so that they can stay at home with their young children, they need to know what to do with their children when they are home.
One of the steps in my 5 Steps to Success Process is to discover which foundational learning skills a child is lacking. If children do not know how to learn they cannot benefit from the eduction they get in schools.
I knew it was a problem, I just didn’t realize it was such an expensive problem!
