We focus not just on children's chronological age, but also on their developmental age. In our kindergarten classes at the beginning of the year we have children who range in age chronologically from 4 years, 8 months to 6+ years old. That's quite an age span, and it certainly suggests that the children in a kindergarten classroom probably aren't all ready to learn the same things at the same time. The picture is further complicated when we consider a child's developmental age. This is a way of looking at children based on their capabilities and behaviors rather than birth date. For example, a child who has just reached her fifth birthday might developmentally have social skills that are more typical of a four-year-old and language abilities that are more typical of a five- or five-and-a-half-year-old. This creates quite a challenge for teachers planning learning activities for classrooms full of young children. We're able to plan effectively because we understand two things about child development:

1. Development occurs in a predictable sequence. We know that the child whose skills are at the four-year-old level will progress through stages that we understand and we can be ready with appropriate learning activities at each step. The MPS curriculum is designed to accommodate these stages.

2. We accept that individual children develop at different rates. In a kindergarten classroom, it's OK for children to be at different stages, for example, in their writiing development or their knowledge of the alphabet. It's our job to provide them with materials and activities that allow each child to be successful and that challenge them to move to the next step.

This page was last modified on 8/17/06