What are the School Readiness Skills for Preschoolers?
Kindergarten marks a big transition in the lives of children. By the time they start school, many children already display a wide range of skills, knowledge, and school-readiness behaviors. This is why it’s ideal to be proactive with school readiness skills for preschoolers. The National Center for Education Statistics conducted the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study to determine if the following behaviors are related to academic performance.
- pay attention well
- learn independently
- persist in completing tasks
- organize belongings
- adapt easily to change
- show eagerness to learn new things
- follow classroom rules
Eighteen thousand incoming kindergartners were rated by their teachers on these school-readiness behaviors. The research found that kindergarten-readiness behaviors go hand-in-hand with academic performance and that trend continues through multiple school years.
Most early education programs and preschools will guide kids to follow classroom rules. It will also guide them to be flexible to new routines, and be enthusiastic about learning. Kumon does even more to enable preschoolers to be prepared for kindergarten. Kumon gives children an academic advantage due to the focus on enhancing attentiveness, strengthening perseverance when completing tasks, fostering independent learning, and promoting organizational skills.
School success depends not only on knowledge and skills, but also on the habits and attitudes with which children approach learning. Evidence shows the characteristics that Kumon cultivates including attentiveness, persistence, and independence go hand-and-hand with higher scores in math and reading — beginning as early as kindergarten and at least through the end of first grade. These results are leading some states to make early education available to greater numbers of children.