How long has it been since your baby first smiled at you, took his first steps, said his first word? It seems that it was quite recently... And now he is already standing on the threshold of a new life, completely unknown to him - on the threshold of schooling.
Start school life- a natural stage in the path of every child: every preschooler, reaching a certain age, goes to school.
At what age is it better to start systematic schooling?
What program should I teach my child?
Will he cope with the school load, will he be able to study well?
How to prepare a child for school?
How to help a little schoolchild when he encounters his first school difficulties?
These questions worry parents and teachers of future first-graders. The concern of adults is understandable: after all, the student’s performance in subsequent years, his attitude towards school, learning and, ultimately, well-being in his school and adult life depend on how successful the start of schooling is.
Psychologists and teachers are alarmed by the fact that in recent years, seemingly prosperous children who have sufficient high level mental development and mastered reading and arithmetic skills before school. Parents of such children, coming to a consultation with a psychologist, are perplexed: “We worked so hard with our child, did so much for his development. He can read, write and count well. Why is he a bad student?
Let's try to figure out what “school readiness” is? Usually, when they talk about readiness for school, they mean such a level of physical, mental and social development of a child that is necessary for successful mastery of the school curriculum without compromising his health.
Physiological readiness for school is determined by the level of development of the basic functional systems child's body:
- the brain weight of 6-7 year old children is 90% of the brain weight of an adult, which helps solve more complex intellectual problems;
- by the beginning of schooling, the cerebral hemispheres have sufficiently developed, especially the frontal lobes, which are responsible for the development of the child’s speech;
- as a result of a fairly pronounced asymmetry of the left and right hemispheres, the cognitive activity of preschoolers becomes more meaningful and purposeful;
- Small muscles of the hand develop, which ensure the formation of writing skills.
Psychological readiness for school is determined by the level of development of perception, memory, attention, thinking, speech development, imagination.
By 6-7 years:
- The child knows the main colors and their shades, can correctly distinguish the weight of objects, makes fewer mistakes when identifying odors, perceives the object well as a whole, identifies the main parts and relates them to each other, knows how to find similar and features items;
- The child has a sufficiently developed voluntary memory: the older preschooler already knows how to set a goal to remember something and uses memorization methods quite freely;
- Preschoolers gradually develop voluntary attention, which is expressed in the ability to do something according to instructions for a certain time. Six-year-old children can already productively engage in the same activity for 20 minutes or more. True, they are not always able to concentrate on several significant objects at once and quickly switch their attention from one task to another;
- Preschoolers develop visual and figurative thinking with elements of the abstract. However, children still experience difficulties in comparing several features of objects at once, in identifying the most significant in objects and phenomena, in transferring the acquired skills of mental activity to solving new problems. Children of older preschool age are characterized by the animation of inanimate nature or celestial bodies; they do not know how to look at themselves from the outside; they rely on the relationships of things that seem to them, and not on what actually exists. All this indicates the peculiarities of thinking at this age;
- The baby is big enough lexicon. His speech is distinguished by the use of words associated with movement and activity, an increase in the number of generalizing words, and becomes coherent and logical. An older preschooler can already talk about events that happened to him some time ago.
- In a preschooler, the imagination needs support from an object to a lesser extent than at previous stages of development. It turns into internal activity, which manifests itself in verbal creativity (counting books, teasers, poems), in the creation of drawings, modeling, etc.
- The child has already formed spatial relationships: he can correctly determine the position of an object in space (above-under, front-back, below-above, left-right), correctly identify such relationships as “narrower-wider”, “more-less” , “shorter-longer”. Older preschoolers already perceive time as a category that cannot be returned or accelerated.
Social or personal readiness for school is determined by the level of development of the child’s emotional-volitional sphere, the child’s desire to learn, acceptance of the student’s social status, the development of skills in joint activities and communication skills with children and adults, orientation towards social norms and values, and the level of self-esteem.
And here I would like to draw Special attention on development of the emotional sphere of preschool children. Many experts in preschool education state that the emotional sphere of modern children is rather poorly developed. For some reason, parents direct all their efforts primarily to the development of the child’s intellectual sphere (in order to enter prestigious schools and then universities), forgetting about the emotional sphere and not thinking about the fact that an impoverished emotional sphere slows down the development of the intellectual sphere. But emotions play an important role in the lives of children: they help to perceive reality and respond to it and ultimately determine a person’s entire life and his place in society.
During consultations, parents often ask: Is it really so difficult to determine whether a person is sad or happy? Does this or that object surprise him or disgust him? Yes, dear adults, for a child, recognizing and transmitting emotions is a rather complex process that requires him to have certain knowledge and a certain level of development. After all, conveying emotions is not only a facial expression, but also a certain posture, gestures that correspond to a particular emotional state.
I believe that from a very early age it is necessary to get acquainted with our own emotions, study them in the same way as we become familiar with letters from childhood, learn the alphabet, and master literacy. This gives us the opportunity in the future to become masters of our mental life and not allow emotions, especially negative ones, to guide our words, thoughts, actions and feelings, and, most importantly, distort communication with other people.
In children of senior preschool age, feelings dominate all aspects of their lives, giving them a special coloring. A six-year-old child, of course, already knows how to be restrained and can hide fear, aggression and tears. But this happens when it is very, very necessary. The strongest and most important source of a child’s experiences is his relationships with other people - adults and children. Need in positive emotions from other people determines the child’s behavior. This need gives rise to complex multifaceted feelings: love, jealousy, sympathy, envy, etc.
If we evaluate the characteristics of the feelings of children 6–7 years old, then it must be said that at this age they are not protected from the whole variety of experiences that they directly experience in everyday communication with adults and peers. Their day is full of emotions. One day contains experiences of sublime joy, shameful envy, fear, despair, subtle understanding of another and complete alienation. Older preschoolers are prisoners of emotions. For every occasion that life throws up, there are worries. Therefore, emotions can tire them to the point of complete exhaustion. Tired, the child ceases to understand, ceases to follow the rules, ceases to be good boy(or girl), the good baby he can be. He needs a break from his own feelings.
