Preschool can dramatically change quality of adult life [IrishTimes]
- Published: 09 November 2010
HIGH QUALITY preschool programmes can reduce the likelihood of living in poverty, getting involved in crime and taking sleeping pills or sedatives, a conference will hear tomorrow.
The findings have come from the High/Scope Perry Preschool study which began tracking the effects of a preschool programme on a group of children in Michigan more than 40 years ago.
They took a sample of 123 children and randomly assigned almost half of them to a high quality preschool programme. Not surprisingly, participants in the preschool programme significantly outperformed the children who did not receive the education.
But the experiment also found that, by the age of 40, the men who had taken part in the programme were more likely to own their homes, be employed and be raising their own children. They were less likely to be arrested, or to use sedatives, sleeping pills or illegal drugs.
Lawrence Schweinhart, the study’s lead researcher, will outline these findings to Young Ballymun’s early education conference at the Axis Centre in the north Dublin suburb tomorrow.
Full Story: www.irishtimes.com
