research findings that show that structured play should be the primary learning technique for pre-school children. An article, “Structured Play Trumps Age for Future School Success,” on the Science Daily website reports that Dr. Van Herwegen opposes starting school early unless it involves “a formalized setting with trained people…but if it means sitting down and doing formal, proper learning at the age of four or five, then that’s wrong.” She further asserts that pre-schoolers don’t have the learning foundation—including working memory and language–,so a formalized education setting is inappropriate.
Van Herwegen suggests a program that is similar to what is done in Belgian pre-schools. Those programs include the following types of activities:
- Carpet time discussions
- School-related activities
- Painting
- Learning to hold a pen while sitting at tables and chairs
- Standing in lines
- Where to put things
- How to listen
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