However, with all the mobility of emotions and feelings, children of senior preschool age are characterized by an increase in “reasonableness”. This is related to the mental development of the child. He can already regulate his behavior. An older preschooler is already able to distinguish the entire spectrum of human emotions, and he develops stable feelings and relationships. “Higher feelings” are formed: intellectual (curiosity, inquisitiveness, sense of humor, surprise), moral (a sense of pride, a sense of shame, a sense of friendship), aesthetic (a sense of beauty, a sense of heroism). Against the background of emotional dependence on the assessments of an adult, the child develops a desire for recognition, expressed in the desire to receive approval and praise, to confirm his importance. Children of senior preschool age are characterized by a predominance of socially significant motives over personal ones.
Thus, a child’s level of readiness for school is not determined only by his ability to write, read and count. This is a combination of physical, mental and social development that a child needs to successfully master the school curriculum.
Answer the question: “is your child ready for school?” Specialists will help - pediatricians and psychologists, who, during a conversation with you and your children, will answer your questions, carry out the necessary diagnostics and give professional recommendations on strengthening the physical and psychological health of your children.
So, diagnostics of readiness for schooling, which is carried out by a psychologist, includes:
Diagnostics of physiological readiness, i.e. studying:
- general physical development;
- hand motor skills;
- performance;
- movement characteristics;
- voluntary regulation of actions.
Diagnostics of psychological readiness, i.e. studying the level of development:
- perception;
- memory;
- attention;
- thinking;
- speeches;
- range of knowledge and ideas about basic objects and phenomena of the environment.
Diagnostics of social, or personal, readiness, i.e. studying:
- level of development of the emotional-volitional sphere;
- level of development of communication skills;
- motivation to learn;
- self-esteem.
School readiness is a combination of certain properties and ways of behavior (competencies) of the child necessary for him to perceive, process and assimilate educational stimuli at the beginning and during the further continuation of schooling. Readiness for school should be considered as an extensive network of a connected whole: it always depends on the conditions in a particular school, on the qualities of the child and on the professional qualifications of the teachers working in the school.
In order for a child to successfully cope with the new demands of school life, he must have a set of qualities that are closely intertwined.
These qualities cannot be considered in isolation from the child’s “life world,” from the environment of a particular school, or from the way of life in the family. Therefore, the modern definition of the concept of “school readiness” takes into account all these factors and defines “school readiness” as a set of “competencies”.
Unfortunately, the concept of “competence” and its meaning are often not clearly explained. However, this concept is of key importance in modern education and, in particular, in determining school readiness.
If a child has well-developed speech, that is, he basically knows how to speak well and understands what he hears, this does not mean that he has developed communicative competence - the most important property necessary for a person in the conditions of modern life. For example, in a large class situation, he may suddenly become speechless and, coming to the board, will not be able to connect even two words. This often happens to adults too. This means that he is not ready to speak in front of a group of people; his speech abilities, although well developed, are not enough to communicate successfully in this specific situation. It turns out that in order for speech abilities to manifest themselves in various situations of specific communication in life, it is necessary to combine the development of speech with emotional stability, the development of will (with the ability to overcome one’s uncertainty, fear), and the need to express one’s thoughts and feelings must also be formed.
Or another example. In principle, a person has well-developed speech. He understands what is said to him and can express his thoughts adequately and clearly. But nevertheless, he is not a “sociable person”, does not create an atmosphere of relaxed communication in the team, “does not like” to communicate, and is not interested in other people. Openness, a tendency to communicate, interest in other people - these are the components (along with the ability to understand speech and clearly formulate one’s thoughts) of communicative competence, which are the key to successful communication in life. It is clear that school readiness cannot be reduced to some two or three indicators isolated from each other. For example, if a child can already read and count, it means he is ready for school, etc. Readiness for school is characterized by a large number of signs that are closely interconnected and interdependent.
School readiness is not a “program” that can simply be taught (trained). Rather, it is an integral property of the child’s personality, which develops under general favorable conditions in diverse situations of life experience and communication in which the child is included in the family and other social groups. It develops not through special classes, but indirectly - through “participation in life.”
If we remember the demands that school life places on a child and try to analyze the competencies that a child should have, then they can be grouped into four large groups.
Emotional readiness school implies a set of qualities that allow the child to overcome emotional insecurities, various blockades that interfere with the perception of educational impulses or lead to the fact that the child withdraws into himself. It is clear that a child cannot cope with all tasks and situations easily. Difficult tasks, as well as the teacher’s explanations, can cause the child to feel: “I will never cope with this” or “I don’t understand at all what she (the teacher) wants from me.” Such experiences can be a burden on the child’s psyche and lead to the fact that the child generally ceases to believe in his own abilities and stops actively learning. Resistance to such loads and the ability to deal constructively with them is important component emotional competence.
When a child knows something, wants to show his knowledge and reaches out his hand, then, naturally, it does not always turn out that he is actually called. When a teacher calls on another teacher, but the child absolutely wants to show off his knowledge, it can be very disappointing. The child may think: “If they don’t call me, then there’s no point in trying” - and stop actively participating in lessons. In school life there are the most different situations, in which he has to experience disappointment. The child may react to these situations with passivity or aggression. The ability to adequately tolerate and cope with disappointments is another aspect of emotional competence.
Social readiness school is closely connected with the emotional. School life includes the child's participation in various communities, entering and maintaining diverse contacts, connections and relationships. First and foremost, it is a community of class. The child must be prepared for the fact that he will no longer be able to follow only his desires and impulses, regardless of whether his behavior interferes with other children or the teacher. The relationships in the classroom community largely determine how your child will be able to successfully perceive and process learning experiences, that is, benefit from them for their development. Let’s imagine this more specifically. If everyone who wants to say something or ask a question speaks or asks at the same moment, chaos will arise and no one will be able to listen to anyone. For normal productive work, it is important that children listen to each other and allow the interlocutor to finish speaking. Therefore, the ability to control one's own impulses and listen to others is an important component of social competence.
It is important that the child can feel like a member of a group, a group community, or, in the case of school education, a class. The teacher cannot address each child individually, but addresses the entire class. In this case, it is important that each child understands and feels that the teacher, when addressing the class, is also addressing him personally. Therefore, feeling like a member of a group is another important property of social competence.
Children are all different, with different interests, impulses, desires, etc. These interests, impulses and desires must be realized in accordance with the situation and not to the detriment of others. In order for a heterogeneous group to function successfully, various rules of common life are created. Therefore, social readiness for school includes the child’s ability to understand the meaning of the rules of behavior and how people treat each other and the willingness to follow these rules. Conflicts are part of the life of any social group. Class life is no exception here. The point is not whether conflicts arise or not, but how they are resolved. It is important to teach them other, constructive models for resolving conflict situations: talking to each other, looking for solutions to conflicts together, involving third parties, etc. The ability to constructively resolve conflicts and behave socially acceptable in controversial situations is an important part of a child's social readiness for school.
