Time spent preparing your child for starting school will pay lasting dividends throughout their entire school career …. and beyond.

Rather than simply reaching a certain age before starting school, it will help if your child is developmentally ready.

Stages of Child Development

Child development happens in a certain sequence, with each stage build on the successful completion of the previous one. At each stage, they are building the foundations for successful classroom learning. None of this can be rushed, and we each develop at our own pace.

Ever since your child was born, and even before, they were building the early foundations for lifelong learning. Watching your face when feeding, they were tuning in to your facial expressions, learning to read the meaning in those tiny muscles around your eyes and mouth.

Importance of Floor Play 

Remember when they were lying on the floor, gradually progressing from rolling to crawling , then cruising furniture and finally, walking? They were gradually building their sense of balance, linking balance with vision, and connecting this to early muscle and coordination skills.

Then they started to talk, putting words together to make meaningful sentences. This developed from listening to you speak, and tuning in to the tone of your voice.  

All of these were important stages in their early development. Did you know that your child’s school readiness actually started before birth?

School Readiness does not come from Flash Cards or Video Games

Your child’s preparation for school will not come from flash cards or video games, but from lots of physical activities and healthy social connections. In fact, Playing video games or watching television can actually interfere with your child’s healthy early development.

Not only can these activities can keep your child’s nervous system in a state of heightened stress, they may also take time away from other, more  useful activities. 

For the last 20 years I have been helping children who struggle in the classroom, “filling in the gaps” in their early development. Rather than waiting until they are struggling, and falling behind their peers, here are some suggestions to help prepare your child for this big new adventure.

We Learn Through our Senses

We take in information through our sense organs – our eyes, ears, nose, mouth and touch, which is supported by our physical development. This information then goes to the brain to be processed, helping us to make sense of the world. 

Seen this way, your child’s preparation for starting school is a matter of body awareness as much as reaching a certain age. Good preparation will reap long term rewards, helping them to realise their potential throughout life. 

Play as the Foundation for all Learning

Sensory and motor skills develop naturally throughout childhood. All children need is a safe place to explore their world, and a caring adult to share them with. It’s this easy! 

You can help prepare your child for starting school by playing together, and having fun. Sounds too easy, doesn’t it? Children do these things naturally, and will love having you join them. 

Here are some ideas for you to try:

Sensations

• Describe what you can see, how you feel
• Close your eyes and touch different textures
• Try different taste sensations
•  Notice different sounds, smells

Outdoor Activities

• Walking along a balance beam 
• Running, hopping, skipping
• Roll down slopes
• Play catch and throw with a ball
• Rhythm and rhyme, singing together, reciting poems, clapping in rhythm
• Climbing in nature – rocks, trees, steep slopes
• Digging in the garden, sand-pit, at the beach

Craft and Creativity

• Painting, drawing
• Cutting with scissors
• Beading
• Finger knitting

Signs Your Child is Ready for Learning to Read

Reading is generally introduced in the first year of school. Signs that your child is ready for learning to read include the ability to:

• Sit still for a length of time, keeping their body in an upright position, with both feet flat on the floor
• Focus and pay attention.
• Recognise symbols for letters and numbers.
• Bring their eyes together to focus on a single point
• Move their eyes together smoothly to follow a moving target
• Emotionally self-regulate
• Connect socially
• Listen to understand
• Follow spoken instructions
• Balance while sitting still

Children who Struggle with Learning to Read

• A poorly developed sense of the space around them
• Trouble with visual processing, such as moving their eyes together to follow a moving target
• Trouble maintaining balance when sitting or standing still
• Retained midlines, poor awareness of left and right sides of their body
• Difficulty sitting still in a chair, sitting upright with their feet on the ground
• Poor muscle tone and slumped posture 
• Awkward pencil grip
• Difficulty listening, or processing sound
• Poor memory
• Become easily stressed, quickly going into a flight/fight response 

It’s Never too Late

It’s never too late to help your child, but is is much easier when they are younger, before secondary issues such as poor self esteem, anxiety, anger and frustration start to creep in.

If you are concerned about your child’s early development, or readiness for starting school, your counsellor offers a safe place where you can feel free to talk about these and other parenting issues. Your counsellor’s role is to listen and offer support. Many parenting issues can be addressed through building closer connections based on empathy and understanding.

It is also a good idea to talk to your child’s teacher about how you can work together to help your child get off to the best start in school. Not all behavioural challenges mean that your child needs a diagnosis.

Download our FREE e-book Tips for Raising Happy, Healthy Children

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