Why Are School Readiness Skills Important For Pre-schoolers?

By Author: Joanne Draybi
Total Articles: 12
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Transitioning your child from an early childhood education program to a full-time kindergarten could be exciting. But, is your child ready for the next milestone in his/her education? The first five years of a child are critical to a child’s lifelong development. This is because early experiences influence brain development and help to establish neural connections that are the foundation for reasoning, language, social skills, behaviour, and emotional intelligence that often determine how well a child will perform in academics. The early childhood education program offered at the Dural early childhood centre plays a significant role in child’s development and school readiness.

Academic preparedness is the most important factor in child’s preschool experience. Day care Dural setting gives as much as opportunities for children to play, explore, and learn in a stimulating and nurturing environment. Talking, listening, chatting is equally important to reading stories and looking at picture books.

The Importance of School Readiness

Developing school readiness skills allows the teachers to expand and further ...
... develop a child’s skills in areas of play, social interaction, language, physical skills, literacy, fine motor skills, and emotional development. Without these basic skills when moving to kindergarten, children can’t pick up quickly compared to their peers who are advancing more quickly. Students who have attended early childhood education program provided at the dural kindergarten progress quickly as opposed to those that haven’t attended. In fact, they tend to begin the slow process of developing school readiness.

The Building Blocks of School Readiness

Self-Regulation - The ability to maintain and change the emotion, attention, behaviour, and activity based on a task or situation.

Receptive Language - Analysing and understanding what others speak, and the ability to respond. For ex, children should be able to understand teacher’s instructions.

Expressive Language- When they try to communicate it should be understood by other kids.

Articulation - The ability to clearly pronounce individual sounds in words.

Executive Functioning -Thinking skills like what to pack to school, etc.

Emotional Development/Regulation - The child should be able to perceive, understand, and regulate emotions.

Social Skills - The ability to socialise compromise, recognises, and more importantly, follow social norms.

Planning And Sequencing - The ability to multi task/activity performance to achieve the result.

The best way to prepare your child for school is giving them an opportunity to explore and experiment in a nurturing environment with caring adults.