The Five-Minute Attention Span: Myth or Reality?

You have likely heard that 3-4 year old children have only a five minute attention span, but is this really true? I took a course in Child Development during my university days (it didn't help me toward my PhD, but I figured it would help me as a parent...I'm very grateful for my parents and hope to emulate them).  As part of the class, we were given the opportunity to observe 4-year-old children play in a preschool environment.  The preschool was run on the university campus and the various play areas had hidden microphones.  I could stand behind a one-way mirror wearing headphones and observe a particular child while switching between the various microphone channels as the child moved about the room.  (The parents were well aware that this preschool was being used for research.) I made notes of the behavior of one child for about an hour and then switched to another child for another hour.  As the child would move from one behavior to another, I would record the time.  Afterward, while reviewing my notes, I was amazed at the consistency.  Both children I had observed changed behaviors at five-minute intervals.  The variance from this trend was remarkably small.

By the time a child reaches kindergarten, their attention span has grown to seven minutes.  Under careful direction and supervision, a kindergartener can focus on one activity a bit longer.  I wonder, though, if there is not some developmental reason that the rapidly developing brain of a young child needs to refocus attention at regular intervals. Certainly, the value of unstructured play time in a relaxed environment is well established.  What are your thoughts?

How did you cope?

Most of us can't remember much from our early years.  Often the things we do remember are times of change and turmoil... a move to a new town... the birth of a new sibling, etc.  What (if anything) do you remember of your early kindergarten experience?

Were the early days easy? traumatic?  Did your world turn upside down or was it smooth sailing?  Did it challenge you physically? emotionally? Did it inspire fatigue or exhilaration? Did it make you irritable? Did you cry? Did you feel at home? Did you get a lot of colds as you were exposed to new germs? Did your parents play an important role in helping you through? Did you have enough time for unstructured play?  One could ask all these questions again about the transition from kindergarten to 1st grade.

Most adults today attended half-day kindergarten since the full-day trend is a recent one. How do you think you would have reacted at that age if you had gone straight to a full-day program?

Peer Pressure in Our Public Schools

Fourth in the enumerated list of reasons for switching to full-day kindergarten cited on page 3 of the recent district report is the following: "the New York State Education department and Board of Regents [are] encouraging schools to provide full-day programs for kindergarteners."  It is also noted prominently (in the executive summary) that "the majority of area school districts have moved to a full-day kindergarten program."  In other words: "Everybody else is doing it", "Just this once won't hurt", "Your parent's won't find out", "Its the in thing to do".

What do you think? Can we trust the schools to teach our kids the importance of avoiding peer pressure?

Full-Day Kindergarten: An Academic Advantage?

Since 1990, many small studies have compared the academic progress of full-day kindergarten students to that of their half-day peers.  In general, these studies were done by educators for educators and primarily focused on academic achievement in the first and second grade.  Almost without exception, the results of these studies indicate that full-day kindergarten students have an academic advantage in the first and second grades.  These studies have been compiled by groups such as the Early Childhood and Parenting (ECAP) Collaborative at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, which has a stated primary objective to influence state and national policy related to early childhood education. This group of studies has no doubt helped to fuel the current nationwide trend toward full-day kindergarten.

It is interesting to note that very few of the studies highlighted by ECAP are longitudinal studies that follow the students well beyond the second year.  Fortunately, other studies clearly demonstrate that the academic advantage does not survive beyond 3rd grade.  State testing in New York starts in grade 3 and the results are published annually in the New York Times.  Unfortunately, (as pointed out by Steve below) the history of this data is not extensive enough to draw many conclusions about the districts in this area when one considers that most districts were half-day when the 3rd through 8th graders were in kindergarten.  I had originally posted a quick survey of this data that seemed to indicate a strong advantage for half-day students academically in the 8th grade, but Steve's comment convinced me that my analysis was flawed and so I deleted it. For those interested in the long term impact of full-day kindergarten academically, please see the papers Steve refers to in his comment below.

Niskayuna School District Reveals Possibility of Switching to Full Day Kindergarten

On November 2nd (just nine days ago), the Niskayuna school board began publicly discussing the possibility of transitioning from half day kindergarten to full day kindergarten for the upcoming school year.  Behind the scenes, however, this plan has had a long history.  A recently released 14-page report tells the story of several committees that were established over a 17-year period to study the issue and make recommendations.  The report makes the case for full day kindergarten based on several factors including the following:

• Many other area districts have already switched to full day
• Money is available from New York state to assist in covering the costs for the first 2-3 years
• An estimated 19 additional kindergarten students would be added to the district who would otherwise have gone to private schools
• There are new state testing requirements for grades 3-8

Many parents have expressed reservations or voiced strong opposition to the plan, and are particularly surprised that the transition is planned for the upcoming school year.  The district will have a board meeting on November 16th at which concerned parents will be given an opportunity to voice their opinions.  The board may make a decision as early as the following board meeting, which is scheduled for December 7th.  If the board does continue forward with this plan, the transition would still be contingent on passage of the school budget in the election on May 17th of next year.  Two board members face re-election this year, so the May 17th vote will also decide who will serve in those two school board seats for the next three years.

Comments are welcome.  How do you feel about this new development?