Your child is 5-6 years old, there are still a few years before school. We know that it is with this age of children for many mothers that the time comes for questions about the readiness of the child for school. What to pay attention to? What is "school readiness"? What are the criteria for assessing school readiness? We answer these questions.

Parents of preschoolers know that the thought “soon to school” appears in parents long before the child is 6–7 years old. And certainly, looking at their five-year-old son or daughter, every parent knows that school is just around the corner, it's time to get ready.

Of course, it is difficult to figure out right away - how exactly to prepare? Should I wait until the full seven years, or should I give up my son or daughter at the age of six? Even a difference of one year is noticeable and has significance for the child.

To make it easier to answer these questions, you need to understand - what is readiness for school? What are its types and criteria?

What is school readiness?

Many parents realize that readiness involves more than just being able to read and count. Here I would like to emphasize once again that there is no urgent need for these skills. In your parental desire to assess the intellectual readiness of the baby for school, do not forget about social and psychological readiness. It is also worth remembering the physiology of children, which is no less significant and, together with other types of readiness for school, forms the motivation for successful learning.

Speaking about the types of readiness for school, we highlight the following:

• social readiness,
• psychological readiness,
• intellectual readiness,
• physical readiness.

Social, or personal, school readiness

The child develops skills for the successful perception of new forms of communication, as well as the perception of himself in the changed conditions - the school environment and, accordingly, a new attitude towards this environment. At the age of 5–7 years, the child already begins to realize how much his abilities and desires correspond to his expectations to occupy a certain position among the people around him. The grown-up preschooler already understands that it is not enough just to strive for a more “adult” and significant position in life. Children begin to see the need to commit acts that will be meaningful, not only for themselves, but also for those around them. It is all these qualities of an older preschooler that will be very useful by the time they enter school life.

Psychological readiness for schooling

Speaking of psychological readiness, we mean the maturity of the child's psyche, because he has to cope with school workloads. It is she who will become the basis for successful learning in the new conditions of the school environment.

Psychological readiness also includes motivational readiness - in other words, the presence of educational motivation, which indicates the psychological maturity of a first grader.

Intellectual readiness for school

Here we will just say about the skills and knowledge of your baby. This type of readiness for school consists in the presence of knowledge about the world around, in knowledge of the basics of mathematics, understanding of cause-and-effect relationships, from which the child can derive the simplest patterns. The future first grader should have a developed desire to learn new things, and the ability for figurative representations should already be formed, not to mention a sufficient level of memory, developed speech, thinking and imagination.

Physical readiness for school

Undoubtedly, for the future first-grader, good physical health is desirable. A certain level of maturity of the body, its systems and organs will directly affect the performance of the child, and hence the ability to learn. In addition, when determining physical readiness, the list of criteria includes the necessary level of development of motor skills and qualities, especially fine motor coordination.

Criteria for assessing school readiness

Knowing the types of readiness of the child for school, we are faced with the question of their assessment and the criteria on the basis of which a conclusion is made about the readiness for school of your child.

In practical application, both a child's survey on the subject of mandatory knowledge, indicating his outlook, and special psychological and medical tests are used.

One of the most famous is the Kern-Jirasek orientation test. Testing will tell the specialist about how your child has developed thinking, listening and hearing skills, and how to complete the task, which he was not only told about in detail, but also given a model for its implementation. Also, the test will reveal the level of general development of the psyche of the future first grader.

There are 4 parts in the test: “Drawing of a man” (male figure); copying a proposal in written letters; task to draw points; questionnaires (for example: name the difference between old and young people; list the types of transport; answer the question, why does a person go in for sports?).

No less popular test is the "Labyrinth". Yes, yes, the one that is often found in children's magazines and educational books. It turns out that the ability to go through the maze reveals (and trains) the level of visual-schematic thinking, as well as psychological stress resistance.

When assessing the level of readiness for school, a high level, medium, below average and low are distinguished.

To understand what it is necessary to strive for in the development of the baby, we present the criteria for a high level of training: good physical development, the hand must be ready for writing, excellent phonemic hearing, a broad outlook, a rich vocabulary, the ability to read words, understanding figurative meaning, understanding numbers ability to manage one's behavior, motivation for cognitive activity.

On the contrary, with a low level of training, they speak of good or satisfactory physical development, but at the same time - a narrow outlook, the lack of hand readiness for writing, a minimum vocabulary, and the lack of the ability to retell the text without the help of an adult. One of the important criteria is also the lack of desire to learn.

