Psychologist's advice. How to determine if your child is ready for school

Many parents of six-year-olds are very worried about their children, who have to go to school. They ask themselves questions: Will the children be able to learn? Is the child ready for school? Can your child cope with school stress?

The section of our site "Preparing children for school" is designed to determine the readiness of the child for school. It can be used by professionals and parents alike. In addition, you will find materials to prepare children for school.

Readiness of the child for school is determined in the following areas:

1. Orientation in the world around - the level of knowledge about the world around, the orientation of the child in life situations is determined.

2. Development of graphic skill - the degree of development of fine motor skills and skills in graphic activity is determined. Ready for schooling the child should be able to use a pencil, draw vertical and horizontal lines without a ruler, draw geometric figures, people, various objects based on geometric shapes, carefully paint over, hatch with a pencil, without going beyond the contours of objects.

3. Development of the perception of sensory standards - the degree of assimilation of generally accepted samples of the external properties of an object (colors of the spectrum as color standards, geometric shapes as form standards) is determined. Tasks allow you to determine whether the child is able to compare the perceived object with these standards.

4. Development of perception of space - the degree of formation of the concepts "high" - "low", "far" - "close", "ahead" - "behind", "straight", "side", "left" - "right" is determined.

5. Memory development - the degree of formation of auditory, visual visual-figurative and verbal-logical memory is determined.

6. The level of development of attention - the development of the volume and stability of attention is determined. Tasks also allow you to analyze the development of the volitional sphere. Children who do not have a volitional sphere do not accept the task, are constantly distracted, make many mistakes already at the beginning of work, sometimes begin to draw or paint figures.

7. The level of development of thinking - the degree of formation of verbal-logical thinking is revealed.

8. Development of speech - the ability to perform verbal instructions, understanding the grammatical structure of a sentence, the presence of verbs, adjectives in speech, the development of the ability to select antonyms, the ability to change nouns by numbers are revealed.

9. Development emotional sphere- the degree of development of skills to determine the emotional states of another person, to adequately convey one's feelings and moods, the presence of knowledge about the norms of social interaction with adults and peers is revealed.

Classes with children are best done in the morning. The duration of each lesson should not exceed 20 minutes. When completing tasks, do not rush the child. It is necessary to teach him to work calmly, carefully, carefully completing all tasks. You should explain the difficult task for him several times. All tasks must be read slowly, clearly pronouncing the words.

For classes, the child should have a simple pencil, colored pencils, a ballpoint pen. All graphic tasks should preferably be done in pencil. It is necessary to monitor the position of the notebook, pen, the landing of the child. You should check whether it is convenient for the child to sit at the table, whether the light falls correctly (for a right-handed child, the light should fall on the left, for a left-handed child, on the right).

My dear readers, hello! We have already discussed whether a child is worth it and came to the conclusion that each future first grader is individual. Someone at the age of 6 is ready to “nibble on the granite of science”, while someone even at their “five minutes to eight” regrets leaving the kindergarten.

The child is unlikely to help you with a hint whether to go to the first grade or not. How to determine the readiness of the child for school, only adults can know. Are there litmus papers that give the green light to sit at a school desk?

Lesson plan:

What can a psychologist test?

Repeating the material covered, let me remind you that for psychologists, the ability to read and write is not the most important thing in the life of a future first grader. When determining the level of readiness of a kindergartner to cross the school threshold "healers of children's souls":

1. first of all, they are repelled by the persistent desire of the child;
2. then they study the important stage of collectivization, that is, the ability to cooperate;
3. analyze the third indicator on the acquisition of knowledge - the ability to live according to instructions, that is, to obey and fulfill other people's requirements.

To make sure that the baby really meets the listed psychological conditions to plunge into a new world for him, parents who care for their child often go to see a psychologist and there they find out “eye to eye” whether they are ready or not yet.

What does a psychologist do with a child? He studies his inner world with the help of tests. Many people use the “maturity” test developed by the American Geraldine Cheney. She proposes to analyze the level of preparation in several blocks, consisting of questions on:

• knowledge;
• basic experience;
• language development;
• emotional development;
• hearing abilities;
• visual perception;
• attitude towards books.