Motor readiness for school. Motor readiness for school is understood not only to what extent the child controls his body, but also his ability to perceive his body, feel and voluntarily direct movements (possess internal mobility), express his impulses with the help of the body and movement. When they talk about motor readiness for school school, they mean the coordination of the eye-hand system and the development of fine motor skills necessary for learning to write. Here it must be said that the speed of mastering hand movements associated with writing may be different for different children. This is due to uneven and individual maturation of the corresponding areas of the human brain. Many modern methods of teaching writing take this fact into account and do not require the child to write small letters in lined notebooks with strict adherence to boundaries from the very beginning. Children first “write” letters and “draw” shapes in the air, then use a pencil to large sheets, and only at the next stage do they move on to writing letters in notebooks. This gentle method takes into account that a child may enter school with an underdeveloped hand. However, most schools still require writing in small font (according to the cursive) and maintaining appropriate boundaries. This is difficult for many children. Therefore, it is good if, before school, the child has mastered to a certain extent the movements of the arm, hand and fingers. Possession of fine motor skills is an important characteristic of a child’s motor readiness for school. The manifestation of will, initiative and activity largely depends on how much the child controls his body as a whole and is able to express his impulses in the form of bodily movement.
Participation in general games and the joy of movement is something more than a way of establishing oneself in a children's group (social relations). The fact is that the educational process proceeds rhythmically. Periods of concentration, attention, and work that require a certain amount of tension should be replaced by periods of activity that bring joy and relaxation. If a child cannot fully experience such periods of bodily activity, then the load associated with the educational process and the general stress associated with school life will not be able to find a full counterbalance. In general, the development of the so-called “gross motor skills”, without which a child cannot jump rope, play ball, balance on a bar, etc., and also enjoy different types movement is an important part of readiness for school. The perception of one’s own body and its capabilities (“I can do this, I can handle this!”) gives the child a general positive feeling of life. A positive sense of life is expressed in the fact that children enjoy facing obstacles, overcoming difficulties and testing their skills and dexterity (climbing trees, jumping from heights, etc.). Being able to adequately perceive obstacles and interact with them is an important part of a child’s motor readiness for school.
Cognitive readiness school, which has long been considered and is still considered by many to be the main form of school readiness, plays, although not the main, but still a very significant role. It is important that the child can concentrate on a task for some time and complete it. This is not so simple: at any given time we are exposed to stimuli of the most varied kinds. These are noises, optical impressions, smells, other people, etc. In a large class, there are always some distracting events happening. Therefore, the ability to concentrate for some time and maintain attention on the task at hand is the most important prerequisite for successful learning. It is believed that a child has developed good concentration if he can carefully complete the task assigned to him for 15–20 minutes without getting tired. The educational process is designed in such a way that when explaining or demonstrating any phenomena, there is often a need to connect what is happening in this moment, with what has been explained or demonstrated recently. Therefore, along with the ability to listen carefully, it is necessary that the child remember what he heard and saw and retain it in memory for at least some time. Therefore, the ability to short-term auditory (auditory) and visual (visual) memory, which allows you to mentally process incoming information, is an important prerequisite for success educational process. It goes without saying that hearing and vision must also be well developed. Children enjoy doing things that interest them. Therefore, when the topic or task given by the teacher matches their inclinations, what they like, there is no problem. When they are not interested, they often simply do nothing and start minding their own business, that is, they stop studying. However, demanding from a teacher that he offer children only topics that are interesting to them, that are always interesting to everyone, is completely unrealistic. Something is interesting for some children, but not for others. It is impossible, and indeed wrong, to build all teaching solely on the basis of the child’s interest. Therefore, schooling always contains moments when children have to do something that is uninteresting and boring to them, at least at first. The prerequisite for a child to engage with content that is initially foreign to him is a general interest in learning, curiosity and inquisitiveness towards new things. Such curiosity, inquisitiveness, the desire to learn and learn something is an important prerequisite for successful learning.
Learning is, to a large extent, the systematic accumulation of knowledge. This accumulation can occur in different ways. It’s one thing when I remember individual elements of information without connecting them to each other, without passing them through individual understanding. This leads to rote learning. This learning strategy is dangerous because it can become a habit. Unfortunately, we have to admit that in recent years the number of university students who understand learning in exactly this way has increased - as a mechanical reproduction of unknown material, definitions, diagrams and structures without any interrelation, in isolation from the relationship to reality. Such “knowledge” does not serve the development of thinking and personality as a whole, and is quickly forgotten. The reason for this is the wrong learning habits reinforced by schooling. The strategy of rote learning (rote learning) is established when the child is presented with material that he cannot yet understand, or as a result of an ill-conceived methodology that does not take into account the current level of development of the child. It is important that the knowledge that a child receives at school and outside of school is formed into an extensive network of interconnected elements, passed through individual understanding. In this case, knowledge serves development and can be applied in natural situations. Such knowledge is an indispensable component of competence - the ability to successfully cope with problems in various life situations. Intellectual knowledge is built up step by step not only in the process of schooling, but also from the diverse information and experience a child receives outside the walls of school.
In order for a child to be able to integrate the information he receives into what he already has and build an extensive network of interconnected knowledge on its basis, it is necessary that by the time he learns he already has the rudiments of logical (sequential) thinking and understands the relationships and patterns (expressed in the words “if”, “then”). ", "because"). In this case, we are not talking about some special “scientific” concepts, but about simple relationships found in life, in language, in human activity. If we see in the morning that there are puddles on the street, then it is natural to conclude that it rained at night or early in the morning the street was watered by a sprinkler. When we hear or read a story (a fairy tale, a story, we hear a message about an event), then in this story individual statements (sentences) are built into an interconnected thread thanks to language. The language itself is logical.
And finally, our daily actions, the use of simple tools in household also obey a logical pattern: in order to pour water into a cup, we place the cup bottom down, not up, etc. Logical connections in natural phenomena, language and everyday actions are, according to modern logic and psychology, the basis of logical laws and their understanding. Therefore, the ability for consistent logical thinking and understanding of relationships and patterns at the level of everyday life is an important prerequisite for a child’s cognitive readiness for learning.
