ABSTRACT
The debate on the significance of the young child's pre-school experiences has gone this way and that, but it seems reasonably clear now that they do play a considerable part in the progress that he makes when he arrives at school. At any rate we know now that children whose experiences are enriched during the pre-school period eventually do better at school as a result (Lazar and Darlington, 1982; Osborn and Millbank, 1987). Evidence of this sort must mean that the skills which children bring with them when they first go to school — skills which they have acquired in the preceding years — are going to be a significant factor in their success or lack of it when they get there. Such research provides us with an answer, but it is an answer which poses another equally important question. What sort of experiences should be encouraged, which skills enhanced, in the pre-school period? Broadly speaking there are two possible ways to answer this question, and they are radically different from each other. One concentrates on the skills which children normally acquire informally in their pre-school years, the other on the new skills which children have to learn when they get to school.
