Arts-Heavy Preschool Helps Children Grow Emotionally -
How do children learn how to learn? One essential skill is mastering their emotions - learning how to stay positive as much as possible, and how to deal with those inevitable interludes of sadness, anger or fear.
Newly published research suggests low-income kids are more likely to develop these all-important abilities if they attend a unique preschool program that integrates education and the arts.
The arts-rich curriculum produced more “positive emotions such as interest, happiness and pride, and greater growth in emotion regulation across the school year,” reports West Chester University psychologist Eleanor D. Brown.
These results are particularly significant, she adds, given “the critical importance of children’s social-emotional readiness to learn.”
The study provides more evidence of the success of Settlement Music School’s Kaleidoscope Preschool Arts Enrichment Program. In 2009, a research team led by Brown reported participants in the program, located in a low-income Philadelphia neighborhood, raised their vocabulary scores at three times the rate of peers enrolled at a nearby preschool with a traditional curriculum.