Is your child ready for school?

2024 Author: James Gerald | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 14:00

If you are the parents of a preschooler, then you are surely overwhelmed by questions and doubts: "Is it time to send the child to school or wait another year?" "Is he ready for school or let him grow up?" "He's still so tiny, why take away his childhood?"

Or maybe you have already decided everything for sure and just want to check your baby for school readiness?

In this article, we will analyze the main points by which you can understand if your child is ready for learning, or if you need to pay special attention to something while there is time. By the way, experts advise to start checking the kid's readiness for study no later than six months before the very admission, so it's time to start this.

Physiological readiness

It is usually set by doctors when they fill out a medical record. This willingness includes:

• physical development;
• biological age;
• health status.

All the necessary information about the child is entered into the card: height, weight and other indicators, which are noted by narrow specialists. This often happens on a formal basis, so if you want to take the matter more seriously, then go through a full examination. And then be sure to check with the doctor what advice he can give your kid regarding school.

Pay special attention to the development of the nervous system, ask the doctor if there are any peculiarities in the behavior of your child. This will help to better understand and support him during the period of adaptation to school.

Note that visiting doctors is exhausting, the child cannot stand it, gets tired and is often capricious. It is better to pass no more than 1-2 doctors a day. And do not forget to take something to play and drink to the clinic.

So, you have received recommendations from a surgeon, ophthalmologist, neuropathologist and other narrow specialists. At the end, the pediatrician gave his opinion. Now think about the next part of being ready for school …

Psychological readiness

It also has several components.

Intellectual development. Teachers and parents pay special attention to this. It is about the child's awareness of objects and phenomena of the environment, the ability to write, count, write, knowledge of letters and numbers.

Vocabulary, memory, speech development and the ability to tell something on different topics are very important for a child. And also the kid's ability to remember new things, to learn.

Vocabulary, memory, speech development and the ability to tell something on different topics are very important for a child.

Motivation. Here it is determined why the child performs certain actions and actions, which determines his behavior: why the child wants to study, go to school, etc. Does your baby understand the need and importance of learning? Does he want to learn something new, does he show interest in it?

Arbitrariness, emotional and volitional development. By the level of arbitrariness, we judge whether a child is able to control his behavior, build relationships with adults correctly, and keep his attention on a specific task. It is important that the toddler treats the teacher's questions as a learning task and not as everyday communication.

Many parents are faced with a lack of will in the child. For example, it’s time to do homework, and he puts off this event for hours: he’s tired, then drink, then eat … Here the little student will need your help.

Find the right time for your little one. He may need to get some sleep after class, although he used to be able to skip daytime sleep. Show faith in your child, encourage him, talk about the fact that every day he is doing better and better after school, other interesting activities await him.

Social readiness

Communication with other children should not be of a conflict nature: before school, the child must learn to negotiate, treat his comrades as partners. By observing your child, you can find out the following points:

• whether he knows how to communicate with peers, whether he takes initiative in games or waits for other children to call him;
• sees the difference between communication with children, adults, teachers, parents, etc.;
• whether he knows how to defend his interests, whether he can take into account the interests of other children and the team.

Usually these skills are best mastered by those kids who went to kindergarten. However, this does not always mean that children at home have poorer social skills. After all, "kindergarten" kids also have difficulties with communication.

Moms and dads decide for themselves whether or not to check the readiness for school. There are many specialists in kindergartens, schools and daycare centers who will help you collect all the information about your child. This is done easily: in a playful way, testing is carried out and various tasks are given, children usually pass such tests with pleasure.

At first glance, everything is too confusing! But it is not so. School readiness is just a set of averages. All children are different and develop at their own pace. And school is a natural period in a child's life, and the task of parents is to understand, support, help and just be close to their child.