Somerset Co. officials encourage parents to consider preschool for their children
Schools across Delmarva will be be getting ready to start school in the next few weeks. In Somerset County, school officials are encouraging parents to consider preschool for their children.
On Tuesday, teachers at Princess Anne Elementary set up preschool rooms to gear up for the new school year. Although pre-k is not mandatory in Maryland, Somerset County public school officials tell 47 ABC they see many benefits in children who are enrolled.
Karen Karten, the Early Childhood Coordinator for Somerset County public schools says, “We do see that children who enter our school having pre-k or preschool experiences, they do enter with more skills than those students that have not early experiences like that.”
Dr. Sam Scott a local psychologist agrees.
“Certainly the social aspect. Especially if a kid hasn’t been in daycare or hasn’t been around other children. It’s a really great transition year to get to know a lot of kids, to get to know how to interact with other kids without mom or dad around, how to share things like that,” says Dr. Scott.
Karten also says children who have that extra year of instruction before kindergarten get an academic boost. She tell us the past few years, Somerset County has implemented a literacy program in their preschool and kindergarten classes called ‘Raising a Reader’. School officials say the program allows children to bring home a new set of books every week in order to encourage reading.
“The more often children have exposure to books, we find that they’re literacy levels are going to be higher as they enter school, ” says Karten.
Karten continues saying, ” Many of those students who are used to school and feel comfortable in the school, they have those skills that they need to succeed in school.”
Somerset County school officials tel us they still have slots for available for people interested in enrolling their children in preschool. They also have upcoming events to create a smoother back-to-school transition, one of them being an open house concert on August 25th for more information on this event click here.
47 ABC also took a look at research studies posted online in an effort to find recent data supporting what the folks in Somerset County had to say about the benefits of enrolling children in preschool. Although there was research which showed preschool helped with performance in kindergarten and early grades, the studies were dated. 47 ABC also made phone calls to the U.S. Department of Education about any recent research that might be out there, they said that the research does exist but they couldn’t direct us to specific studies about long term benefits of preschool.
