Kindergarten Readiness Assessment

 

Action Kids Therapy provides a “Kindergarten Readiness Assessment” which takes a snap-shot of a child’s abilities and aptitude. The assessment focuses upon the skills most-required to succeed in Kindergarten.

 

If a child is lacking in one or more specific skill-areas, Action Kids Therapy offers a customised program to assist the family to prepare for, and thrive in Kindergarten.

 

 

What follows are the top readiness skills that kindergarten teachers look for:

 

(1) Enthusiasm Toward Learning

 

(2) Solid Oral-Language Skills

 

(3) The Ability to Listen

 

(4) The Desire to Be Independent

 

(5) The Ability to Play Well with Others

 

(6) Strong Fine-Motor Skills

 

(7) Basic Letter and Number Recognition

 

 

Enthusiasm Toward Learning

 

Teachers look for those qualities that prime children to be successful in school. Does the child approach learning enthusiastically? Is she eager to explore and discover? Does she ask questions, take initiative, and persist when tasks are difficult?

 

 

Solid Oral-Language Skills

 

Children need wide background knowledge about their world and the words to go with it. Kindergarten teachers want to know where they've been and what they can talk about.

 

Research shows that one of the best predictors of later reading success is a well-developed oral vocabulary in Kindergarten. Pre-K kids are learning vocabulary at the rate of five to six words a day.

 

 

The Ability to Listen

 

Children's literature is a rich resource for expanding language. Teachers expect parents to be reading to kids every day. Teachers can tell which children have been glued to the TV or computer for hours at a time. When they read them a story and ask them to recall in their own words what they liked or remembered, they're unable to do so. Besides fostering vocabulary and comprehension, reading develops the attention skills necessary in a Kindergarten classroom. Listening is a key part of school behavior. Students must be able to concentrate on what the teacher is saying, listen carefully for directions, and tune in to the sounds in letters and words.

 

 

The Desire to Be Independent

 

Encouraging self-help skills is an important step to preparing a child for Kindergarten. Teachers expect children to:

 

(A) Get coats on and off and hang them up.

 

(B) Follow simple two-step instructions such as "take off your boots and put on your sneakers".

 

(C) Go to the bathroom and wash their hands.

 

(D) Blow their nose and cover their mouth when they cough.

 

(E) Fasten and unfasten simple buttons and snaps.

 

(F) Eat neatly and pour into a cup.

 

(G) Open up a juice box and get the straw in.

 

 

The Ability to Play Well with Others

 

Children need the assistance of their parents to refine essential social skills such as sharing, compromising, turn-taking, and problem-solving. By the time they reach Kindergarten, they should be able to express their feelings in words and begin to understand that two people can use the same thing at the same time.

 

 

Strong Fine-Motor Skills

 

A child's hands must be strong enough to master coloring, cutting, pasting, and holding a pencil — fine-motor tasks that kids use every day in Kindergarten. By week one, teachers are already introducing how to write a letter of the alphabet. If kids can't hold the pencil correctly, they will fall behind.

 

 

Basic Letter and Number Recognition

 

Kindergarten teachers believe that it is their responsibility to teach kids letter sounds and how to write, but they do hope incoming students can recognize most letters by sight. They also hope children can count to 10, identify numbers 1 to 5, and know some shapes and colors.