You can also check your child through interactive tests that give an age-specific assessment, for example, a child of 4-5 years old, 5-6 years old and 6-7 years old is separately assessed. Returning to this test in a year, parents themselves will be able to assess the dynamics of the development of their child.

What to do if the child is not ready for school?

There are situations when, after passing the test and consulting with specialists, parents are told about the low readiness of their child for schooling, or even about the unpreparedness of their baby for the first grade. What to do?

First of all, don't panic. Competent psychologists, doctors and teachers will always give the necessary advice and recommendations.

Of course, it is better to take care of the development of your baby in advance and start assessing readiness for school at 5-6 years old, so that if necessary there is time to adjust the process of psychological and physical maturation of the child.

By the way, there is no need to rush to send the baby to school at the age of six. Perhaps in a year he will mature both physically and psychologically, and the same tests will give a completely different result, which will please teachers and parents.

Sofia Rogozinskaya

Before taking a child to first grade, teachers, and somewhere a psychologist, usually communicate with him and his parents to understand whether the child is ready for school. We tell how parents themselves determine the degree of readiness of their child for the first grade.

1. The child is capable of arbitrary activity

This means that he can sit quietly and do some business for 30 minutes without being distracted by games and other extraneous activities. That is, the child can already perform tasks and keep himself in place by an effort of will. Voluntary activity is the main neoplasm of primary school age. In many ways, successful adaptation to school and good academic performance will depend precisely on whether this quality has been formed or not.

2. The kid is quite independent

Your child can dress himself, change clothes, put things in a briefcase and, in general, stay for half a day without mom and dad. There are children who have perfectly mastered the skills of counting and writing, but at the same time they are still very dependent on their parents. Such first-graders can cry in class because they want to see their mother, and in general experience quite a lot of stress from the fact that they have to be alone in a circle of unfamiliar people. There is no time for learning and acquiring new knowledge. Therefore, prepare your child in advance: if he does not go to kindergarten, be sure to enroll him in various circles and sections, where the baby will learn to do without you for some time.

3. He can follow the instructions and tasks of an adult

At school, the child needs to do exactly what the teacher asks. And we are talking not only about some written or oral tasks, but also about ordinary behavior. The daily routine, classes at breaks, behavior in the dining room or in the extension - everything is regulated by the teacher. The kid should be able to listen to an outside adult and fulfill his tasks, instructions and requests. This skill is also formed in advance in kindergarten or in classes in various sections.

4. The kid is positive about school

Ideally, of course, we assume that the child should want to go to school. But it also happens that the baby is not delighted with the thought of the first class. In this case, you need to set up your child, talk to him, try to find out what exactly worries and scares him. Parents need to make every effort to ensure that the child, at least, is not against going to school. If the baby actively resists, it makes sense to go to a child psychologist in order to understand the reason for such behavior and provide timely support and assistance.

5. The child knows how to communicate with peers

The first grader will have to meet new guys, and he will need to build relationships with them, find friends and learn to communicate peacefully with those who are not very nice to him. All this requires certain communication skills that kids acquire earlier - on the playground, in kindergarten or in preschool classes.

The child should be able to play in a team, share toys or some educational items, while not forgetting about their rights and boundaries. Not an easy task at first glance - but if the baby communicated enough with children at an earlier age, problems usually do not arise. If difficulties nevertheless appear, moms and dads need to quickly get involved in the situation and, possibly, involve a school psychologist - because how comfortable the child will feel in the school team will depend on his success in school.

6. The baby has a well-developed memory

Since a child in the first grade needs to memorize a lot of new information, it is not surprising that so much attention is paid to this skill. Even before school, learn poetry with your little one, retell fairy tales, play games to develop memory. This will help him study well!

7. The child has a good vocabulary

A large vocabulary will help him understand and easily assimilate information in the classroom. What do you need to know for first grade? The names of colors, seasons, natural phenomena, the names of different animals and birds, know the time of day (morning, evening, day, night). You also need to teach the child to generalize and classify, for example: an apple, a pear, a peach are fruits, or transport is a train, bus, car. From the particular to the general, and from the general to the particular.

8. The child knows what to expect

It is necessary that the preschooler is well aware of what awaits him at school. What will he do, what are the rules in this institution, how to behave and other nuances. That is, the kid should have a good idea of ​​the whole process, then his level of readiness for all school activities will be higher, and the baby will adapt to new conditions much faster (remember the proverb: “Forewarned is forearmed”).

