Diagnosis of the child's readiness for school

The child's readiness for school is determined by three aspects that are interrelated. This is physical readiness, intellectual readiness and personal readiness. Therefore, the diagnosis of the readiness of the child in schoolis made by different specialists (doctors, educators, psychologists), and only then a verdict is issued - the child is ready for school or is still waiting a year.

Physical readiness for school is determined in the course of physical examination. The child is examined not only by the therapist, but also byspecialist doctors. The results of the medical examination are recorded in the outpatient card of the child. Nobody says that the child should be absolutely healthy (absolutely healthy children, unfortunately, very, very little). However, according to the results of the examination, the doctor may propose and wait with the school if there are health problems that may interfere with the normal schooling of the child at school (or worsen because of the school).

Under intellectual readiness for school mean a sufficient level of developmentmemory, attention, thinking, perception and speech. If the child's cognitive processes are not sufficiently developed, schooling will present difficulties for him, because the requirements for pupils at school are based on the premise that all pupils have cognitive abilities at a normal level for their age.

During the diagnosis, the teacher or psychologist conducts special tests, which allow to find out how the child has developed:

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  short-term auditory and semantic memory;
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  verbal-logical, visual-effective andvisual-figurative thinking (by the school age, the child's thinking should be represented in all three forms, however, emphasis is placed on checking verbal-logical thinking);
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  speech (phonemic rumor, vocabulary, grammatical structure, coherent speech);
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  coordination of movements;
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  fine motor hand;
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  voluntary attention;
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  spatial orientation.

Also check elementary mathematical skills, general awareness of the child about the world around him and the ability to act according to instructions.

Will parents be present at an individual conversation between the teacher and the child, usually the envy of the child's desire. However, in no case should they interfere in the course of the conversation. When performing each task, points are put for him depending on whether the child performed the task himself, with the help of a teacher or after demonstrating a sample.

To determine the child's intellectual readiness for school counted the number of tasks completed for the highest score (that is, those that were successfully performed by the child on their own). The indicator of 80% or more indicates a high level of preparedness, 55-80% - about an average and less than 55% - about a low level.

Finally, under personal readiness imply school motivation. The main criterion is the presence of the childexpressed interest in learning and knowledge. So, if the child answers the question "Why do you want to go to school?" He answers that he wants to learn, and explains what he means (learn new things, etc.), he is ready for school. And if he says he wants to go to school, because he was promised to buy new clothes and a portfolio, there's no question of any readiness for school.

Yet personal readiness includes how much the child is oriented in the surroundingthe level of his independence, activity and initiative, the ability to establish contact with other children and adults, the need for the child to communicate. All this is clarified during the conversation.

Usually the duration of the conversation with the child does not exceed half an hour. Also the teacher conducts questioning of parents and on the basis of all collected information determines whether the child is ready for school.

The earlier the diagnosis of the child's readiness for school is carried out, the better. It is advisable to attend to this issue in the spring: sometimes a child lags behind in development on any one parameter, and there is an opportunity to pull it up to August, say, to strengthen health or additionally work out with a speech therapist. And in August, it will be possible to conduct a re-diagnosis in order to finally decide whether the child is ready to go to school this year.