Time for school! 4 Fundamental skills in preparing for school

As we approach the end of January, this means it is back to school period! To kids entering new schools, be it preschool or primary school, there is no denying that it is an arduous amount of pressure to both parents and schoolers.

When it comes to schooling, what we, as parents hope for is nothing but our kids being able to get along with their peers, showing good behaviors, and following instructions. Having been helping out with school readiness groups, I am thrilled to share with you all about the fundamental skills for school success. So let's get going!

Social skills

Here social skills include peer interactions and school social skills.

As our children enter kindergarten, this is the first step of stepping into this big social world where the world no longer surrounds them anymore like at home. They must learn to work in a team and get along with others.

This includes learning to share ( turn-taking) or discussing topics with others. social skills are essential to prepare them to enter the social world, we learn that things do not always go our way and we have to negotiate communicate and take turns to get what we want. We learn to pick up social cues, behave appropriately and socially e.g. be quiet and do not interfere when someone is speaking.

School social skills include putting up their hands upon answering questions, sitting legs cross with mouth crossed when the teacher is speaking. Listening skills are needed when someone is speaking.

Independency

We want our children to be independent individuals. to prepare for schooling, they have to get used to the necessary evil - separation. This is more common among girls, even me, I still vividly recall the first day entering kindergarten. I was shy and reliant on my mom, I was holding her shirt as tightly as possible, refusing to let go.

The is in fact the first step of schooling, to be independent and step into the social world to learn and grow.

Another example is a little girl I met in one of my group readiness groups, she was so shy from the start and was begging to see her mom occasionally throughout the session. She was on the verge of crying while pleading for a hug from me.

Preliteracy skills

As mentioned in our previous blog - How to prepare my child to read and write? Perliteracy skills are primitive reading and writing abilities children develop from birth to age 5. In comparison to at home, preliteracy skills are heavily needed in schooling, this is presented in the form of reading storybooks or completing writing alphabet exercises.

Closely related to reading, from a speech pathology perspective, at the age of 5-6, kids should be able to identify different sounds and the letters within a word.

e.g. what is the word 'elephant' start with?'

They should also be able to come up with words with different letters/sounds. This is one of the subskills of preliteracy skills --- phonological awareness.

Check here to learn what phonological awareness is

Listening skills

Closely related to school social skills, listening skills requires full attention from the teacher. Practically, that means legs crossed, eyes on the speaker, ears listening, and hands still (not fidgeting/playing with shoelaces). It is important to let your child know the importance of good listening and behaviors a good student does. It is so that they won't miss what the teacher is saying and also respect one another.

We will talk more about how to practically develop listening skills to our tiny tots later to stay tuned!

We will talk more about how to practically develop listening skills to our tiny tots later to stay tuned!

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That is all for this week on skills needed to determine school success. As daunting as this may seem, entering a new learning environment provides us a new platform to grow, all by facing our fears and learning to adapt. In our coming blogs and resources page, we will update you with practical ways to develop these essential skills in preparation for school soon.

Please let me know other ideas or topics that you are interested in and would love to learn more about.

Have a great day and

Happy new year! Let's hope that this coming year will be better than the previous especially with the COVID situation.

Stay safe and don't forget to smile.

Joyce Lau