TherapyConnect

School Readiness

School Readiness

As children grow and develop, they learn and practice new skills which help them to participate in everyday activities and become more independent in the lead up to school. Here we list some skills that you (and your therapist) can encourage and practice to help your child get ready for the transition to school.

school readinessIf your child is nearing school age and you are concerned that they are not developing the following skills,  you may like to seek the advice of an occupational therapist, psychologist, or speech pathologist.

Self-Care

Self-care skills (also called 'independent skills') are skills people use to look after themselves and their health. By school age, children might be expected to complete tasks in the following areas with adult supervision, but minimal assistance:

  • Eating: eating a range of foods as well as opening their lunch box and wrappers or using utensils to eat food
  • Grooming: skills such as brushing their their teeth and hair
  • Bathing: washing and drying themselves; washing their hair and face
  • Dressing: dressing and undressing with or without assistance depending on developmental age
  • Sleeping
  • Toileting

Personal organisation 

Personal organisation is your child's ability to organise themselves and their belongings, and to follow routines or processes. By school age, children are expected to have the following level of skill:

  • Routine: ability to follow a routine (e.g. simple bedtime routine that includes toilet, story, sleep)
  • Sequencing: ability to follow a set of steps within a task (e.g. brushing teeth sequence of toothpaste on toothbrush, wet brush with water, brush teeth, rinse mouth, wash brush, dry mouth, put toothbrush back into cupboard)
  • Care for belongings: can identify and look after belongings such as school bag, lunch box, and items of clothing
  • Recognition: ability to locate objects within a familiar environment, such as the home or classroom (e.g. can find cup from kitchen or book from reading corner if requested; can put away toys)

Attention and Concentration

Your child's level of attention and concentration will determine how well they are able to focus on a set task or complete series of tasks within set period of time. By school age, children are expected to have the following level of skill:

  • Can follow short 1-2 step instructions
  • Can focus on tasks for short periods
  • Can sit for appropriate length of time depending on developmental age. It is important that children are able to do this across environments (for example in a quiet environment such as at home, as well as in a busy environment such as at school
  • Can complete set tasks when broken into smaller parts with limited prompting from adult

Change and Flexibility

Flexibility is your child's ability to cope with changes to their day. Your child might be expected to show skills in these areas:

  • Can follow simple instructions from adult
  • Can transition or move between tasks and environments when required
  • Can move on from their preferred activity when requested
  • Can cope with unexpected changes in routine with support (e.g. wet day timetable at school due to rain)

Emotional Regulation

Emotional regulation is your child's ability to regulate (or manage) their own emotions to a level expected for their developmental age. Your child might be expected to display these skills:

  • Can calm themselves down when upset. You may hear this referred to as self-soothing
  • Reacts appropriately to emotional responses (e.g. your child is able to manage their anger at a level expected for their developmental age)

Safety

An important consideration to starting school is how well your child can keep themselves safe, and this includes the following:

  • An awareness of road safety
  • Can follow rules to safely cross the road with adult supervision
  • Can use age-appropriate equipment safely, such as playground equipment

Asking for help

It is important that children learn to ask for help when they need it. For success at school, your child should learn these skills:

  • Recognise when they need help with a task or activity
  • Know who they can ask for help (e.g. a teacher, sibling or peer)
  • Know how to ask for help. This could be with words or with a sign or symbol to let the person know they would like help.

Your child will need to ask for help from different people in different environments. For more information on helping your child transfer skills learned from one environment to another, see Skill Generalisation

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Interactive timetable

To see how many opportunities you already have in your everyday schedule for using strategies learnt in therapy, drag and drop the tiles below into the timetable and watch the hours add up!!

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
Morning
Afternoon
Evening

Activities

Total hours: 0

Anxiety is a state of worry or fear about a real or perceived threatening event or situation, which often impairs physical and psychological functioning.

Articulation is how one makes sounds in words.

Auditory processing is the ability to perceive, interpret and respond to sound (auditory) stimuli. For example; a child who experiences difficulty processing auditory stimuli may be respond negatively to noise that you would not typically expect to bother someone, such as a vacuum cleaner. Alternatively, a child may have a decreased awareness of auditory stimuli and may not respond when their name is called.

A baseline is a measurement taken at one point in time against which future scores will be compared to measure progress. For example, before speech therapy begins, a therapist might measure how many objects a child can name. They might then measure this again one month, two months and three months after therapy has started to see how much progress the child has made.

Body awareness is the ability to recognise different parts of your own body, and their relative position.

Cognition refers to the mental process of acquiring knowledge.

A child’s developmental age will indicate where a child is socially, emotionally, physically, and intellectually on their path of development, as compared to typical behaviors and characteristics of that age.

Early intervention means doing something, or intervening, as early as possible to work on your child’s development and support needs.