9. The baby has developed fine motor skills

This is necessary for the child to confidently master the skills of writing. Is your child holding a pencil or pen correctly? Does he know how to put together puzzles, sculpt from small parts, collect pictures from a mosaic? And how does a future student cope with scissors, glue and a brush? If all this works without big problems - great!

Preparing a child for school begins long before going to the market for a school suit, satchel and stationery. At least one year before the first grade, and maybe much earlier, it is necessary step by step to master with the baby the skills that will be useful during training.

Ideal Age for First Grade:

According to the law, the baby enters the first grade after he reaches 6.5 years. During this period, every month is of great importance and influence on the psychophysical development of the child. Today's 3-year primary education programs are causing toddlers to be overwhelmed. Therefore, it became necessary to extend the primary education of children up to four years. And here they came to the most compromise solution: to set the age of admission to the first class to exactly six and a half years. The right to education is the right of all children in our country, provided by the Constitution. The state is obliged to organize their education, regardless of their state of health, level of mental development and degree of readiness.  

Non-traditional situations:

There are kids who, in terms of development, are significantly ahead of their passport age. A psychologist will help to establish this fact. In this case, your baby will be able to enter the first grade a little earlier than the prescribed age.
But this does not mean at all that the baby will not face difficulties. Parents should also be as prepared as possible for difficulties.
There are situations when parents purposefully have a desire to give their crumbs to study with a particular teacher. In this situation, the baby goes to school before the age of six. But this requires the approval and consent of the teacher.
Sometimes it happens that the child is sociable, independent, but the level of his health is very low, and there are also chronic pathologies that significantly limit the ability to attend school. Then homeschooling is possible for your child. In addition, parents have the opportunity to teach the baby at home on their own with the help of an external student.
When your baby has problems associated with poor vision, hearing, speech, if he has impaired motor skills, then you need to seek the advice of specialists. They will help you choose the right time for entering the school and choose a special educational institution.

Smart kid: "sit out" in kindergarten or go to school?:

Parents should clearly understand that the timing of admission to school is associated not only with the mental development of the baby. It often happens that a child developed beyond his age, who painted superbly and enthusiastically, taught poetry, read, composed something, studied mathematics in kindergarten, suddenly becomes very lethargic, apathetic, capricious. Remember: this is due to increased training loads on the still physically and emotionally not strengthened children's body!
First-graders experience especially strong stress while learning to write. To the greatest extent, this affects left-handers, as well as babies with underdeveloped fine motor skills of the hands and muscle hypertonicity. Writing is a very hard work for a small student, which takes a huge amount of strength. Children often experience regression in creativity and drawing abilities.
Toddlers who entered school earlier than the deadline, including due to a high level of mental development, expect quite serious difficulties in mathematics. But these difficulties do not appear immediately, but starting from the second year of study. There, tasks await him, which the baby is not yet ready to solve due to age characteristics, they will simply turn out to be very difficult for him.

As a rule, the difference in ages between first-graders is eliminated only by the end of the first year of study. But won't the child pay too high a price?

The opinion of experts is unequivocal: if the baby is comfortable in a preschool institution, and there is only the problem of underload, Do not rush to send your child to school!

Competent parents can easily choose what to do with the baby after kindergarten: take a walk, visit a variety of circles and sections. Nowadays, the choice is so great that there is always an opportunity to choose. Understand that sending your child to school earlier than the due date is the wrong decision!
Parents quite often confuse the main concepts: a developed kid and one that is ready for school.

Listen to the opinion of psychologists:

A DEVELOPED BABY AND THE ONE THAT IS READY FOR SCHOOL - THESE ARE ABSOLUTELY DIFFERENT CONCEPTS!

What is school readiness?

Readiness for school is not only a body of knowledge. There are a number of features of the baby that can easily predict the success of his education. These are such important personality traits as the ability to communicate, follow instructions from adults, self-organization, and the ability to concentrate.
Readiness for school is a very broad concept that includes certain psychophysiological states, skills, abilities, as well as indicators of the health of the baby. It is impossible to accelerate the process of readiness for school, just as it is impossible to accelerate the growth of teeth or any organs. But it is always possible and necessary to help the baby "ripen" to readiness for school.

Readiness for school and the intelligence of the baby:

Many people confuse two such concepts as intellectual (mental) development and learning. In fact, they have significant differences.
Learning is a child's skills and abilities, such as the ability to read, count and write.
The broader concept of intellectual (mental) development includes the entire mental potential of the future first-grader, as well as his abilities.
What is the essence of the differences in concepts? The thing is that a good education of the baby creates a fairly temporary visible success while studying at school. If you have made a highly trained first grader out of your child to the maximum (and even more), then he will become bored at school very quickly. His reserve will quickly deplete.

