🎓 Skills Your Child Will Develop
- 🏫 School Readiness — Activities that practice school-like expectations — sitting at a table, listening to instructions, transitioning between activities — directly prepare children for the structure of a kindergarten day.
- 📚 Pre-Literacy Skills — Letter knowledge, phonological awareness, and print concepts developed before kindergarten are the strongest predictors of first-grade reading success — and every literacy-rich preschool experience compounds this advantage.
- ⚡ Executive Function — Kindergarten demands enormous executive function: remembering multi-step directions, stopping one activity and starting another, following rules consistently, and managing impulses in a group. Early executive function development is the highest-return kindergarten readiness investment.
- 🎵 Phonological Awareness — Hearing and manipulating sounds in spoken language — rhyming, counting syllables, identifying beginning sounds — is the foundational pre-reading skill that kindergarten reading instruction builds directly on.
Your preschooler has met the criteria for kindergarten. He is the correct age, has his immunizations and has completed the required school physical exam. For some preschoolers, starting school is just that simple. Parents with a child that is a late bloomer have more challenges when their preschooler starts school. Parents must consider different options for these preschoolers.
Importance of Screening
If a parent suspects that their child is developing more slowly than her peers, a developmental screening is necessary. Although schools often offer screenings when a preschooler enters kindergarten; parents should not wait until a preschooler is ready to enter school to have a screening if they appear to be struggling with skills.
A great first place to gather information is with your pediatrician. A good pediatrician is aware of child development and what community agencies provide services to children with developmental issues. If a preschooler has delays after being screened, they will be referred to an agency that will set up a program to help them to catch up.
A preschooler that shows no delays on a developmental screening still may not be ready for kindergarten. Consult your local school district about what type of skills your preschooler will need in kindergarten. Learn what types of kindergarten options are available in your local school system, also.
Kindergarten Options
Preschoolers may qualify for different kindergarten options. The most common options include: attending a developmental or "booster" kindergarten class prior to regular kindergarten, attending a half-day kindergarten program, or waiting a year to attend kindergarten. Each of these options has positives and negatives. Consider and weigh each option to discover what bests fits your child.
Developmental Kindergarten, sometimes called booster kindergarten, is a less intense version of kindergarten. Children who are young, but still eligible for kindergarten benefit from the gift of time. Preschoolers that need more time to play and work on fine motor and cognitive skills receive the time and practice that allows them to catch up with peers. When unclear whether a preschooler has a developmental delay, time in a developmental kindergarten can determine the needs of that particular child. It is a great option for less mature preschoolers that need some time to adjust to school life. Unfortunately, not every school district offers this type of kindergarten
Half-day kindergarten is becoming less common than it once was. Half-day kindergarten is great for children who still need a bit of rest in the afternoon or those who have difficulty separating. Hopefully, this option does not disappear for all children. Many preschoolers adjust well to half-day separations from mom and family, but struggle with a full-day program. If your school district still has half-day kindergarten, take advantage of this option when you are unsure of whether your child will succeed in a full-day classroom.
An option some parents in this situation consider is keeping a preschooler out of kindergarten for a year. Preschoolers needing time to grow and mature may benefit from an extra year before kindergarten. Research is mixed on any actual positive effects of waiting a year to start school. Parents report that holding their preschooler out of school an extra year was very beneficial for the child. Others parents feel waiting for kindergarten made little difference for their preschooler.
In the end, parents will make the personal decision of which education option is best for their child. Kindergarten is a small step in the spectrum of life. If a parent makes an informed decision; it will make that small step a step in the right direction.
