Preparing for School: Developing Essential Skills for Preschoolers

How can you prepare your child for starting school? We often focus on the list of necessary accessories and textbooks, while in reality, the most important aspect turns out to be what our future first-grader thinks about themselves, their peers, and school, as well as the skills they possess to help them adapt to the new environment. So, what supportive beliefs and helpful skills should we nurture in our children? You’ll learn about this and more in today’s post!

Self-Perceptions

Let’s start with what a child thinks about themselves. Self-esteem is a crucial element influencing their adjustment to any new situation. Having positive beliefs about oneself, such as “I am liked,” “I am good enough,” or “I am independent,” helps the child approach the new school environment with much greater courage and confidence. Stable self-esteem and positive self-thought enable children to form relationships more easily, set boundaries with others, adopt safe roles within the group, and absorb knowledge without fear of failure or rejection.

How to Boost a Child’s Self-Esteem

To enhance a child’s self-esteem, it’s important to focus on giving specific and genuine praise. Compliments should include a detailed description of the child’s behaviour along with a positive reinforcing message. Creating opportunities dedicated to praise can also be beneficial. These are situations where the child has the space to undertake tasks that enrich them with new skills and constructive self-knowledge. Another helpful method is to create a “power jar” – a place where you add a note each day describing an achievement or positive trait of the child that was evident on that day. On tougher days, you can draw 2-3 notes from the jar with the child and read aloud the strengths, talents, resources, and achievements they’ve accumulated. This practice helps to restore and reinforce their positive self-perception.

Beliefs about school

It’s important to talk with your child about school, the classroom, teachers, breaks, and lessons—essentially, all the new aspects of school life. These conversations help to clarify and adjust the child’s expectations about starting school, ensuring they have the most accurate and supportive beliefs about it. Often, children may have distorted perceptions of school due to fear of change. You can ask them if there is anything they are worried about and what would need to happen for them to find school enjoyable and engaging.

Social Skills

Social skills refer to the abilities that enable a child to build and maintain relationships, engage in collaborative activities, and work effectively in a group. The ability to resolve conflicts is also crucial.

How can we develop these social skills in a child? Start by observing their interactions with peers. If you notice anything that causes concern or difficulties in communication, you can help the child understand and correct these issues. Educational books about emotions and communication with others can also be very helpful. Additionally, simply being in a preschool setting equips children with social skills. If you observe any difficulties at this stage, it’s worth discussing these with the staff at the preschool and potentially consulting with a psychologist who can guide you in choosing the right methods to support your child.

Understanding One’s Own Emotions

Understanding one’s own emotions is a crucial aspect of maintaining a child’s mental well-being. Through open conversations about emotions, we teach children to seek answers to questions such as:

• What am I feeling?
• What are others feeling?
• What are anger, sadness, and frustration, and how can these emotions be recognised in ourselves or others?
• Why do negative emotions arise, and how can we manage them?

Recognising and naming emotions, as well as learning to regulate them, are vital skills that help a child cope with stressful, conflictual situations and a range of emotions, which may be particularly prevalent during the first few months at school.

How to Equip Your Child with Emotional Awareness

Here are some steps to help your child develop an understanding of their emotions:

1. Ensure Basic Emotions Are Known: Make sure your child is familiar with all basic emotions and understands that it’s natural and acceptable to experience and express them, including anger, sadness, and frustration.
2. Describe Emotions Together: Help your child identify emotions by discussing their physical responses to these feelings. For instance, talk about how their heart races when they’re angry, their breathing changes, or what they feel in their stomach.
3. Develop an Emotion Regulation System: Work with your child to create a personal strategy for managing emotions. This could involve taking a moment alone, practising deep breathing, squeezing a stress ball, or doing squats. We’ve previously covered methods for coping with negative emotions, so we encourage you to check out that article for more insights!

Cognitive and Language Skills

We can be reassured that children finishing preschool are generally equipped with basic reading and writing skills. It’s important not to place too much pressure on yourself or your child. What really matters is the child’s attitude towards learning, meeting new friends, and overall cognitive preparation.Remember that school-aged children start to compare themselves with their peers, which shapes their self-image. Your child doesn’t need to be the most advanced or academically prepared for first grade. It’s enough that they are not significantly behind their classmates in terms of skills. The rest of the integration and adaptation process will come naturally over time, and this is a completely normal part of their development!

Independence

Starting primary school means children will have more freedom and responsibility. They need to dress themselves for PE, remember to eat their snack, occupy their time during breaks, communicate their needs, and form new relationships. All of this can be summed up as “independence.” It’s worth noting that children finishing preschool are generally quite independent. However, it’s beneficial to create daily opportunities for your child to act independently, recognise these efforts, and reinforce them with praise. By doing so, you help build constructive beliefs about their own abilities and reduce the likelihood of frustration, helplessness, or fear of failure when they encounter new situations at school.