Newspapers / The Charlotte Jewish News … / Nov. 1, 2014, edition 1 / Page 19
Part of The Charlotte Jewish News (Charlotte, N.C.) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
The Charlotte Jewish News - November 2014 - Page 19 Identifying If Your Child is Ready for Kindergarten By Barrie Morganstein, Ph.D. Kindergarten Readiness is the term used by edueators to identify whether or not ehildren have the skills and behaviors neeessary to sueeeed in kindergarten. There are many eomponents to kindergarten readiness. What teaehers and edu eators look for and what parents look for are often different. Most parents look at aeademie knowl edge (e.g., alphabet and eounting skills) and whether or not the ehild is reading. However, a sur vey eompleted by the U.S. De partment of Edueation revealed that kindergarten teaehers believe the top three readiness indieators are that ehildren are: l)physieally healthy, rested, and well nour ished; 2) able to eommunieate needs, wants, and thoughts ver bally, and 3) enthusiastie and eu- rious in approaehing new aetivities. Obviously, when deeid- ing if your ehild is ready for kindergarten, it is important to look at the whole ehild, not only their aeademie skills. Determining kindergarten readiness is frequently boiled down to five speeifie eategories of skills or attributes; those eate gories and examples of eaeh are listed below. To get a sense of how ready for kindergarten your ehild is, ask yourself how many of these apply to your ehild; the more of these the better, but not all are required for sueeess. Cognitive abilities - is your child: * eurious and interested in learning * able to foeus on and eomplete tasks * able to problem-solve and modify their approaeh to fit the dilemma * imaginative and ereative * eager to try new things and take on new ehallenges Social-Emotional Factors - does your child: * easily separate from you * share with others * wait their turn * follow rules * partieipate eooperatively * exhibit self-eontrol * reeognize and express humor * manage transitions * seek out interaetions with others and play appropriately Fine and gross motor develop ment - is your child: * able to manipulate a peneil properly * use seissors * button and zip own elothes * partieipate in a variety of playtime aetivities * independently take eare of their toileting needs Language development - does your child: * have good reeeptive and ex pressive language * express needs and wants ver bally * use language that is readily understood by other adults * understand direetions and fol low through independently * state some personal informa tion (e.g., birthdays, parents’ names, phone number, ete.) Pre-academic skills - is your child interested in: * letters and reading * listening to stories * talking about ideas * learning about math eoneepts If you are not sure if your ehild is ready for kindergarten, speak ing to your ehild’s presehool teaeher is the best first step. His/her teaeher ean give you valu able insight into your ehild’s abil ities and how they handle the daily aetivities that are part of sehool. If you are still not sure, eonsider a kindergarten readiness assessment. This type of assess ment offers objeetive data that eompares your ehild to his/her same-age peers on a variety of eognitive, aeademie, and soeial- emotional areas. This will help identify your ehild’s speeifie de velopmental strengths and weak nesses and likely provide reeommendations for support and intervention. A Kindergarten Readiness As sessment typically includes: * a brief interview with both ehild and parent * a eognitive measure * a measure of pre-aeademie skills * questionnaire(s) to identify and measure problematie behav iors (e.g., inattention, hyperaetiv- ity, anxiety, ete.) and adaptive behaviors (e.g., emotional flexi bility, soeial skills, ete.) Cognitive measures look at ehildren’s verbal and non-verbal skills, their ability to reason with new information, visual-motor skills, attention, short- and long term memory, and proeessing speed. Pre-aeademie measures look at ehildren’s language skills, phonemie awareness (e.g., sound- symbol assoeiation), letter identi- fieation, rhyming abilities, auditory attention and eomprehen- sion, number reeognition, eount ing, and quantitative eoneepts. In addition to the assessment meas ures themselves, other abilities are evaluated from the interview and observations from testing, inelud ing: the ehild’s ability to meet and relate to new people and new sit uations, reeeptive and expressive language and eommunieation skills, eomfort in separating from parents, approaeh to new tasks, problem solving abilities, persist- enee, and ability to foeus and work hard when needed. Not all ehildren are ready for kindergarten at the same time or at the same age; their development happens at different paees. Pre kindergarten or Transitional Kindergarten offers ehildren an extra year to mature, eateh up on skills that are somewhat delayed, and build upon their already strong areas. It doesn’t matter when kids begin kindergarten, only that they are developmen- tally ready for the ehallenge. ^ Dr. Morganstein is a CJP Par ent, CJP Board Member and Li censed Psychologist in private practice in Charlotte at Southeast Psych (southeastpsych.com). Con tact her at bmorganstein@ south- eastpsych.com. For more information on how CJP prepares our preschoolers for kindergarten, please come by and visit. Please contact Alyson Kalik at akalik@shalomchar- lotte.org or 704-944-6776. t 4k Charlotte Jewish Preschool LEARN * CROW > CONNECT
The Charlotte Jewish News (Charlotte, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Nov. 1, 2014, edition 1
19
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75