Let us now present all the elements we have named in the form of a general table of “basic competencies” of school readiness.
The question arises: should a child have all these qualities in full in order to be “ready for school”? There are practically no children who fully correspond to all the described characteristics. But a child’s readiness for school can still be determined.
My eldest son knew how to do all this by the age of five, so from the age of six we decided to send him to school and enrolled him in a preparatory school class at the lyceum closest to home, so that the child would learn what classes are like at school and gradually get used to it.
For six months, from October to April, my child attended preparatory class. From my point of view, he studied quite successfully, completed assignments, was active in class, and answered the teacher’s questions. He went to classes willingly and did not dislike them. At the end of the year the children were given test tasks, my child coped with them successfully, scored the number of points required for admission to this lyceum.
But when, after completing preparatory education, lists of children enrolled in first grade were posted on the notice board, I did not find my child there. We were not accepted into the lyceum.
I went to the director of the lyceum to find out what was the matter. In addition to the director, they also talked to me school psychologist and head teacher of primary school. They informed me that “school readiness is not only the ability to read and write, but also the ability to behave in class.”
Next, I began to find out what my child was doing in class? It turned out that one day his pencil broke, he took a sharpener and began to sharpen it and did not continue to complete the teacher’s task until he sharpened the pencil, although the teacher suggested taking a pencil similar in color. I already knew about this incident, it was in October, and the conversation about it was in April. In October, I found out about this when I saw an uncolored picture in my son’s notebook and asked him about everything. My child then first discovered a sharpener in his pencil case and decided to try it out. Then, at home, he sharpened all the pencils that were available and calmed down, and I removed the sharpener from his pencil case. The teacher didn’t say a word to me about it then.
Another argument that was given to me was the following. The children were asked to draw a picture on the topic: “I’m at school.” My child drew multi-storey building and two human figures next to him. When I asked what it was, my son replied: “This is a school. This is me, and this is my friend Gleb.” It turns out that my child did not draw himself inside the school, but next to it, this means that he does not see himself at school, which means he is not ready for school yet.
I did not receive any advice on what to do to prepare my child for school. I tried to find out if my child is not ready for school now, because he is six or he is not suitable for this lyceum at all. From the conversation, I realized that they don’t want to see me and my child at this lyceum, not from the age of six, but they don’t want to at all, so I need to choose another school.
I decided to independently determine whether my child was ready for school or not, and then choose which school to go to.
A child’s readiness for school is usually determined at three levels
- Morphofunctional- the child’s health status. This includes the level of physical development, compliance with the biological and passport age of the child. Number of acute diseases per Last year(resistance). Mental health. The presence or absence of chronic diseases in the child. The presence or absence of defects in sound pronunciation, speech development.
- Intellectual or mental - memory, thinking, perception, imagination, accumulated skills and abilities.
- Personal- attitude towards studies, school, peers, ability to communicate, act according to the rules set by the teacher.
How to determine a child’s morphofunctional readiness for school?
The first, morphofunctional level of a child’s readiness for school is determined by doctors in a children’s clinic or kindergarten. Before school, each child undergoes in-depth medical checkup, the results of which are entered into the child in form 026/у.
This includes
- Determination of the child’s height, body weight, chest circumference. Examinations by a neurologist, ENT specialist, surgeon, orthopedist, ophthalmologist, speech therapist, dermatologist, psychiatrist. For girls - a gynecologist.
- If a child has a chronic disease and is seen by a specialist doctor, this doctor is added to the list of doctors before school. This could be a nephrologist, gastroenterologist, allergist, audiologist, etc.
- General blood and urine tests, blood sugar test, stool test for helminth eggs, ECG.
- At the very end, the child is examined by a pediatrician, evaluates the results of the examination of all specialists, the results of the ECG and tests, and makes a general conclusion about the state of the child’s health.
The child is ready to learn at school at the morphofunctional level If
- The child’s body weight and height are appropriate for his age. Biological age is in accordance with the passport age. The child has more than 2 permanent teeth.
- The child had acute illnesses three or fewer times in the previous year.
- The child does not have chronic diseases or they are in remission.
- The child has no functional abnormalities, mental abnormalities or they are minor.
- The child has no defects in sound pronunciation or has 1-2 minor defects.
- Health groups 1, 2, 3.
At the morphofunctional level, my child was ready for school.
How to determine a child's intellectual readiness for school?
Kern Jerasek test
To determine a child's intellectual readiness for school, the Kern-Jerasek indicative test is most widely and often used. Previously, this test was carried out in offices healthy child in children's clinics. Now there are no such offices and the test is sometimes carried out in kindergartens before school or in the schools themselves.
It allows you to determine whether your child has sufficiently developed the skills needed in school. Ability to draw, thinking, speaking, ability to concentrate, complete a task.
The test consists of three tasks
- Draw a picture according to the description.
- Copy the written three-word phrase.
- Copy points while maintaining their location in space.
See below for a sample of this test with an interpretation of the result.
Each task is assessed separately Maximum score 1 minimum 5
- Excellent result 3-5 points.
- Good result 6-7 points.
- Satisfactory result 8-9 points.
- The child is not ready for school with 10 points or more.
My son completed the Kern-Jerasek test at the Lyceum with 6 points - this is a good result.
Child’s personal readiness for school
A child’s personal readiness for school is determined in a conversation with him, by his behavior, attitude towards parents and peers. This point is the most difficult to evaluate.
If you ask a child whether he wants to go to school, to first grade, most modern children will answer “No.”
I asked about this at a reception for future first-graders. Only a few confidently answer “Yes,” some children avoid answering, answer “I don’t know,” and more than half answer “No.”
Trying to wait until the child wants to go to school is not realistic, this may not happen at all. You should talk with the child, explain the need to study at school, etc.
Children who attended kindergarten, it is easier to adapt to studying at school, because they have experience communicating in a children's group with a teacher and with peers.
It was this point that let my son and I down. According to other indicators, my child was ready for school.
Determining a child's readiness for school Table
Our experience
Teacher primary classes We found someone who was experienced and understanding, so we managed to overcome all the difficulties.
The child has health problems, bad mood, there was no negative attitude towards what was happening. But we had to pick him up from school, keep strict control over how he studied his homework, put his textbooks in his backpack, got dressed, etc.
