Before children are old enough to attend their first day of kindergarten, more and more are attending early enrichment and tutoring programs. This is part of a broader trend toward introducing so-called brain-boosting activities to childhood at younger ages, be it at nursery schools stressing early academics or in homes in which parents have been influenced by books like David Perlmutter’s “Raise a Smarter Child by Kindergarten: Raise IQ By Up To 30 Points And Turn On Your Child’s Smart Genes.” Not surprisingly, the trend has been seized by some parents hoping to give their kids an edge on IQ tests and other exams used for school admissions in public and private schools.
To clarify the trend in early enrichment and the related issues parents should be thinking about, we spoke with local child development experts as well as people who run enrichment and tutoring companies.
Most parents don’t need to be convinced of the benefits of music and art classes for young children, but are less clear about what is meant by early enrichment as it pertains to the life of the mind. What do these sorts of programs offer?
The directors of the enrichment centers and tutoring companies we spoke with emphasized a similar overall theme: their programs offer fun, engaging work that unlocks a child’s natural ability and builds upon it. “We want to make children better life-long learners,” says Diane Sutowski, director of Kumon of Battery Park City.
Kumon does this with flexible math and reading exercises in 20-minute sessions, and their pre-K students learn to identify letters, numbers and sounds. EBL Coaching, a multi-sensory tutoring program on the Upper East Side, works both with children with normal academic challenges as well as with children with particular learning needs. “We specialize in providing one-on-one and group tutoring that is individualized for each child, from pre-K on up,” says Dr. Emily Levy, director and founder of EBL, who meets with each child herself to match them with a specialist and a specific researched-based, multi-sensory plan.
What does it mean to “tutor” a 4-year-old?
“When children come to us, it’s often their first introduction to formal learning,” says Bige Doruk, CEO and founder of Bright Kids NYC, where the goal is to
“give kids basic analytic skills that they need to master learning”
through sessions with a professional tutor. During a typical one-hour
session, children are encouraged to be flexible in their approach to
problem-solving. “We teach them to approach the problem so they don’t
get frustrated,” Doruk says. “We want them to be comfortable, and to
build their confidence.”
Another
local tutoring company working primarily with young children, Manhattan
Edge, offers 40-45 minute sessions for learning logic, playing memory
games, and tackling mental challenges. The sessions help children
organize their thinking and develop their learning abilities. “We teach
them to block out distractions, focus and concentrate,” says Harley
Evans, president of Manhattan Edge. “We want children to enjoy learning
and become better students than they might otherwise.”
Is there a downside to early learning?
Michael
Leone, a Kumon instructor, says in his experience early enrichment is
invariably going to help as long as it’s aligned with a child’s
readiness and ability. EBL’s Levy agrees: “Any student can benefit from
enhancement, but it has to be the right approach for that child.”
The
organization that sets the guidelines for the admissions process for
local private schools (isaagny.org) says that private test prep is
against their rules as it pertains to preparation for the exam
administered by the Educational Records Bureau (ERB). But if children
are learning to improve their thinking skills, is there anything
ethically wrong with being tutored (as long as the students aren’t being
exposed to specific questions from the test)?
“There’s
no cheating going on,” says Evans, stating that at Manhattan Edge they
“just help the child become familiar with the skills needed to succeed,
such as working memory and delaying gratification.” The former head of
the local ERB office, Sharon Spotnitz, Ph.D., draws the boundaries this
way: “It’s one thing to cultivate a love of learning and develop
learning skills; another to pursue a test-taking advantage to get a
better score.” Plus, she says, tutoring that’s test-focused creates an
ethical dilemma because it makes the job of assessing natural ability
very difficult, hampering schools from ascertaining whether a child
would be a good fit for them.
The
territory of early enrichment— whether or not there’s a test-related
goal in mind—does seem like a potential minefield of undue parental
pressure, no?
“Parents
who set the success bar at the highest level can ironically be the most
detrimental,” says Bronwyn Charlton, Ph.D. and co-founder of Seedlings
Group, local developmental psychologists who advise parents on best
practices related to child development. More particularly, Charlton
advises parents to be wary of encouraging achievement by “taking all the
fun out of learning.”
Are early enrichment and early tutoring programs providing anything that parents can’t do themselves?
The
directors from EBL, Manhattan Edge, Kumon and Bright Kids NYC
share the general thought that while there are some parents who could
teach their programs if they’ve done years of research and have lots of
time, for the majority of parents, it’s easier and more effective to use
an enrichment center or a tutor. “Kids can usually talk their parents
out of doing the hard stuff,” says Evans, an NYC father of two. Doruk, a
downtown mother of three, agrees: “I’m a parent, but teaching [my kids]
is another thing.”
However,
Spotnitz and Charlton disagree. “Parents are the best teachers,” says
Spotnitz, adding, “nothing is as enriching as reading stories together,
solving a puzzle together or taking out crayons and coloring together.”
Charlton adds, “It is best to leave ‘enrichment’ to quality preschools
and quality parent/caregiver child interactions.” Charlton advises
parents to teach skills like focus and attention through fun games like
“I Spy” and musical chairs. Sorting games and nature walks help kids
classify, and learning flexibility with rule changes helps them
multitask. “We have so many teachable opportunities as parents and so
many ways of making learning fun,” says Charlton. “We just need to seize
the moments and to be confident that in doing so, real learning will
take place.”
Can one really draw conclusions about a child’s academic potential when they are only 3 or 4 or 5?
Apparently
not. One of the unfortunate ironies of the use of IQ-like tests in NYC
is that even many of the test-makers themselves agree that, with very
young children, the tests are not reliable predictors of future academic
success or success in life. For more on this topic, interested parents
can check out the related-chapter in last year’s provocative bestseller,
“Nuture Shock: New Thinking About Children.”
Tutoring And Enrichment Centers In NYC
Bright Kids NYC, 54 Pine Street, 917–539–4575
Club
Z! Locations vary, 866-448-8867
EBL Coaching, 17
East 89th Street, Suite 1D, 212-249-0147
Kumon Center,
Various locations, 877-586-6673
Launch Math, 173 West 81st
Street, Lower Level (between 81st and Amsterdam), 949-528-6240
Manhattan Edge, 44 Wall Street, 4th Floor,
1-888-407-8688
Mathnasium, 1597 York Avenue,
212-828-6284
The Princeton Review, 594
Broadway, Suite 502, 646-613-9500
“Testing For Kindergarten” Offers Everyday Strategies For Preparing Young Kids For Placement Exams
Karen Quinn, a local school admissions expert who has been featured on programs like ABC’s “20/20” and “The View” and in “The New York Times,” has a new book of simple strategies to help young children succeed on standardized tests. Whether your child is preparing for a public school “G & T” test or a private school admissions exam, the guide, “Testing For Kindergarten,” helps take some of the stress and guesswork out of the process by offering everyday strategies for enhancing your child’s learning experience, like making the most of before-bed reading and tips to strengthen your child’s memory. Quinn also throws in fun activities to help develop your child’s abilities in what she describes as the seven key areas needed for academic success. An NYC mom of two and one of the original founders of Smart City Kids, Quinn is best known as the author of “The Ivy Chronicles,” which took a satirical view of school admissions. This time, she’s not playing around! For more information, visit testingforkindergarten.com. —Beata Cherepakhina