Here is an important piece of advice from psychologists: Parents in the process of preparing a child for school should pay maximum attention not to teaching the so-called "educational" skills (reading, writing, counting), but to the development of mental processes that will ensure further successful and fast learning!

These major mental processes include:
Attention;
Memory;
Thinking;
Speech;
Fine motor skills of hands;
social skills.

The school, in its essence, is not just a place where they teach, but it is a whole huge system of discipline and socialization that a child must go through for normal development, first of all, of a personality. The entire school system is built on coercion. All lessons are held under the slogan: "You must!". Therefore, going to school, the child must already accept and understand certain restrictions both on the part of the teacher, and be able to limit his desires on his own.

At the time the baby enters the first grade, it is very important that he has developed all the skills of independence. Even if your child can read, but is not able to properly dress himself, then schooling is bound to be accompanied by a lot of difficulties.
Teach your child to use a public toilet. This is a very common problem for first graders. By the way, such skills are an integral part of the concept of a child's readiness for school!

School maturity is a very important concept:

This is a concept that many parents are unaware of. But understanding its essence will allow you to better understand the meaning of the correct preparation of the baby for schooling and competently approach the solution of this issue.

There are three areas of school maturity:

intellectual maturity. It includes the ability of the baby to analyze, remember and reproduce a certain pattern, as well as the important ability to be extremely attentive;
- Emotional maturity. This is the ability of the future student to self-regulation and the ability to bring the work started to the end;
- Social maturity. These are the most important communication skills, the ability and desire to communicate with both peers and adults. This also includes the ability to fulfill the requirements and rules established for schoolchildren (the inability to fulfill these installations is a very common problem among first graders!).

By school age, a child should have a certain amount of knowledge and skills, and also be ready to learn new and rather complex educational material.

Signs of school readiness:

In fact, any kid is ready for learning, but the fact is that a modern school has a number of special requirements. Therefore, it is necessary to know and talk about the fact that there are certain signs by which you can determine whether the baby is ready for school. These include the following:

1. Physical preparation for schooling. This is a complex of certain physical skills, endurance. To determine the level of your baby according to this criterion, be sure to consult with a pediatrician and, if necessary, with narrow specialists;

2. Social readiness. This factor is supported by the fact that your child actively spends time with peers, asks a lot of questions, is interested in the world around him and everything that happens around him. If the baby is liberated, not closed, cheerful - you don’t have to worry! But secrecy, timidity, isolation, passivity and an indifferent attitude to the outside world will greatly complicate schooling. This can be eliminated by the efforts of parents and psychologists. But you should start as early as possible;

3. Intellectual readiness. This is a sufficient level of development of thinking, attention, speech, memory, abstract thinking and fantasy of the child;

4. Motivational readiness. This is the very desire to learn! Nothing without him! This is the driving force that allows the child to quickly get used to school and begin to actively absorb a lot of new information. Very often here adults make a gross mistake, throwing rude and skeptical remarks at the school, teacher or children's team. Also, never scare your baby with school! The mood is only positive. Your child will have only the best school. A teacher is a person from God himself. And nothing else.

If your baby has normal physical development, then he has no contraindications for studying in a regular comprehensive school. Only special recommendations from a psychologist or a future teacher are allowed here.
The situation is slightly different when a child enters a specialized school, lyceum, gymnasium or specialized institution. To be able to study there, the baby must have certain abilities. For this reason, selection takes place in such educational institutions. And the desire of the parents or the child alone will not be enough.

Let the process of entering the school be balanced and competent!

Traditionally under psychological readiness to schooling is understood the level of mental development of the child, necessary and sufficient for mastering the school curriculum in the conditions of training in a peer group.

The necessary and sufficient level of actual development should be such that the training program falls into the “zone of proximal development” of the child.

Socio-psychological readiness - the child's skills social communication, the ability to establish relationships with other children, the ability to enter the children's society, to yield and defend themselves. The child must be able to coordinate his actions with his peers, regulating his actions on the basis of the assimilation of social norms of behavior.

Important for success in learning are communicative character traits of the child, in particular, his sociability, contact, responsiveness and complaisance, as well as strong-willed personality traits: perseverance, determination, perseverance, etc.