Today, my son is in seventh grade, without any C grades. He is best at English, literature, Russian, history, geography, biology; algebra, geometry, and physics are more difficult for him. No one in our family regrets that he went to school at the age of six.
It's all about the child's readiness for school. Stay healthy!
Child readiness tests for school
When they talk about “readiness for school,” they do not mean individual skills and knowledge, but a specific set of them, in which all the main components are present.
It cannot be denied that learning can be effective only if a first-grader has the necessary and sufficient qualities for learning.
Readiness for schooling consists of many components:
1. Physical fitness age for school is determined by the child’s physical development and its compliance with age standards.
2. Psychological readiness to school implies a certain level of formation: general awareness and social and everyday orientation; knowledge and ideas about the world around us; mental operations, actions and skills; voluntary regulation of activity and behavior; cognitive activity; speech development.
3.Emotional maturity represents the ability to regulate one’s behavior, including the ability to perform a not very attractive task for a sufficiently long time.
4.Social and communicative readiness for school consists of a child’s ability to build relationships in a group of peers: to occupy a leading position, be able to work in a team and support the leader - and also be able to communicate with an adult interlocutor.
Besides, the child must want to go to school. And here we, adults, must be able to distinguish between the child’s internal motivation and external motivation. A preschooler should go to school because he wants to know a lot, expects that it will be interesting, and not because we will buy him a new construction set or a walking robot for it.
Considering the fact that a child often meets a psychologist for the first time only immediately upon entering school, we can offer a special diagnostic technique for parents who, with the help of simple observations and answers to questions, will be able to determine for themselves whether their child is ready for school. However, before talking directly about the diagnostic technique, it is necessary to talk about certain rules.
1. All assignments must be offered in a relaxed atmosphere. It should be a game or some kind of daily activity.
2. You should not tell your child that you are going to check him. He will close himself off. Or he will be too tense.
3. This is just an observation, so it may be extended over time. Don't rush him or yourself.
Diagnostic technique - a modified questionnaire developed by the American psychologist J. Chapey
1. Assessing the child's basic experience
Has your child ever had to accompany you to the post office, savings bank, or store?
Was the baby in the library?
Has your child ever been to a village, a zoo, or a museum?
Have you had the opportunity to regularly read to your baby or tell him stories?
Does the child show increased interest in anything, does he have a hobby?
2. Assessment of physical development
Does the child hear well?
Does he see well?
Is he able to sit quietly for some time?
Does he have good motor coordination, such as playing catch, jumping, going up and down stairs?
Does the child look healthy, cheerful, rested?
3. Assessment of emotional development
Does the child seem cheerful (at home and among friends)?
Has the child formed an image of himself as a person who can do a lot?
Is it easy for a child to switch when there are changes in the usual daily routine and move on to solving a new task?
Is the child able to work independently and compete with other children?
4. Assessment of speech development
Can the child name and label the main objects around him?
Is it easy for a child to answer questions from adults?
Can your child explain what different things are used for: a brush, a vacuum cleaner, a refrigerator?
Can the child explain where objects are located: on the table, under the table?
Is the baby able to tell a story, describe something that happened to him?
Does the child pronounce words clearly?
Is the child's speech grammatically correct?
5. Assessing communication skills
Does the child join in the play of other children?
Does he take turns when the situation calls for it?
Is the child able to listen to others without interrupting?
Is the child able to participate in a general conversation or act out any scene in a home performance?
6. Assessment of cognitive development
Can a child identify similar and dissimilar shapes? For example, find a picture that is not similar to the others?
Can a child distinguish between letters and short words b/p, cat/year?
Is the child able to put a series of pictures in order (in a given sequence)?
Can a child independently, without outside help, put together a fifteen-piece puzzle?
Can a child rhyme words?
Can a child repeat a few words or numbers after an adult?
Is the child able to retell the story while maintaining the main idea and sequence of actions?
If all your answers were yes, congratulations. Your child is obviously ready for school and will easily pass all tests and interviews.
If your answers are twenty percent or more negative, then this is a serious reason to think: are you in a hurry to send your child to school?
Test for a child’s psychological and social readiness for school
Instructions: I will read you a few sentences. If you agree, put a + on a piece of paper.
1. When I go to school, I will have many new friends.
2. I'm wondering what kind of lessons I will have.
3. I think I will invite my whole class to my birthday.
4. I want the lesson to be longer than recess.
5. When I go to school, I will study well.
6. I'm wondering what they offer for breakfast at school.
7. The best thing about school life is the holidays.
8. It seems that school is much more interesting than gardening.
9. I really want to go to school, because... my friends are also going to school.
10. If it were possible, I would have gone to school last year.
Evaluation of results:
High level - if the child gave at least 8 pluses
The average level is from 4 to 8 pluses, the child wants to go to school, but it attracts him with its extracurricular aspects. If there is a greater number of +s on the first 5 points, then the child dreams of new friends and games, but if on points from 6 to 10, the idea of school is formed, the attitude is positive.
Low level - from 0 to 3 pluses. Reb has no idea about school and is not committed to learning.
Test for the level of development of school-significant mental and physiological functions
Brief Study of Speech Hearing Development
Instructions: I will say pairs of words, and you raise your hand if you hear the same words: day-shadow, stick-stick, beam-stick, beam-beam, bear-bowl, bowl-bowl.
Instructions: I will say a couple of syllables, and you clap your hands when you hear different syllables:
PA-BA, PA-PA, BA-PA, BA-BA, YOU-TI, TI-TI, TI-TY, YOU-YOU, SU-SHU, SU-SU, SHU-SHU, SHU-SU.
Instructions: I will pronounce the syllables, and you listen carefully to them and repeat:
PA-PO-PU, PO-PU-PA, PU-PA-PO, PA-TA-KA, TA-KA-PA, TA-PA-KA, TA-DA-TA, TA-TA-DA, TA- YES-YES, BA-PA-BA, PA-PA-BA.
And now I will say the words, you will remember them and repeat them (the order of the words changes several times):
HOUSE-TOM-COM
BARREL-POINT-DAUGHTER-POINT.
Evaluation of results:
high level - the child accurately distinguishes words and syllables that are similar in sound composition, distinguishes words with similar sounds.
Average level - the child makes minor mistakes, but with slow repetition he can correct them on his own.
