Measuring What Matters

Spending on early childhood care and education programs has increased dramatically over the last 20 years in the United States. When it comes to evaluating the effectiveness of preschool programs and services, though, the field has been limited to a small set of measures according to a new paper recently published in the academic journal, American Psychologist. Its authors, Dana Charles McCoy and Terri Sabol, describe an overreliance on measuring children’s rote academic skills and propose a range of additional and necessary skills and behaviors that they say are important for all children’s healthy development. 

Foundations of Learning and Development

In their study, the researchers introduce six initial “FOLD skills,” which serve as important foundations for other forms of learning and development:

• Curiosity
• Creativity
• Critical thinking
• Self-regulation and executive function 
• Perspective taking
• Early identity 

Some FOLD skills emerge naturally during early childhood, but they are much harder to measure than traditional academic skills, says McCoy, an associate professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. These skills are the ones that “actually matter for getting the broader set of outcomes that we have historically cared about,” she explains. However, in some early childhood education settings, McCoy says FOLD skills are not always emphasized. But early childhood programs can be structured to ensure FOLD skills flourish. “Part of it is just letting kids have the space to explore their environments, ask questions, and build these skills naturally on their own,” she says, but adults can play a role in helping children develop skills in these areas too.

What parents and educators can do

McCoy explains how educators and parents can encourage and support FOLD skills in preschoolers:

1) Encourage play – “the work of childhood.” 

“Play looks really different for different kids in different situations. It can be solitary or imaginative play where a child is on their own playing. It can be play in relationship to peers, it can be play with an adult. But any and all forms of play are very useful.” 

2) Be responsive to children’s interests. 

What can be helpful are “child-directed interactions where parents or teachers respond to children's cues and interests. For example, when a child asks a question, an adult can provide an answer and then ask another question related to that topic to deepen and expand the conversation.”

3) Model the skills yourself. 

“Kids are always learning by watching and imitating the adults in their lives. So what they do and say is important. If you're angry, you can help kids to know how to self-regulate by saying, ‘I'm kind of feeling angry right now. I need to take a minute and walk away and take some space and then come back.’ Or, if you're trying to take someone else's perspective, [you might say], ‘I'm really trying to understand what you want in this moment. Can you tell me more?’ Just saying out loud what you're thinking about and then using actions that are in line with what you hope your kids will do [is useful]. Adults who are curious, have kids who are curious and adults who use creative methods, have kids who use creative methods, adults who talk about their own identity have kids with a strong sense of self.”

4) Teach children strategies. 

“For some of these things — self-regulation, for example — there's a lot of good evidence that we can teach kids specific strategies that support their development. We can tell kids that there are concrete things that they can do to be better regulated, like stopping and taking a breath when they feel upset or excited or angry, to help them to calm down.”

Next steps

The researchers see their paper as the beginning of a process that will further illuminate the path to understanding the full impact that early childhood programs can have on children’s healthy long-term development. They also want to incentivize “more holistic and developmentally informed programs” for children from all backgrounds.