How to Judge Kindergarten Readiness

How do you judge kindergarten readiness?

Judging kindergarten readiness is an important parenting issue that is more complex than chronological age or simply being able to recite letters, numbers, shapes and colors. Kindergarten readiness is a combination of a number of factors. Rarely will a child be completely ready or unready by the time they’re the age the school district will allow them to enroll. In fact, most kids will fall somewhere in between.

I chatted with Janet Jenness, a preschool teacher and parent educator at the South Seattle Community College Parent Cooperative Preschool Program, to explore this issue further and get her professional advice.

Janet encourages parents to learn about all the readiness factors (not just academic) and work alongside their children to help them learn what they need to know for kindergarten. However, she also cautions parents to understand that it isn’t right or wrong if their children don’t start early or need to start later than others their age. Everyone is individual and the end goal should always be to put your child in a position to succeed.

When it comes to readiness skills, however, Janet encourages parents to look beyond the academic.

“There are a number of academic requirements for kindergarten, and your school district will share those with you, but you really want to make sure you look at social skills,” she said. “These are so important for success in kindergarten and life, really. These social skills have to be learned. They don’t come naturally. So working with your child, including enrolling in preschool, will provide the best preparation for kindergarten.”

Janet will sometimes encounter a parent with a child born early in the school year (September or October) who wonders if the child should test into kindergarten early. The Seattle School District requires children to be 5 by August 31 to start kindergarten in September, but does allow for children with birthdays in September and October to test early. Kids that test in early will turn 5 shortly after starting kindergarten, rather than just before their 6^th birthday, the time they’d start if they followed the requirements.

“I really encourage parents in these situations to look closely at the social and emotional readiness for kindergarten,” Janet said. “To me that really is the biggest part of being successful beyond preschool. Can your child handle disappointment, take turns, negotiate, solve problems with peers, work and play well in a group, wait patiently for their turn, raise their hand to speak, wait for others to finish speaking, handle transitions well, be separate from their parents, work independently with a level of autonomy, follow directions and cooperate? It takes time and practice to learn these skills. Preschool is an excellent environment to learn and practice these skills, and sometimes testing out of preschool early isn’t always best for the child.”

There are several resources out there for information on kindergarten readiness. Here are two that I’ve found considerably helpful because they not only give you some measurable skills, but they also share how you can take action to help your child learn and develop these skills.

First is an incredible resource I discovered a couple of years ago and refer to every six months or so just to observe how my kids are developing their school readiness skills. It’s a website called Getting School Ready and it’s chock full of insight and advice. This website includes a downloadable PDF that points out the skills a child needs to be ready to succeed in kindergarten and how we can help them learn these skills. But I must emphasize it’s important to use these guides as a way to help your child naturally build these skills, rather than to push your child to get in earlier than he or she would otherwise be ready.

If you’re a list person, you’ll like this second resource. I received this from one of the parent educators at my preschool. This is more general, but it gives you some ideas. This list came from a larger handout with suggestions on how to help your child. I’ve turned that document into a PDF you can download here.

Social Development

• Able to trust other adults and children
• Able to play with, not just next to, other children
• Able to learn and play in a group

Emotional Development

• Some degree of independence and self-direction
• Self-control or ability to delay gratification (even briefly)
• Reasonably confident and willing to try new things
• Interested in school and in learning new things

Language Development

• Able to understand directions
• Able to express needs
• Able to communicate with adults and other children
• Can express thoughts in sentences
• Reasonably broad vocabulary

Motor Development

• Can run and jump (if not handicapped)
• Sense of spatial awareness and balance
• Shows right or left dominance
• Has self-help skills: dressing, eating, and toileting
• Able to manipulate small objects
• Can copy simple symbols
• Can hold a pencil appropriately

Intellectual and Academic Development

• Able to focus and concentrate on an activity for 10 to 15 minutes
• Understands that letters stand for something
• Understands that printed text is spoken language written down
• Have had experiences with environment (grocery store, post office, library, department store, etc.)
• Can follow simple directions and remember simple routines
• Able to stick with and solve simple problems

On a more personal side, after speaking to so many preschool teachers and parent educators on this subject because my own daughter is in fact a September baby (as was I), I’ve really become a strong believer in what Janet says about social and emotional development.

Engaged kids who are read to, offered lots of learning opportunities, play outside or in indoor gyms a lot, learn their basic pre-reading and math skills (letters, numbers, shapes and colors),  and have self help skills will most likely be kindergarten ready academically and physically. That’s the easy part.

The hard part is taking the considerable time and effort to work alongside them to learn how to negotiate, take turns, problem solve, handle disappointment, follow directions and the like. This is where preschool and positive discipline is so very important. We can use this time to teach these life skills in a way that will not only prepare them for kindergarten, but arm them for a life of success and strong belief in themselves.

As a parting note, after speaking with Janet, I received a link from her to an NPR podcast about a study regarding preschool. A group of inner city children were split in two groups in the 60s. Half went to preschool. Half didn’t. The preschool group is now more successful, more likely to have a job, and more likely to stay out of trouble with the law. And those preschoolers that are employed make more money than those who didn’t attend preschool.

It’s fascinating stuff if you can take 20 minutes to listen.

Stephanie asked this question on the Heligirl Facebook page in response to a new regular feature here on Heligirl called “It Takes a Community.” Each week I’ll dig into my positive discipline resources or find an expert to interview to help answer your questions or tackle the issues you’re having, then I’ll open the floor to comments where I hope you’ll join in to share your insight, advice and experience in the topic. It takes a community to raise a child, and support a hard working parent.

Sound off: What do you think about the advice above? If you have kids older than kindergarten, how did you know they were ready? Did you test your child in early or hold your child back? If so, how did that work out? Please join me in offering Stephanie more insight into kindergarten readiness.

Welcome to those popping over from BlogHer! This article was featured on BlogHer Family today.