Other psychologists prefer Kern-Jirasek orientation graphic testing. It consists of:

• drawing of a person (male figure);
• drawing - a copy of a phrase consisting of written letters;
• drawing - copies of a set of points.

This test has its own scoring system, and complements it with an intellectual questionnaire.

What can a teacher check?

Exists pedagogical diagnostics, developed by scientists to help kindergarten teachers. It allows you to determine in a general sense whether the child is ready for school at the level of existing knowledge. These simple tests help to identify "holes".

Task 1 on the ability to orient on a plane and count

Likeness of D. Elkonin. Not a checkered piece of paper is painted over with black color one cell. The child is given pencils of red, blue, yellow and green flowers. He needs to find a black square and, as directed by the teacher, count a certain number of cells to the right-left-down-up and paint over with the specified color.

Task 2 for elementary addition-subtraction and understanding of the problem

It also requires a sheet in a cage. The simplest task is given according to the type “there are 3 cats and 2 dogs in the room”. You need to draw as many circles as there are animals in total. And then "1 cat and 1 dog left the room." You need to draw as many squares as there are animals left.

Task 3 to test the development of speech

Teachers check:

• , the ability to determine the place of sound in a word (at the beginning - middle - at the end) and the ability to highlight the necessary intonation;
• skills in making sentences of 3-5 words and determining their order (1st, 2nd, last);
• the ability to combine concepts, for example, “tomato, cucumber and pumpkin are vegetables”;
• the ability to compose stories from pictures.

Task 4 for memorization

In this case, it checks:

• the ability to read and know the author who wrote them;
• storytelling skills.

Task 5 for basic math skills with numbers

Teachers check the future first grader:

• knows the numbers from 0 to 9;
• can count up to 10 back and forth;
• can name the previous and subsequent numbers;
• whether you are familiar with the signs "+" and "-";
• can compare more-less;
• determines whether geometric shapes (square, triangle, circle).

Task 6 on knowledge of the world around

Such tests suggest that the child should know:

• appearance common plants (spruce, birch, chamomile, bell and others);
• differences between wild and domestic animals, the main features of the appearance of birds and other living creatures, their differences, for example, crows from woodpeckers;
• signs of the seasons of nature, for example, what to eat in autumn and what in winter;
• names of all months;
• names of all days of the week.

Among other things, teachers will definitely ask a potential first-grader for the name of the country, city and street where he lives, the number of the house and apartment, full names moms, dads, grandparents, their occupations.

What can a pediatrician and dentist check?

Yes, don't be surprised. A lot of questions and discussions about whether the child is ready for school lead precisely to the pediatrician and dentist. Physicians also contribute and distinguish between passport and biological age. With a passport, everything is clear - count how many years, months, days from the moment of birth. And how to determine the biological age suitable for school?

Let's say right away that in medicine, for many, the passport and biological age do not coincide, the latter can be late with an interval of up to 1.5 years. What does it mean? This means that it is better to see the school desk out when there is a psycho-physiological readiness of the child's body for this.

To determine the biological age, the Philippine test is used, which is based on a half-height growth spurt - a significant increase in the length of children's arms and legs. Ask your preschooler to reach over the top of their head with their right hand to the lobe of their left ear. If he does this without difficulty, then we can say that he is ready for school.

“How does school maturity depend on this?!” - you will be surprised. Doctors explain simply: the Philippine test shows not only the development of the child's skeleton, but also how mature the nervous system is and how ready the child's brain is to perceive and process information. Pediatricians believe that rushing to send a child to school before this very jump has taken place, which helps working capacity, means dooming him to failures in his studies.

About increasing the ability to direct all the forces of the body is no longer on physical development, and you can judge the study by the teeth. When dentists fix your child, this is a favorable sign to add mental development to physiological development. In the Middle Ages, in China and Japan, this was how a child “entered the mind” was defined, already capable of answering before the law.

What can a parent check?

I propose to draw up two columns “for” and “against”, or “+” and “-” on a piece of paper in order to fill them in with the testing.

