STEM In Early Childhood Education: The Benefits

Teaching STEM in early childhood education is so important to a child’s learning experience during their formal schooling. Observation has shown that young children can grasp relatively advanced concepts in the STEM curriculum during their early childhood education. STEM stands for Science, technology, engineering and maths. In ways not fully understood, early development of STEM skills appears to translate to positive learning experiences later in life.

At present, though, it appears as if there is not enough attention being given to the instruction of STEM subjects in early childhood education. According to research by the New America Research institute, less than 5% of time in early childhood education is dedicated to STEM learning. This may be because most childcare facilities do not have the resources necessary to teach the subjects.

Mastery of basic STEM skills at a young age seems to be particularly relevant for parents who are first generation migrants from non-English-speaking countries. When a language gap is present at home, utilitarian concepts of maths and science stereotypically hold great potential for opportunities later in life. These parents may struggle to help their children with reading and literacy, but STEM concepts are universal and can therefore be taught easily.

Children can and should participate in STEM activities in an early childhood education setting. Whether its gardening, building forts, stacking blocks or lining up by height, children can engage in science, technology, engineering and math learning at an early stage in their development.

Early childhood educators can indeed do more to assist children learn STEM topics during their preschool days. Parents’ confidence is their first and most importance STEM teaching aid. Teachers should rely on parents’ support at home when teaching STEM topics to students. Teachers can also gain additional qualifications in science, maths and technology for the purposes of teaching. Finally, more STEM learning stations can be incorporated into an early childhood learning environment, says research.

At Robyn Taylor Child Development and Early Education Centres, we do everything we can to help children understand numerical concepts and more about the world of science. We encourage all of our parents to do the same in a home setting and ask you to encourage your children to play logic based games and puzzles at home. STEM learning is so important and by giving our children the chance to learn these skills we prepare them.

All of our staff are trained to handle STEM teaching whenever it is appropriate. We have access to science and mathematical resources on site and are all certified early childhood educators. If you’re looking to enrol your child in their early childhood education today, call us on 02 9591 7575 to arrange a site visit and to begin enrolment.