Low level - the child does not distinguish between syllables and words that sound similar, and does not notice errors when repeated many times.
Test for the level of development of cognitive activity
Vocabulary test
You are offered 5 sets of words. Choose 1 of them (or gradually work with each set on different days) and ask your child the instructions:
Imagine that you meet a foreigner, he doesn’t understand Russian well. He asks you to explain what these words mean. How will you answer? Next, alternately offer words from the set you have chosen.
Word sets:
1. Bicycle, nail, letter, umbrella, fur, hero, swing, connect, bite, sharp.
2. Plane, hammer, book, cloak, feathers, friend, jump, divide, hit, stupid.
3. Car, broom, notebook, boots, scales, coward, run, tie, pinch, prickly.
4. Bus, shovel, album, hat, fluff, sneak, spin, scratch, soft, run away.
5. Motorcycle, brush, notebook, boots, skin, enemy, stumble, collect, iron, rough.
If there is difficulty, the child can draw a given object or depict it with a gesture.
Evaluation of results: for each correctly explained word, the maximum possible score is 2 points (for a definition close to scientific).
1 point - understands the meaning of the word, but cannot express it verbally.
1.5 points - can describe the subject verbally.
0 points - no understanding of the word.
For six-year-olds, low level - 0 – 6.5 points
Average level - 7-12 points
High level - 12.5 - 20 points
Test "Outlook"
Assessment of the level of development of cognitive activity
The purpose of the test: to determine the amount of information about yourself, your family, the world around you, as well as your ability to analyze and judge.
1. State your first name, last name, patronymic.
2. State the surname and patronymic of your parents.
3. Are you a girl or a boy? What will you be when you grow up: a man or a woman?
4. Do you have a brother, sister, who is older?
5. How old are you? How much will it be in a year or two?
6. It’s morning, evening (afternoon or morning?)
7. When do you have breakfast (morning or evening?), lunch? What comes first, lunch or dinner, day or night?
8. Where do you live, what is your home address?
9. What do your parents do?
10. Do you like to draw? What color is this pencil (dress, book?)
11. What time of year is it now, why do you think so?
12. When can you go sledding - in winter or summer?
13. Why does it snow in winter and not in summer?
14. What does a postman (doctor, teacher?) do?
15. Why do we need a bell and desk at school?
16. Do you want to go to school yourself?
17. Show me your right eye, left ear? Why do we need eyes and ears?
18. What animals do you know?
19. What birds do you know?
20. Who is bigger, a cow or a goat?
21. What is greater than 8 or 5? Count from 3 to 6, from 9 to 2.
22. What should you do if you break someone else’s thing?
INFORMATION ABOUT YOURSELF, FAMILY – 1,2,3,4,5,8,9,17
VIEW OF THE WORLD AROUND – 6.7, 10.11, 12.14, 18.19
ABILITY TO ANALYSIS, REASONING – 13, 20, 21,22
SCHOOL MOTIVATION – 15,16.
GRADE:
Each correct answer is worth 1 point, each correct but incomplete answer is worth 0.5 points.
Separately assessed next questions:
Question 5 - the child has calculated how old he will be - 1 point, names the year taking into account the months - 3 points (for example, I am 6 years and eight months old, in a year I will be 7 years and eight months)
Question 8 – full home address – 3 points
Question 15 – correct use of school paraphernalia – 1 point
Question 16 – positive answer – 1 point
Question 17 – correct answer – 3 points
Question 22 – correct, adequate answer – 2 points
Evaluation of results:
High level – 24-29 points
Average level – 20-23.5 points
Low level – from 19.5 and below
Test "Draw a person"
Ask your child to draw a person: “Take a piece of paper and draw a person. Decide who it will be: boy, girl, uncle, aunt.”
Ideally, this should be a picture of a human figure that has all the parts: ears, eyes, mouth, torso, neck, hands with fingers, legs, Bottom part the torso is separated from the upper.
The fewer details, the more primitive the drawing.
Test "Repeat"
Write the phrase in handwritten letters on an unlined piece of paper: “She was given tea.”
The instruction may be as follows: “Look carefully at how the letters are drawn here, try to write them exactly the same way.”
The highest score can be given when you see complete similarity between the letters and the sample. Of course, the letters may differ from the original, but not more than twice.
And also the child must show that he saw a capital letter that will be higher than the rest.
Circle test
Using a compass, draw a circle on a sheet of paper with a diameter of approximately 2.5 cm.
Ask your child to carefully trace the outline without lifting his hand.
If this task is completed successfully, you will see an exact reproduction of the sample.
Observe how gross mistakes were made in this work.
If you see that a lot of things are difficult for a child, and especially if he has no desire, you shouldn’t force him. In the end, he's just not ready.
Test for parents
1.Does your child want to go to school?
2. Is your child attracted to school because he will learn a lot there and it will be interesting to study there?
3.Can your child do anything independently that requires concentration for 30 minutes (for example, assembling a construction set)?
4. Is it true that your child is not at all embarrassed in the presence of strangers?
5.Can your child write stories based on pictures that are no shorter than five sentences?
6.Can your child recite several poems by heart?
7.Can he change nouns according to numbers?
8.Can your child read syllables or, better yet, whole words?
9.Can your child count to 10 and back?
10.Can he decide? simple tasks to subtract or add one?
11.Is it true that your child has a steady hand?
12.Does he like to draw and color pictures?
13.Can your child use scissors and glue (for example, make appliqué)?
14.Can he assemble a cut-out picture from five parts in one minute?
15.Does the child know the names of wild and domestic animals?
16.Can he generalize concepts (for example, call tomatoes, carrots, onions in one word “vegetables”)?
17.Does your child like to do things independently - draw, assemble mosaics, etc.?
18.Can he understand and accurately follow verbal instructions?
Possible test results depend on the number of affirmative answers to the test questions.
15-18 points - we can assume that the child is quite ready to go to school. It was not in vain that you studied with him, and school difficulties, if they arise, will be easily overcome;
10-14 points - you are on the right track, the child has learned a lot, and the content of the questions to which you answered in the negative will tell you where to apply further efforts;
9 and less - read specialized literature, try to devote more time to activities with the child and pay special attention to what he does not know how to do.