Well, gradually pluses and minuses fell on your leaflet, it remains only to calculate them, if there are still doubts, confirm yourself at a psychologist’s appointment and make a final decision.

Share how you managed to cope with these tests and are you ready to build a portfolio?

Good luck getting ready for school!

Your "School" :)

In the first grade, classmates can be children with a difference in age of up to two years. One only turned six and a half, others went to eight preparatory classes. Parents themselves decide whether to send their child to school immediately after kindergarten or wait a year or two. There are three main parameters that indicate the degree of readiness of the child for school.

The child is motivated to learn

In addition to intellectual, physical, emotional and other development, there is also social development. In a normal life situation, up to a certain age, the child is merged with the mother. Gradually, he begins to physically and socially move away from her. By the age of three, he is already aware of his desires and is able to clearly explain himself, which means that he is starting a small, but his own life. At this age, children are often sent to kindergarten, where they begin to develop connections that should reach a new level by the age of five or six.

The games of the child are also transformed. At first he plays alone, then with dolls, objects, figurines, which he performs social roles, and he directs them. As the child gets older, he or she begins to take on different roles. This is how mother-daughter games, doctor, salesman or pilot games appear, which eventually become group games and begin to include elements of responsibility. The child is already able to answer for something and follow the rules.

Ideally, by the age of seven, he should have “played enough” and be ready to act according to the rules to achieve the result that seems to him necessary. It is necessary that the child had at least the beginning of educational motivation for school. If it doesn't exist at all, you can't go to school.

The child is able to concentrate

He must be able to physically sit out the lesson, not just restraining his impulses, but keeping his attention on what is happening, even if it is not interesting. At least for half an hour. A child who does not have this ability has two options for behavior: either he begins to actively move, gets up or, conversely, crawls under the desk, bullies classmates, or “falls out”. Without interfering with anyone, such a child sits quietly at a desk and even creates the illusion that he is listening to a teacher. In reality, his thoughts are somewhere far away, and only repeated shouting of the teacher can attract his attention.

This type of human development is not accidentally called emotional-volitional. Our will is based on understanding ourselves, our emotions. When we are aware of what is happening to us, we can better determine what we need to do with ourselves in order to achieve the desired result. To develop the will of the child, it is necessary to develop his emotions. For this, games to distinguish between sensations are good - hot-cold, hard-easy, fun-sad.

The child has developed intelligence and motor skills

Any violations in this area are most easily noticed. Almost all tests and tasks for preschoolers are aimed at their identification. The results are easily recorded in quantitative terms: I remembered so many words, read or counted them in such and such a time. In fact, when determining the readiness of the child for school, only this is checked.

But even here, today's children are not all smooth sailing. Experts point out that the percentage of first-graders with psychophysical infantilism is too high - a situation where a child, say, is seven years old, but looks and behaves like five. Its motor processes are underdeveloped. Age inappropriate eye-hand coordination is a vital thing for learning. This is the ability to write, keeping the letters even and proportionate, and to read, fixing the gaze on a certain line. If the child's brain has not yet grown up to this, he is simply physically unable to do what is required of him, or he can only do it under very high stress and for a short time.

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The whole family is waiting for September 1 - the future first grader is growing up. How to properly prepare the baby for a new stage in his life, and most importantly, to determine whether the child is still ready for school?

It is no secret that readiness for school is not determined by the age of the child. The ability to carry out educational activities, as well as the adoption of the social position of the student, comes to the fore.

Experts identify several areas by which one can judge readiness for school: intelligence, motivation, psychological readiness and physical abilities.

Intelligence

It is a big mistake to assume that the baby is ready to study, as he can read and write. The child, despite this, can be difficult to give school program. The reason for this is the insufficient formation of the processes of thinking, memory, attention.

Before starting school, a child must learn knowledge about the world around him: about other people and about the relationship between them, about nature. The kid should know basic information about himself (first name, last name, place of residence), distinguish between geometric shapes (circle, rectangle, triangle, square), know colors, know spatial characteristics, sizes, be able to compare various objects and find differences in them, generalize , analyze, determine the signs of phenomena and objects. Great importance have such productive skills as drawing, modeling, designing, in which the highest forms of activity regulation develop - planning, correction, control.

