As many kindergarten registrations are taking place across the school division, this seemed like the perfect time to offer some information about kindergarten readiness skills.
Formal school entry begins for most children at kindergarten. This is an exciting time for children to explore new ideas and materials, create new friendships, and build independence and self-confidence. Parents, however, often worry about a child’s readiness and ability to thrive as a happy and engaged member of the classroom. Many parents wonder what it means for a child to be “ready for school” and if there are things that can be done to prepare a child for this important transition (School Readiness and School Entry: Helping Handout for Home - Hattie, Harvey, Coleman and Miller).
There are many important considerations to support your child’s transition into school. Reading and literacy are an important part of a child’s school experience. The first and most important skill a child needs to be successful with later reading skills is phonological awareness.
Phonological awareness is a broad skill that includes being able to hear words, syllables and sounds in language. Early skills include rhyming (judging and producing rhyming words) and segmenting (listening for words in sentences, words in compound words, syllables in words).
Rhyming is the ability to identify and produce rhyming words. Identifying rhymes means the ability to determine if two words rhyme (e.g., Do cat and sat rhyme?). Producing rhymes means the ability to come up with a rhyming word (e.g., Tell me a word that rhymes with car).
Here’s what you can do to help develop your child’s rhyming skills at home:
Read stories, poems or nursery rhymes that use rhyming words and alliteration.
- After you’ve read a rhyme several times, leave out the rhyming word and pause expectantly. Ask your child what word comes next. Wait for a few seconds for a response. If your child answers correctly, reinforce them by saying, “That’s right, _(cat)_ rhymes with _(sat)_.” If your child doesn’t say the word, say it and ask them to repeat it. Say, “_(Cat)_ rhymes with _(sat)_.” Make this process playful and enjoyable. Eventually, your child will begin to anticipate the rhyming word and fill it in.
- Once your child is able to predict rhyming words in their favourite rhyming books on a regular basis, begin playing rhyming games with them where you and your child think of words that rhyme. For example, ask them to think of a word that rhymes with a word that you say. Start out with words they already know from the rhyming books.
- Use your child’s and family members’ or friends’ names – names that rhyme (Pam/ Sam).
Segmenting requires children to listen for words and syllables. Early segmenting skills are taught in the following order:
- Sentences: Say, “My house is big.” Say the sentence again and clap once as you say each word (4 claps).
- Compound words: Say, “Mousetrap.” Say it again and clap once as you say each little word (2 claps).
- Syllables: Say, “Saturday.” Say it again and clap once as you say each syllable (3 claps).
Here’s what you can do to help develop your child’s segmenting skills at home:
- Early, we teach children to segment sentences into individual words. Identify familiar short poems such as, "I scream you scream we all scream for ice cream!" Have children clap their hands with each word.
- Start with compound words that preschoolers may know, like cupcake, football and toothbrush. Use real or pretend objects or pictures to help your child remember the word you are focusing on.
- As children advance, teach them to segment words into syllables. For example, have children segment their names into syllables (e.g., Ra-chel, Al-ex-an-der, and Rod-ney).
- Clap, tap, jump or stomp one time for each syllable in a word or one time for each word in a sentence or nursery rhyme.