Exploring Minds in the Making

Walking… talking… potty training… counting… writing… early reading skills… Often these are the milestones that we so anxiously await and use to define our child’s development. While it is of critical importance that children achieve these notable milestones and early academic skills, of equal importance are valuable life skills.

If you were asked to describe life today in a few words, what words would you use? Complicated, evolving, busy, connected, hectic.
            To prepare children to function and thrive in the world, we need to nurture and instill valuable life skills even at the youngest ages. Life skills are the building blocks of learning to learn, learning to socially engage, and learning to navigate in the world now and in the future. Acclaimed child development researcher and former president of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), Ellen Galinsky outlines the critical seven life skills children need to acquire.

Children need to learn skills such as focus to help them learn how to determine what is important and demands their attention. With focus comes the critical skill of self-control.  Children need to learn perspective-taking or the ability to be flexible in thinking to problem-solve and understand the intentions of others. Communication is another essential life skill involving more than verbal and non-verbal communication but also the ability to inhibit one’s own desire to communicate to listen and interpret the communication of others. Teaching children to make connections or have the metacognitive ability to recognize the ‘aha moments’ in life is also vital. As author Alvin Toffler so eloquently stated, “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who can’t read and write but those who can’t learn, unlearn, and relearn.”

Critical thinking is a seminal skill for questioning, decision-making, and knowledge seeking in an ever-changing, technologically-immersed society. Along with the ability to question and think analytically is the necessary skill of taking challenges. As the world continues to evolve, children need the confidence in themselves to take challenges in life and in learning. Lastly, it is important for children to learn to embrace their potential and take accountability through self-directed learning.

While these life skills all critical for all, the preschool years are a pivotal time to begin to set the foundations for these. Cutting-edge child development research shows how the developing child brain is wired to begin to learn these skills and how to foster these skills in meaningful ways throughout the early years. Over the course of the academic year, we will explore each of these life skills in-depth.

Lauren Starnes, PhD
Manager of Curriculum and Instruction
Nobel Learning Communities, Inc.  

Chesterbrook Academy Royersford is part of Nobel Learning Communities, Inc., a national network of more than 180 nonsectarian private schools, including preschools, elementary schools and middle schools in 15 states across the nation. Chesterbrook Academy provides high quality private education, with small class sizes, caring and skilled teachers and attention to individual learning styles. They also offer before- and after-school care and the Camp Zone® summer program. Chesterbrook Academy in Royersford, Pa.  is a part of Nobel Learning Communities, Inc.   Please visit our website Royersford.ChesterbrookAcademy.com  for more information about our school and how you can enroll your child today.