Full Day Kindergarten

Does full day kindergarten benefit children in the long run? This past summer, an announcement was made that more kindergarten programs would be shifting to full day programs. For parents, this often brought relief, realizing that after school childcare would not have to be provided for their children, adding additional costs to double income families. A study that appeared in the journal Child Development, used 13,776 children who were in kindergarten from 1998-1999. The reading and math skills of full day kindergarten students improved at a faster rate than the skills of those who only attended kindergarten part time. However, after kindergarten, the full day students did not develop any faster than the part time students. In fact, the academic skills of the part time kindergarten students actually surpassed those of the full day students between first and fifth grade. Dr. R. Scott Benson, a child and adolescent psychologist says, ""The bottom line for me is that there ought to be a high level of engagement between parents and children, and it ought to be a lot of fun. When there is stress in either direction—either because other life stresses inhibit interaction or because the child is uncomfortable—the learning process is curbed." I think that Dr. Benson says it well- parents and children have to communicate and interact with each other for children to develop properly. Most studies show that neither full day or partial day kindergarten make a very large difference in the long run, but small developmental differences can be noticed by the trained eye. It does not matter what type of family the child comes from, whether low income or very wealthy, the biggest thing a parent can do for a child is to spend time with them. Quality time, where words are exchanged and it is shown that a parent loves and cares about his or her child. Although many studies have been done, questions still remain about which is better: full day kindergarten or partial day kindergarten?