First Grade Readiness
By Ziva Schapiro, OTR

This is the season for gan and school registration. For most children the decision is obvious without much debate. However, there are certain children whose parents are not sure if their child is ready for the demands of first grade and formal school. In other circumstances, the gannenet recommends staying another year in gan while the parents think that first grade is the clear option. The current research is not clear on whether retaining an extra year in gan is helpful in the long run. It seems clear that in first and second grade there is an advantage to the child who has repeated gan, but it is not clear what this advantage is by the time the child reaches third grade. I would like to focus this column on what factors are involved in this decision.

Readiness for first grade involves many factors; physical development, language skills and emotional maturity just to name a few. Some children are physically small, but verbally strong with good social skills. Others may be big for their age, but have difficulty expressing them selves verbally and socially. Some of the skills children need to have to be "ready" for first grade include enough motor dexterity to copy shapes and write letters, phonetic awareness about opening and closing sounds of words (rhyming, sounds alike etc), basic social skills and an ability to play with other children as well as behavioral readiness, including following directions and the ability to take no for an answer.

When making this decision whether to leave a child in gan another year, we need to understand what the extra year will do for him. Some children have a general developmental lag (ie delayed speech and fine motor skills) and need another year in gan together with therapy to help them be on age level. Just keeping them another year in gan may not really achieve the goal of closing the developmental gaps. If a child has a specific delay in just one area, it is often not recommended to keep him back a year, but rather give him the extra support he needs even in first grade. Certain deficits will not be changed by staying another year in gan. An attention deficit for example, will not be cured by staying in gan another year and will follow the child when he does eventually reach first grade. Therefore children with ADHD or suspicions of it need treatment and to go to first grade at the same time.

Obviously the child's birthday plays a factor as well. The cut off for first grade is the end of December. Children who are born in November and December can stay an extra year in gan with only the recommendation of the gannenet and parent approval. For those chidren born before November, a professional opinion is necessary. The older the child is the harder the decision, though age is still only one factor in addition to those mentioned above.

Many parents are concerned about the social impact of staying in gan another year, when most of their child's friends are going into first grade. Sometimes this may be a reason to repeat gan hova but in a different gan with different children. Other times, it may actually be to the child's advantage to stay in his gan again with the familiar surroundings and gannenet and have the status of an older more mature child. Either way, if the decision is made to retain another year in gan and the parents support that decision, the social adjustment is fairly rapid. Within the first few months of the year the child makes new friends and no longer feels that he has been left behind.

In my professional opinion, most parents who opt to retain their child an extra year in gan report good results. They have a good year repeating gan hova and a successful first grade. Even if the long term results may be the same as having not left him back, the emotional benefit of two good years may be hard to measure in the long run. Remember, this is a decision best made in conjunction with the gannenet and other professionals who are working with your child.