----
Psychologists have found that a child’s mental and emotional readiness for school occurs: for a girl at 7-8 years old; for a boy aged 8-9 years. Of course, few people, given this important point, send their son to school at the age of 8-9. It is generally accepted to send a child to school at the age of 6-7 years and no later - even earlier is better, but this is a misconception, no - later is better. For this reason, boys lag significantly behind girls in education and discipline. For this reason, it is not permissible to compare a boy’s performance with a girl’s performance. For this reason, the boy needs more attention, support and understanding from parents and teachers. Otherwise, the child will completely lose the desire to learn and learn new things.
Social readiness is more difficult for those children who did not play with their mother in the yard sandbox, gathering all the children around them into the game; did not attend kindergarten or attended it, but only the preparatory graduating group, since children learn socialization from an early age (from the moment the child took his first independent steps), a sandbox in the yard and a kindergarten with a nursery or junior group are a wonderful pre-school socialization school.
These are two different levels of its development, and one of them should flow smoothly from the other. Kindergarten, if the child attends it, or parents at home are constantly preparing their child for this important step - school. The future first grader will receive a large amount of information, to understand and consolidate which he will need all his acquired qualities up to this point. The concept of a child’s readiness for school implies a level of preparedness that makes it possible to fully and without unnecessary stress both learn and interact with a new society. Here it is necessary to focus on the most important details, such as speech, memory, thinking, attention, a certain amount of knowledge, desire to learn, the ability to obey established and generally accepted rules, etc. In order to most accurately understand how to determine a child’s readiness for school, we need to consider this problem in detail from all sides.
So, what is a child’s readiness for school?
At first he is considered a cheerful and funny toddler, then a smart and serious kid, and now school is coming... Is he ready, can he cope, how will he behave, how can he be helped? There should be as many answers as there are questions on this topic...
Types of child readiness for school
Traditionally differ the following types the child’s readiness for school: psychological, personal, motivational, intellectual, speech, physiological, physical and others. All these types in their totality must correspond to the proper level that parents must provide for their children the best way for their ability to learn and easily adapt to new conditions and requirements of the school period.
Psychological readiness of the child for school
So, when talking with children, to the question: “Why do you want to go to school?”, many of them answered something like this: “I’m already big and that’s why I want to study.” At this age, seeing that adults, when talking about studying, take it very seriously, they themselves begin to realize that they are entering into new period life, which is important to their parents. Simply put, a child who is psychologically ready to learn at a new level is already on the first step towards becoming an adult.
Some parents manage to once and for all discourage their son or daughter from going to school by making threats, such as, for example: “If you don’t want to learn to count, well, that’s okay, you can’t go anywhere, you’ll study there like a darling...” or force their a child, with torment and tears, completes tasks from a first-grade textbook, believing that in this way they are preparing him for school times. None of this should be done under any circumstances.
The child does not yet know exactly what school is; he draws information from the words of adults. Parents must interest the child, show him that it is training that can show him how big and interesting world, tell how much new and unknown he can learn. A child’s psychological readiness for school includes a complex set of components that are the result of the child’s upbringing and development in the period up to 6 or 7 years.
Child’s personal readiness for school
Preschool age is precisely the period when a child begins to feel like an independent person. An internal change occurs, and the child begins to understand that one cycle in his life is irrevocably ending - kindergarten, “little childhood” and another - the “adult stage” is beginning. This is a very important process of awareness, without which adaptation to school can occur with certain complications. A child’s personal readiness for school is his acceptance of the new social position of a “student”, with its certain rights and responsibilities, an understanding of his new status, a desire to learn and gain knowledge, a positive attitude, the ability and willingness to actively participate in the life of a new team.
A big role here is played by the child’s motivational readiness for school, when he is guided by certain motives, explaining his desire to go to school. Such motives will be: educational (I will go because I like to study), cognitive (I will go because I want to gain new knowledge), positional (I want to do an important thing, I will do it as an adult). Motives that indicate inappropriate preparation will be: playful (I will go to school because there are a lot of kids there to play with), social (I need to go so that I can get a job and earn money) and external (I will have to study because my mother forces me to ).
What is a child’s mental readiness for school?
The readiness of a child’s psyche is determined by his inner world, which managed to form over a period of 3 to 6 or 7 years. It is during this time that children begin to receive the maximum of already well-understood information. Thus, the reality around them is no longer reduced only to home, parents, and friends from kindergarten. It begins to expand to the limits of the city and country, and also invites you to enter the space of adult relationships. Exactly at preschool age Children think in figurative ideas, using a creative approach and elements of play in everything. Gradually, they begin to realize themselves as individuals and acquire the ability to internally and independently control their behavior. A so-called character appears, which is expressed in the individual relationship between the child and social reality. Ethical standards are adopted, a worldview is formed, and the baby is finally formed as a person, ready to communicate in society in compliance with the rules of this society.
Thus, a child’s mental readiness for school will be complete if he has successfully completed the indicated stages and is prepared to act, in this case, in a new team and according to new rules. In addition, thanks to the development of thinking and the emergence of needs for new knowledge, he feels a desire to learn and experience the world from new sides in order to quickly become an adult and independent.
There are many opinions on the topic of whether children are ready to study at 6 years old. The only correct solution here would be individual approach. If their psyche is ready for this, then yes. According to research, a large percentage of six-year-olds are still trying to explore the world through play, so their favorite subjects are labor and drawing. And seven-year-olds are already choosing mathematics and writing as the most interesting subjects for them. Watch your child and don’t rush to make him a child prodigy ahead of time. His intelligence will not go anywhere, and he will delight you with excellent grades, but perhaps a year later.
Child's intellectual readiness for school
For successful learning without significant stress, children must intellectually correspond to the level of the first grade. Here we are talking, firstly, about their general knowledge related to the world around them, social life and certain counting skills, knowledge of letters, etc. Secondly, the ability to analyze, compare, generalize and draw independent conclusions is very important. The ability to find cause-and-effect and spatio-temporal relationships is required. Of course, at that age not yet logical thinking, in what form it is present in adults, but this is already its prototype, although in essence it is the highest form so far of only figurative thinking.
Thus, it is not at all difficult to assess a child’s intellectual readiness for school through a normal conversation. The child should be able to talk freely about himself and his family, know his address and details of his closest relatives, not only give information about the world around him - both nature and society, but also know how to use it. Analyzing the information he has, draw a conclusion and explain in a conversation with an adult: “Why is it happening this way, and not like that,” and having received certain knowledge, be able to ask counter questions. Many adults believe that this process of cognition and development of a child proceeds by itself with the help of questions that he asks himself. This is wrong. Children receive answers, which then turn out to be not connected into one system in any way, and therefore a unified picture of the world does not arise. That is why parents must ensure the correct and complete presentation of information to their children, which they can analyze and perceive in its entirety and the interconnection of all its parts.
