KRI - Parent Edition
With the arrival of spring, many schools are beginning to assess the readiness of children entering kindergarten. While kindergarten assessments take different forms from school to school, their collective purpose is to get a picture of a child’s development that will guide decisions about placement, additional services, special needs, and instruction. This is a time of great anxiety for many parents, which is marked by worry about preparing their child for school and concerns about whether their child is indeed ready to begin formal education.
Research continues to show that strong language development during early childhood is vitally important for success in school. While children don’t need to know how to read before kindergarten, they do need practice with reading skills. Parents can help prepare children for reading instruction with two main activities – talking to their child and reading aloud. As children continue to develop, those who hear a variety of words from adults recognize and understand important concepts when they begin to read. When you read to your child, you teach them how letters and words work, how to hold a book, turn pages, and how to listen and gain meaning from the written words. Children’s play is their work, and they learn by doing and experimenting. Fascinated by the world around them, they love to ask questions and talk about everything. Parents increase their curiosity by showing interest in what they are saying. At this age, children are also beginning to develop a basic understanding of numbers, shapes, colors, and spatial concepts.
It’s important to remember that development differs from one child to the next. Your child’s development may be a little faster or a little slower in a certain area. Likewise, school readiness differs from child to child, and does not need to be a source of uncertainty or worry for parents. For assistance in gauging a child’s readiness, STS’s Kindergarten Readiness Inventory Parent Edition (KRI) allows parents to assess skills such as vocabulary, phonemics, comprehension, and interpretation from the comfort of their own home.
When it comes to preparing for school or readiness assessment, parents must remember to have patience, trust their judgment and refrain from being overly critical. If we make time for our children and have fun, then the rest will follow. For further information regarding the KRI or for general questions on readiness assessment, please call Scott Rich at 800-642-6787 or email sts@ststesting.com
