Despite the focus on cut-off dates for birthdays, age is not necessarily the best way to determine if a child is ready for kindergarten. But schools have neither the time nor the staff to evaluate every age-qualified child for things like maturity and cognitive skill strength.
With that said, no one is a better judge of preparedness than a child’s parent.You know your child’s social skills, understanding of concepts, learning skills and level of independence. So ask yourself some of the following questions to determine if your child is ready to take the plunge into kindergarten.
1. Does she recognize letters and numbers? Knowing the alphabet song isn’t the same thing as knowing their letters. Kids heading to kindergarten should (ideally) understand what sounds letters make, and that words are made of letters. They should also know the difference between uppercase and lowercase letters. (Although many kindergarteners can write their name on the first day of school, it’s often in all uppercase letters.)
2. Does she understand concepts?
While it’s helpful to head into kindergarten knowing colors, shapes and numbers, comparative concepts and opposites can help children better understand and communicate what they’re thinking.Work on simple, visible comparisons like “smaller,” “taller and “below” as well as tangible opposites like wet and dry, or soft and hard.
This is also a good age to talk about the basics of bullying (what it is and what to do if you experience or see it), safety (stranger danger), manners (respect for self and others) and general differences between people (cultural, physical, abilities, etc.).Try to incorporate one of these discussions into an existing or occurring situation, rather than sitting down the week before school to go over everything. Seeing someone of another ethnicity at the store might present an opportunity to discuss differences on the ride home. 3. Can she dress herself? Have her lay out several outfits for the first week of school and post photos of each in her room so she can get dressed without help or hassle. Work on buttons, snaps and zippers, which will also play a role in using the bathroom independently at school.
4. Does she know how to share and take turns? This may be a bigger issue for only children or those who never attended daycare or preschool.As many kindergarten teachers will attest, in some ways it’s more important that children entering kindergarten have social skills than academic pro- ficiency.That’s because academics can be taught, but maturity and social skills have to be developed.
5. Does she know the correct pencil grip? “Unlearning” an improper pencil grip is very difficult, and a poor grip can adversely affect a child’s handwriting.
6. Can she focus and sit still for at least 15 minutes? Attention is a learning skill that can be strengthened.At home, you can increase focus by reading stories, working on crafts, taking music lessons and eating dinner together.
7. Can she use basic classroom tools? Children need to refine their motor skills in order to work on handwriting. One way to work on this at home is to teach them how to use things like scissors, a pencil sharpener and a hole puncher.
8. Does she go to the bathroom without help? Children entering kindergarten should be toilet trained. But as one teacher reminds parents,“Urinals can be surprising for boys who have never seen one, so parents should talk to their sons in advance.”
9. Can she follow simple directions? Kindergarteners will need to hang up their own coats, get in line, put items in their backpacks, etc. Make sure your child can follow two- or three-step directions without needing them repeated.
10. Are her learning skills strong? Despite what you may have been told, reading skills are built on phonemic awareness (sound blending and segmenting), not letter recognition. In fact, studies show a 90 percent decrease in reading problems if children are first introduced to sound analysis activities.
One easy way to work on sound analysis skills is to practice rhyming. Rhyming forces the dissection of sounds. Sound segmenting games can also offer a fun opportunity to teach phonemic awareness. Say a two-sound word, like bee or tie, then have your child tell you which sounds are in the word (“b” and “ee” for “bee” and “t” and “i” for “tie”). Gradually increase to three-sound words like cat, (“c” “a” and “t”) and tree (“t”“r” and “ee”).This builds auditory segmenting, which they’ll need as they begin to spell.
Playing games that strengthen other cognitive skills will help too.Together, memory, attention, visual processing, logic and reasoning, and processing speed make up the foundation of a child’s ability to learn anything — reading, writing, math, history, science or languages. You can play memory games with regular playing cards (matching pairs of numbers), look for games that strengthen auditory processing and processing speed (like “Simon”), or put your child in a brain training program to strengthen their cognitive skills while they’re very young.
And finally, ask yourself if you’re ready to send her off to kindergarten.The answer will probably be no, but you can’t keep her home forever. So pack her lunch, her backpack and enough tissues for both of you!
Michael Ginsberg is the executive director and owner of LearningRx Brain Training Centers in Marlboro and Red Bank. For more information, call 732-444-8579.