Speech readiness of the child for school
Many parents believe that if a child has some errors in speech, then this will go away somehow on its own over time, or that “we’re not the only one, the neighbor over there also couldn’t read syllables until the third grade, but he’s grown up.” This is a very common mistake. Even if we take not the learning process itself, but to begin with, just the team of the first grade to which the child will come, then in order to integrate into it in the best possible way, you need to have fairly fast, correctly formed speech. A child’s speech readiness for school is the most important intellectual indicator of development. All parents must remember this. Schoolchildren who do not have developed speech, as a rule, do not cope properly with writing. This leads to the fact that, in principle, smart children begin to not keep up with the pace of the class, which results in poor grades.
If speech is not intelligible due to problems in sound pronunciation, then you should definitely contact a speech therapist so that a specialist can correct this problem. In addition, there are a lot of special exercises that can be done at home, without unnecessarily straining children, but doing it in the form of a game.
It also happens that the vocabulary is not large enough, so, according to the norm, it is considered that it should contain at least 1500-2000 words. Here it is necessary to clarify that a child enriches his speech by imitating the people around him. This means that if parents consciously talk or read a lot and correctly with their children, then this problem will not be observed.
Separately, it should be noted that by the age of 7, the correct grammatical structure of speech should be formed, including the correct inflection of words and the construction of sentences. Only in this case can speech be coherent and, accordingly, oral answers in class will be excellent.
Provided that parents can ensure that their child develops the above-mentioned qualities of communicative speech, he will be able to actively come into contact with his peers and teachers, establish communication and study successfully.
Physiological readiness of the child for school
Very important aspect is the so-called physiological readiness of the child for school, it is expressed in satisfactory health and normal functioning of all body systems. That is why, before entering first grade, all children must undergo a mandatory medical examination, which shows. Are the biological and physical indicators formal age, ahead or behind it, as well as the presence or absence of medical contraindications to study at school. It should be noted that according to the appropriate assessment, it is customary to divide children into five groups according to their level of readiness for school. Moreover, the percentage of absolutely prepared preschoolers is negligible. There are very few completely healthy children nowadays. But you shouldn’t be too upset, since at the ages of 7 and 8 years, the child’s body develops quite intensively and, by the end of the first grade, the children, as a rule, level out and catch up with each other in terms of the above indicators.
If, however, there is a doctor’s recommendation that you should wait a year for admission, then there is nothing wrong with that, you just need to listen and allow the child’s body to get stronger and properly prepare for the stress of school. Each person has his own individual body. This must be taken into account and not harm him, as some parents do, trying to prove that their child is no worse than the rest, and they send the fragile little one to study properly, but he cannot even lift and carry his backpack himself.
Much attention is paid to the development of fine motor skills of the hands. It is precisely because of its poor development, as well as because of insufficient experience in graphic writing, that writing assignments are quite difficult for first-graders. Experts advise in such cases to more often use plasticine modeling classes, games with a constructor made of small parts, which allow you to improve fine motor skills.
Child’s physical readiness for school
According to statistics, when children enter first grade, they begin to get sick more often. This happens not only because they come into contact with a large number of other children, but also because it is during this period that the child’s body begins to adapt to new way. He begins to bear increased loads in relation to the previous ones, directly related both to the new daily routine (less games and rest and more educational activities) and to psycho-emotional fatigue, nervous and mental tension. It is here that it is necessary to note how important it is for a child to be sufficiently physically prepared for school.
What can good physical training give to children? This is, first of all, good health, a developed and resilient organism that can successfully withstand new stress, this excellent level physical development, which will ensure an active state, thereby largely determining the success of studies and excellent academic performance. The connection between good physical fitness and high mental performance has been absolutely proven thanks to numerous observations and studies in this area. Mental performance in first-graders it is expressed in the ability to concentrate on a specific activity for 25 minutes, in the ability to work independently, to assimilate the material being studied well, and in the subsequent absence of pronounced fatigue.
In kindergarten, children spend a lot of time on physical training. These are outdoor games, special physical education and hardening activities. Thus, activities include running, jumping, swimming, outdoor sports games, etc. If a child does not attend kindergarten, then parents must independently provide him with appropriate physical exercise. A child should be active and mobile, this is the key to his health, both physical and mental.
Experts also pay great attention to the same problem of six- and seven-year-olds. Since seven-year-old first-graders are more physically prepared and have more life experience, they adapt to school more easily than their younger friends. The younger ones have to catch up with the older ones in order to at least catch up with them, and this is an even greater burden on both physical and mental health. Parents should not forget about this.
So, what is a child’s level of readiness for school?
Exist various systems, diagnostic tasks and tests that help determine the child’s level of readiness for school. They basically include the same elements:
- assessment of cognitive development;
- level of basic experience (interests, hobbies, etc.);
- assessment of language development;
- level of emotional development and communication skills;
- Is your physical condition satisfactory?
- compliance with the standards of visual memory, perception and hearing ability;
- general psychological readiness.
So, accordingly, the determination of a child’s readiness for school will be made according to satisfactory assessments of these basic indicators.
The problem of child readiness for school
Some parents believe that kindergarten will prepare their child for all difficulties. To some extent this statement is true, but nothing preschool institutions will not be able to give love, understanding, show little man that he is a person. Who else but the parents can explain to the baby what is happening to him, why he is in a state of dissatisfaction and anxiety. He understands, perhaps not entirely consciously, that he needs to find his niche in society, show everyone and prove, first of all, to himself that he is growing up, knows how to take responsibility for his actions, is going on such a difficult journey as school and is not at all afraid difficulties. If there are no understanding and helping parents nearby, the problem of the child’s readiness for school will arise.
It is better to prevent a problem from arising than to spend a long time looking for ways to solve it, and sometimes without success. If at least one of the above types of readiness (psychological, motivational, mental, etc.) does not meet the required level, and parents are not able to cope with this task, it is necessary to immediately seek help from a child psychologist. He will be able, based on professional experience, to help the child overcome the necessary barriers and show parents how to avoid similar mistakes in the future.