Motivation

Motivational readiness for school is considered formed if the kid wants to attend classes, seeks to learn new information wants to acquire new knowledge. Here it is important to pay attention to the stability of this interest, the ability to exercise volitional effort.

It is also necessary to pay attention to the child's ability to build their behavior and activities in accordance with the established rules, the implementation of actions according to the proposed samples.

Psychological readiness

Unlike the kindergarten requirements, the set of school requirements is larger and more stringent. Pay attention to the development of your baby's communication qualities, emotional "flexibility", his independence and organization, the ability to regulate his own behavior, readiness for new forms of cooperation with adults.

A child ready for school should have a desire to communicate with their peers. He must be able to establish relationships both with other children and with adults.

Answer the following questions:

• whether the child is easily included in the company of playing children;
• whether he knows how to listen to someone else's opinion without interrupting;
• whether he observes the queue in situations where it is necessary;
• can he participate in a conversation with several people, can he keep up the conversation?

Physical readiness for school

Physical readiness refers to the general physical development of the child:

• normal weight, height, breast volume, muscle tone, body proportions, skin and indicators corresponding to
• norms of physical development of boys and girls of 6-7 years of age;
• the state of vision, hearing, hand motility;
• the state of the nervous system - the degree of its excitability and balance, strength and mobility;
• general health.

To assess development and determine whether a child is ready for a new life stage, you can do the following:

• check his hearing;
• check your vision;
• evaluate the child's ability to sit quietly for a while;
• check if he has developed coordination of motor skills (can he play with a ball, jump, go up and down stairs);
• evaluate the appearance of the child (does he look rested, alert and healthy).

Entering school is a crucial stage in life, at which the habitual way of life of the whole family changes. Against the background of delight, joy and surprise, the child has feelings of anxiety, confusion. Parental support during this time is very important! Their task is to prepare a son or daughter and be sure to diagnose readiness for school.

In the life of any child, sooner or later there comes a moment when it is time to go to school. The future first grader does not yet know what awaits him. Carelessness, carelessness and immersion in the game will be replaced by many restrictions, duties and requirements. Now I have to go to class every day, do homework.

How can you determine whether the baby is ready for a new life stage? There are special criteria for school readiness: intellectual, motivational, psychological, social, physical.

Parents are wrong when they think that their baby is ready for school because he can read and write. The child, despite this, can be difficult to be given the school curriculum. The reason is the lack of intellectual preparation for entering the educational institution. Intellectual readiness for school is determined by thinking, memory, attention.

Thinking

Before starting school, the child should be given knowledge about the world around him: about other people and about the relationship between them, about nature. The child must:

• know some information about yourself (name, surname, place of residence);
• distinguish geometric shapes (circle, rectangle, triangle, square);
• know colors;
• understand the meanings following words: "less", "more", "low", "high", "narrow", "wide", "right", "left", "between", "about", "above", "under";
• be able to compare various objects and find differences in them, generalize, analyze, determine the signs of phenomena and objects.

Memory

It is much easier for a student to learn if he has a well-developed memory. To determine the readiness of the child for school, you can read a short text to him and ask him to retell it in a couple of weeks. You can also prepare 10 different objects and pictures and show them to your child. Then he will have to name those that he remembered.

Attention

The effectiveness of schooling will directly depend on whether the child is able to listen carefully to the teacher, not to be distracted by other students. The attention and readiness of preschoolers for school can be checked by a simple task - read aloud a few pairs of words and ask them to determine in each of them the word that is the longest. If the baby asks again, it means that his attention is poorly developed, and he was distracted by something during the exercise.

Motivational readiness for school

Parents, preparing a child for a new period of life, should form his motivation for learning, because it is the key to future success. Motivational readiness for school is formed if the child:

• wants to attend classes;
• seeks to learn new and interesting information;
• wants to acquire new knowledge.

Psychological readiness for school

In an educational institution, the child will be subject to strict requirements that differ from the requirements that he was introduced to at home and in kindergarten, and all of them will have to be fulfilled.

Psychological readiness for school is determined by the following aspects:

• the presence of such qualities as independence and organization;
• the ability to manage one's own behavior;
• readiness for new forms of cooperation with adults.

