Preschool programs provide early childhood education and care for children, and help them develop a range of skills that make them ready to learn when they start school, such as:
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Social skills: the ability to empathize and interact successfully with their peer group, and also relate easily to adults.
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Language skills: the ability to have adequate language skills in order to benefit from experiences facilitating their cognitive, educational and social development.
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Executive function skills: the ability to hold and manipulate information in the brain, plan and regulate one’s behaviour, problem-solve, and be creative.
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Emotional self-regulation skills: the ability to adapt behaviours depending on the situation, to control impulses and to shift attention.
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Self-regulation in learning skills: the ability to postpone immediate satisfaction to attain long-term goals, sustain attention, be persistent, and remain concentrated.
Preschool programs are particularly successful in giving children from vulnerable families a boost, putting them on even footing with more affluent families as they prepare to start school.
