The professor outlined the good reasons why it pays to be the first

Daiva Jakavonytė-Staškuvienė, professor at the Vytautas Magnus University Academy of Education, inspector of pre-school and primary education for European schools at the European Commission, shares her ideas on why six-year-olds can become beginners.

According to her, a normal six-year-old is a more alert, mobile intellectual activity in the world around him, knowing much more than a child of a similar age to thirty or fifty. “For this reason, many six-year-olds have already developed skills such as freedom of movement, speech, cleanliness, socialization and creativity. A child of this age has more control over their emotions, can express them more easily; participate, act or play himself for about thirty minutes; independently perform certain tasks with which they are well familiar; copies words, is interested in writing; recognizes familiar letters in books, environments, packaging, tries to read; speaks most of the sounds, knows 3000-5000 words. Child has a better understanding of verbal explanations of past or future events; is able to convey experiences in more complex sentences, following the sequence of events; compares objects of different sizes. Does not include the time of day (morning, afternoon, night). More precisely, fold, cut, cut (with a knife with a round end), paste. Spontaneously count the events of the day in detail, name your mood and feelings. When you express your opinion in the family, it also facilitates it to a group of colleagues. Better understand what you already know how to do and what you still need to learn. Learn to maintain friendships by seeking compromises. Given these capacities of children, the educational systems of many countries of the European Union have adopted compulsory first grade attendance from the age of six ”, says the teacher.

According to her, children of this age, if the educational environment is safe, adapted to their needs, can feel good and build a cultural value and foundation, understand the meaning of effort and the pleasure of the task. And all this makes sense of learning and well-being in an educational institution. “Six-year-olds can socialize, take responsibility, are benevolent, and are open to educational experiences. All these qualities allow you to immerse yourself in open educational activities. It is important to choose appropriate and child-centered educational methods or strategies to provide appropriate and timely support. Of course, when advancing education for a year, educational environments and spaces must be adapted for the little ones, for example, forty-five minute lessons should be abandoned, since the time dedicated to education must be more flexible . In addition, the importance of arts education to promote activities in the mother tongue and in a foreign language is highlighted; More individualized education, emphasis on self-paced learning (it should be favorable for the little ones), when more time and attention is devoted to understanding the content, analyzing it from different perspectives ”, says the specialist.

“In conclusion, I would like to point out that some researchers are discussing the right and necessity of education for children from the age of two, and we in Lithuania have been talking for a long time whether it is too early to be a first-year student. degree from the age of six. In most Western European countries, early childhood education has been around for decades. Lithuania’s neighboring countries, such as Latvia and Poland, also improved children’s education. Studies have shown that the earlier a child begins to develop in an appropriate and supportive environment, the less likely they are to experience learning failures related to reading and writing in adolescence. The topic of early education is also relevant due to the complicated content, for example, it is recommended to learn two foreign languages ​​already in primary school (currently children in Finland, Ireland and Spain are learning in this way), so Lithuania too you must be prepared for it. It must be taken into account that the learning processes that a child assimilates and becomes aware of are long-term and sustainable, it takes a long time, even when the educational environment is favorable, so being in educational institutions from an early age is a good way to develop it ”, said the professor.