For a child entering school, it is important relationship with the teacher, peers and yourself. At the end of preschool age, such a form of communication between the child and adults should take shape, as extra-situational-personal communication(according to M.I. Lisina). An adult becomes an indisputable authority, a role model.

The class-lesson system of education presupposes not only a special relationship between the child and the teacher, but also specific relationships with other children. Learning activity is essentially a collective activity. The personal readiness of children for learning implies that the child has a pronounced interest in learning, to the acquisition of knowledge, skills and abilities, to obtaining new information about the world around. Ready for schooling is a child whom the school attracts not with external attributes, but with the opportunity to acquire new knowledge, which involves the development of cognitive interests.

Personal readiness for school also includes a certain attitude towards yourself. Adequate attitude of the child to his abilities, results of work, behavior, i.e. a certain level of development self-awareness. Student self-esteem must be adequate and differentiated.Formation of prerequisites for educational activities, when a child accepts a learning task, understands its conventionality and the conventionality of the rules by which it is solved; regulates its own activities on the basis of self-control and self-assessment; understands how to complete the task and shows the ability to learn from an adult. In order to learn how to solve educational problems, the child must pay attention to the ways of performing actions. He must understand that he is acquiring knowledge for use in future activities, "for the future."

Speaking of motivational readiness children to learning, should be borne in mind need for success corresponding self-esteem and level of claims. Need for success the child should dominate over the fear of failure. In learning, communication and practical activities that involve competition with other people, children should show as much as possible less anxiety. It is important that they self-esteem was adequate a level of claims was corresponding to real possibilities, available to the child.

The desire of the child to occupy a new social position leads to the formation internal position. L.I. Bozhovich characterizes this as a central personality neoplasm that characterizes the personality of the child as a whole. It is this that determines the behavior and activities of the child, and the whole system of his relations to reality, to himself and to the people around him. From the moment in the mind of a child the idea of ​​the school acquired the features of a way of life, we can say that his internal position received a new content - it became the internal position of a schoolchild. The internal position of the student can be defined as system of needs and aspirations of the child associated with the school, those. such attitude to school, when participation in it is experienced by the child as his own need.

The formation of the internal position of the student takes place in two stages.

On the first there is a positive attitude towards school, but there is no orientation to the meaningful moments of school and educational activities.

BUT next step there is an orientation to the social, although not educational, aspects of activity. School conditions require a child to have a certain level arbitrariness of actions, the ability to organize their motor activity, act in accordance with the instructions of an adult.

Volitional readiness Volitional actions of preschoolers have their own specifics: they coexist with unintentional, impulsive actions.

One of the central questions of the will is the question of motivational conditioning those specific volitional actions and deeds which a person is capable of at different periods of his life. There is also the question of intellectual and moral foundations of volitional regulation of a preschooler. Will development at this age is closely related to subordination of motives.

Intellectual readiness - the presence of a child horizons, stock specific knowledge, required level of development cognitive processes. Intellectual readiness also implies appropriate speech development, the formation of the child's primary skills in the field of educational activities in particular, the ability to highlight the learning task.

Development perception manifested in its selectivity, meaningfulness, objectivity and a high level of formation of perceptual actions.

Attention children by the time they enter school should become arbitrary, possessing the necessary volume, stability, distribution, and switchability.

In order for a child to learn well the school curriculum, it is necessary that his memory became arbitrary so that the child has various effective means for memorizing, preserving and reproducing educational material.

Intellectual readiness for schooling is associated with the development of thought processes. When entering school thinking should be developed and presented in all three main forms: visual-effective, visual-figurative and verbal-logical.

Speech readiness children to learning is manifested in their ability to use the word for arbitrary behavior management and cognitive processes. Equally important is the development of speech as means of communication and background to assimilation of the letter.Capabilities children do not have to be formed by the beginning of schooling, they continue to actively develop in the process of learning. The essential factor is the availability of the necessary makings to develop the required skills. However, there is one kind of ability on which learning directly depends and the development of which should be given special attention in preschool age. This is - motor abilities. Psychological readiness for school is a holistic education. Psychological readiness for schooling:

A new internal position of the student, manifested in the desire for a socially significant and socially valued activity;

In the cognitive sphere, the sign-symbolic function of consciousness and the ability to replace, the arbitrariness of mental processes, differentiated perception, the ability to generalize, analyze, compare cognitive interests;

In the personal sphere, arbitrariness of behavior, subordination of motives and volitional qualities;

In the field of activity and communication: the ability to accept a conditional situation, learn from an adult, regulate one's activities.