Preparing a Child for School, What Every Parent Must Know!

School readiness is a broad and fluid term referring to the successful transition of a young child to kindergarten. The developmental capacity of the child, and the level of support provided by the environment determines the nature of this process. Successful transitions to school are the shared responsibility of the family, school and the community so that the child is able function in his/her role as student.

Skills and School

The specific skills required for kindergarten differ depending on various factors such as approach of the teacher, ethos of the school, and the curriculum. However it can be agreed that having an enthusiasm to learn, and an ability to listen and play with others are critical for a successful transition to school. The development of a child can be explained in five domains, and the skills attained within these domains can be assessed in comparison to typical child development. The five domains that support a child in attaining the role of student are motor coordination, cognitive skills, social competence, emotional adjustment, and language and perceptual skills.

Motor Coordination
Motor Coordination involves strengthening muscles and learning to gain control and accuracy of body movement. The gross motor requirement of a kindergartner is to mobilize around the classroom and school, and participate in indoor and outdoor activities. Typically kindergartners can catch and throw a ball, use a pencil/crayon, and take off a jumper and shoes.

Cognitive Skills
The cognitive skills of a kindergartner involves the ability to comprehend school routines and rules, the general times of day, and understand and follow simple two-stage instructions. The child is also expected to be able to make transitions in the environment (classroom to playground) and transitions in tasks (story time to drawing) with ease. The concentration of preschoolers who are ready to move into kindergarten would span approximately twenty minutes on a task such as drawing, listening to stories, or playing a game.

Social Development
In terms of social development, the kindergartner begins to following rules (not interrupting the teacher), recognizing teacher authority, beginning to share (eg toys and food), and understand the concept of role play.

Emotional Adjustment
Emotionally a child is ready for school if he is able to cope with being separated from parents for a few hours. The child can recognise the feelings of friends such as sad, angry or happy and regulate his behaviour in response to this.

Visual, Perceptual and Language Skills
The visual, perceptual and language skills typically displayed by kindergarten children includes recognizing objects by their shape, size and colour, recognizing some letters and differentiating between opposites such as up/down. They understand that numbers are used to count, and can respond to his/her own name. Typically children ready for kindergarten can talk about objects and events in complete sentences of 5-6 words, answer simple questions and sing along to songs.