Social readiness for school

A child ready for school should have a desire to communicate with peers. He must be able to establish relationships both with other children and with adults. It is worth noting that the relationship of the child with others is a mirror of those relationships that prevail at home in the family. It is from his parents that the baby takes an example.

To assess social readiness for school, it is recommended to check:

• is it easy for the child to join the company of children playing;
• whether he knows how to listen to someone else's opinion without interrupting;
• whether he observes the queue in situations where it is necessary;
• whether he knows how to participate in a conversation with several people, whether he can keep up the conversation.

Physical readiness for school

Healthy children adapt much faster to the changes in their lives that are associated with the start of schooling. It is physical development that determines physical readiness for school.

To assess development and determine whether a child is ready for a new life stage, you can do the following:

• check his hearing;
• check your vision;
• evaluate the child's ability to sit quietly for a while;
• check if he has developed coordination of motor skills (can he play with a ball, jump, go up and down stairs);
• evaluate the appearance of the child (does he look rested, vigorous, healthy).

Testing a future first grader

Before entering an educational institution, children undergo special testing. It is not aimed at accepting only strong students and refusing weak ones. The legislation states that the school does not have the right to refuse parents to accept a child in the first grade, even if he cannot pass the interview.

Tests are necessary for teachers to determine the weak and strengths the child, the level of his intellectual, psychological, social and personal readiness for classes.

To determine the intellectual readiness for learning at school, the following tasks can be given:

• count from 1 to 10;
• perform simple arithmetic operations in the problem;
• change nouns by number, gender;
• come up with a story for the picture;
• lay out figures from matches;
• arrange the pictures in order;
• read the text;
• classify geometric shapes;
• draw something.

To assess psychological readiness, the teacher proposes to pass a test to assess the level of development of fine motor skills of the hand, to identify the ability to work for some time without being distracted, the ability to imitate a specific model.

On testing, the following tasks may be given to determine the readiness of the child for school:

• draw a person
• draw letters or a group of dots.

Also in this block, the child can be asked questions, the answers to which can determine how he is oriented in reality.

When assessing social readiness, the teacher suggests drawing a picture based on the reflection in the mirror, solving situational problems, coloring the figures according to certain instructions, drawing the child's attention to the fact that other children will continue the drawing.

Personal readiness is determined by the teacher in the course of a conversation with the child. Diagnosis of a child's readiness for school is carried out thanks to the questions that are asked to the crumbs about the school, about how they would act in certain situations, with whom they would like to be at the same desk, with whom they would like to be friends. In addition, the teacher will ask the child to express his opinion about himself, talk about his qualities or choose them from the proposed list.

The second time in the first class, or the readiness of parents

Not only children, but also their parents should be ready for school. It is important to understand that getting your child into first grade is a rather costly process. Mom and dad should be prepared for big expenses. The child will need stationery, clothes, shoes, a briefcase. The school may need to provide material support. Monthly expenses will include the cost of meals, security services.

Plays an important role psychological readiness parents to school. Many mothers and fathers often worry about their child when there is no reason for it. You need to understand that the baby has already matured and wised up, moved into a new stage of his life. life path. He no longer needs to be treated like a child. Let him get used to independent living. If the child encounters failure or finds himself in some unpleasant situation, then you should immediately come to his aid.

What if the child does not meet the eligibility criteria?

Many parents are currently faced with the problem of school readiness when a child is found to have shortcomings and is told that it is too early for him to learn. Inattention, absent-mindedness, lack of perseverance are manifested in almost every 6-7-year-old child.

Parents should not panic in such a situation. If the baby is only 6 or 7 years old, then it is not necessary to send him to school at this time. Many children start school only after they are 8 years old. By this time, all the problems that were noticed earlier may disappear.

Do not forget about classes. It is desirable for parents to teach their son or daughter to read and write before school. If a child, according to indicators of school readiness, has been found to have some problems with memory or thinking, then there are a huge number of different tasks and exercises that can develop this. If the baby has any deviations, then you can contact a specialist, for example, a psychologist or a speech therapist.