You know your child better than anyone else. Determining if your child is ready to begin pre-school or pre-k is an early step to take in deciding whether it’s time or not quite yet.
Unless you plan to home-school your child for your own reasons, the following readiness checklist and readiness activities will help to prepare your child, you, and your whole family, for the day when they begin school. Even with home-schooling, it is also important to develop the social, interaction, and behavior skills that will become important during play-dates, community learning experiences, and general interaction with others no matter where you go.
Starting school at any age involves big changes in your child’s and in your family’s life. When starting pre-school or pre-k (as well as kindergarten and elementary school) there are certain basic skills and behaviors that are expected.
Just as there are wide differences between each child’s ability, personality, and behaviors, there are allowances made to let a child adjust to their new environment, to a new major change in their daily routine. That being said however, for pre-school settings, most expect a child to be potty-trained, with an occasional accident. Other expected behaviors include the ability to wash hands when directed, eat lunch without help (other than some help with unwrapping or opening cartons), and the ability to lay or sit quietly during nap or rest time.
Each child matures and learns basic self-care skills at different rates. Children with sensory processing and integration issues may need a longer adjustment period, modification of their environment, plenty of support from family and school staff, and a carefully planned program and strategy starting long before they ever enter the pre-school classroom.
No Right or Wrong Answers
There are no right or wrong answers. Use the readiness checklists as a guide, as a starting point – every child is different and matures and develops at different rates. While there are activities, exercises, and approaches you can take to promote readiness for pre-school / pre-k, the child needs to move ahead at their own pace. Pushing a child or overwhelming them through sensory overload can backfire on you and cause increased stress, anxiety, and distress for everyone.
Non-Verbal Messages
Look for non-verbal messages that your child is not quite ready to move ahead. Many children, even if they can talk, find it very difficult to express or explain just what they are feeling inside. Behaviors may increase, or new behaviors appear. Common reactions to change in their familiar routine may result in your child “acting out,” becoming withdrawn, showing aggressive behaviors, or moving backward in their self-help abilities. Be aware that your child may begin to have toileting accidents, throw items, “forget” how to put on their shirt, or become clingier.
Practice Staying Calm and Focused
Try to stay calm and focused on the goal – you want to help your child become pre-school ready and able to move on to new and exciting things without sensory overload and meltdowns. It may be hard, but your expressed anxiety and frustration can and will be felt by your little one.
Children, especially those with sensory processing difficulties, are facing some big changes in their life. Provide support and patience during this transitional phase, however, continue working toward the goal. It may take months, but the rewards will be seen in your child becoming better able to tolerate new situations and changes in their normal routine – not only at pre-school, but in new situations, changes to their routine, travel, play groups, visiting the library, and the like.
Let’s Begin
If you are ready to start the Pre-School Readiness Check List CLICK HERE