Kindergarten kids lacking basic social skills
Darrell Greer and Dawn Ostrem
Northern News Services
Rankin Inlet (Feb 21/01) - Kids struggling with kindergarten in Rankin Inlet would benefit from a pre-school program.
Parents and educators alike say a pre-school program is a necessity if the situation is to improve.
Many kids entering kindergarten have difficulty communicating and socializing.
Alison Coman has two children of pre-school age. Her oldest will enter kindergarten next semester.
She says too many people don't seem to appreciate the value of having a pre-school program and the benefits it delivers.
"A pre-school program would help all the kids be better prepared for kindergarten," says Coman.
"It would help them gain skills in learning, sharing and developing friendships at an earlier age."
A committee was formed last year to start an early childhood development program after Leo Ussak elementary school was asked to offer remedial work to kindergarten kids in 1999.
The Department of Education has committed $50,000 to the program under the Healthy Children's Initiative, but the committee is having trouble attracting a program co-ordinator with an early childhood education diploma or the equivalency in experience.
Coman says if a co-ordinator willing to relocate to Rankin Inlet can't be found, maybe it's time to spend the money and train a local person to be able to handle the project.
In addition to helping with language skills, she says an early childhood education program is socially, emotionally and physically beneficial to kids.
"Academics come in the later grades, to me the program is more about learning how to be social and getting along with other people.
"If our children learn these skills at an earlier age, we wouldn't see the types of behaviour problems we see now in later grades."
Delores Kent is a committee member and a local teacher who also believes strongly in the benefits of pre-school education.
She says the lack of skills she sees in many kids may be a direct reflection of living in the North.
"There are a lot of parents who are younger and have to work to survive because the cost of living is so high here," says Kent
"Children who attend day care are much better equipped to enter the classroom, which is a new world for many youngsters.
"Settling them down is quite a job at the beginning of the year."
