School readiness: Is your child ready for school?

School ability: Mental development

In order to do well in school, your child should be at a certain level of intellectual development. The following abilities may indicate that your child is already mentally ready for school:

• Your child can recognize and distinguish different symbols, for example traffic signs, company logos, car brands, individual numbers or letters.
• Your child can focus on one thing for about half an hour.
• Your child can recognize details from larger contexts, for example hearing individual sounds in a word, recognizing colors in a picture, drawing detailed pictures themselves or solving 20-piece puzzles.
• It is willing to make an effort to solve a task.
• It’s willing to wait a while to get your undivided attention.
• Your child can accept rules and understand and follow instructions.

School ability: physical development

Your child’s physical development also plays an important role in your child’s school readiness. Your child will need the following physical skills at school:

• Your child’s vision is normally developed and does not have any visual impairments that could impede learning to read and write. Restrictions recognized early can be compensated for by glasses .
• Your child’s hearing is well developed, so that no hearing impairment stands in the way of learning to read and write. A hearing impairment can also be compensated for by a hearing aid if it is detected.
• Your child has enough physical stamina to carry the school bag to school and get through a whole morning without getting tired and listless.

School ability: Motor development

Your child ‘s motor skills also play a crucial role in school readiness. Your child should have acquired the following fine motor and gross motor skills by the time they start school:

• Your child can stand on one leg and hop a few times. It has no trouble maintaining its balance when balancing on a small wall.
• Your child should be able to tie their shoes and dress and undress themselves unaided, as they will be required to do this when changing for physical education class.
• Your child can also master complex movement sequences, such as jumping rope or throwing and catching a ball.
• It can hold a pen in its hand for drawing in a relaxed and relaxed manner. When coloring, it sticks to the given lines of the coloring picture.
• Even scissors won’t cause any problems for your child. It can also cut out small shapes from paper when doing crafts.

School ability: language development

Language skills are particularly important at school so that your child can learn to read and write properly. School readiness in the language area is characterized by the following development steps:

• Your child can recognize and pronounce all sounds of the German language correctly.
• It can also speak longer sentences without grammatical errors.
• He can listen when someone else is speaking and respond to what is said.
• It can tell a story in a logically coherent manner.
• He can easily say his name, address and phone number.

School ability: Emotional development

School readiness is also noticeable in the emotional development of your child. By the time your child starts school, they should be able to:

• Your child can control their own needs, they can go without a toilet for a while and they can also wait for the next meal for a while.
• It is independent and does not need permanent employment or attention from an adult. It also has no problem getting along without you for a few hours.
• It is ready to quickly adapt to new, unfamiliar situations.
• It can also lose and endures its own small mistakes and setbacks without immediately bursting into tears.
• It asks a lot of questions, is interested in the background and context of everyday things, it is curious and thirsty for knowledge.

School ability: social skills

Your child’s social skills are an important part of school readiness. At school, your child will be confronted with a group of strange children with whom it should learn and spend its everyday life. This is why these social skills are important when starting school :

• Your child can reach out to other children and build friendships, but also break up when treated badly by another child.
• It can both assert its own interests and step back when necessary.
• Your child is able to complete smaller tasks together with other children.
• Even in disputes and arguments with other children, it rarely needs your help, because it largely resolves its conflicts on its own.
• He can develop a relationship of trust with people other than his parents, for example with educators, friends, neighbors or trainers.

You can find more information about school readiness in our article “School readiness: what is it?” . There you can read what exactly is meant by the term school readiness or school readiness and how you can support your child in order to prepare it optimally for school.