Explicit teaching involves setting aside a block of time to work on a specific skill or task.

Expressive language is how one expresses their needs, wants, thoughts, and feelings.

Fine motor skills refer to the use of small muscle of the hands and fingers that allow us to manipulate and control objects and materials. This includes tasks that involve grasping (for example using a crayon or pencil), manipulating objects (using scissors) or activities that require hand-eye coordination (like threading, writing, doing up buttons and zips).

Gross motor skills refer to the use of the large muscle groups of the body that enable us to maintain an upright posture and coordinate the two sides of the body. Gross motor skills allow us to run, skip, climb and jump.

Gustatory processing is the ability to perceive, interpret, and respond to taste (gustatory) information. For example; a child who has difficulty processing taste information may have a self-limited diet, alternatively, they may crave strong flavours excessively such as spicy or sour.

A joint therapy session is when there are two or more therapists working with your child at the same time. This is generally two therapists from different disciplines.

Key word sign is the use of manual signs and natural gesture to support communication.  Key word sign is used to encourage and support language development in children with communication difficulties.

A low registering child does not register sensations at a typical level and does not seek out sensory stimulation. For example, a child that does not register auditory input at a typical level, may not notice when their name is being called.

Motor planning is the ability of the brain to plan and organise an action before it is carried out.

A multidisciplinary team includes members from different healthcare professions with specialised skills and expertise. The members collaborate together to make treatment recommendations for your child.

Non-verbal communication refers to elements of communication such as gesture, facial expression, and body language.

Olfactory processing is the ability to perceive, interpret, and respond to smell (olfactory) information. For example; a child presenting with an olfactory processing issue may smell objects excessively, alternatively, they may be over sensitive to smell information and actively avoid it.

Opportunistic teaching is using everyday ‘opportunities’ or activities to teach and practice the skills outlined in your child’s therapy plan.

Percentile rank is another way of explaining where your child’s score sits in comparison to other children their age. For example, if your child receives a standard score of 85 which is at the 16th percentile, this means that your child’s score was better than or equal to the score of 16% of other children his or her age. Another way of looking at it is that if 100 children completed this test and you lined them up from the person with the lowest score to the person with the highest score, your child would be standing in position 16.

Pragmatic language refers to the social use of language and includes the ability to understand verbal (tone of voice) and non-verbal cues (eye gaze, body language, facial expression)  as well as the social rules of language (turn taking, staying on topic, showing interest in others’ conversation).

Proprioception is the ability to understand where your body is in space. The receptors for this system are located in the muscles and joints of the body. For example; a child who experiences difficulty with the processing of proprioceptive information may have a decreased perception of pain, or seek movement excessively and appear to always be ‘on the go’.

Receptive language is how well one understands language, this includes information that is given verbally or in written form.

Self-care skills can also be referred to as ‘independence skills’. This include skills such as dressing, toileting, bathing, eating, and sleeping.

A sensory avoiding child is one who actively avoids sensory stimuli. For example a child who is sensitive to tactile (touch) information may not be able to wear certain clothing types such as wool.

Sensory processing is the way in which the brain receives, organises and responds to sensory information for everyday use. It also includes our ability to plan our actions and movements.

A child who is a sensory seeker does not register sensations at a typical level so may seek out sensory stimulation with increased frequency and intensity. For example a child who does not register taste information at a typical level may seek out spicy, salty, or very sweet foods.

A sensory sensitive child is easily overwhelmed by small amounts of sensory input. For example: a child with a sensitivity to auditory input may notice sounds that others do not register.

Sequencing is the ability to follow a set of steps within a task.

Skill generalisation is the ability to take a skill learned in one environment and successfully transfer it to another. For example a child first learns to use the toilet at home and then is able to use the toilet at kindergarten.

Social skills enable us to interact with people within our world and understand social rules. For a child, this begins with skills such as turn-taking, saying hello, and waiting.

Spatial awareness is the ability to perceive the position of your body in space.

A standardised assessment is a tool that has been designed to determine a child’s developmental level when compared to other children of the same age. Standardised assessments give a clear score that can be used as a baseline for therapy.

Tactile processing is the ability to receive, interpret, and respond to touch (tactile) information. For example; a child who has difficulty processing tactile information may not tolerate the feel of certain fabrics on their skin. Alternatively, they may not notice touch in the way they would be expected to.

The team around your child is anyone who plays an important role in your child’s development. Starting with the parents/carers, this may also include; therapists, teacher, respite worker, siblings, grandparents etc. The ‘team’ will vary depending on the child’s needs.

Verbal communication refers to speaking, either with or without aids for support.

The vestibular system is located in the inner ear and is responsible for our balance, understanding of motion, and spatial awareness. For example; a child who experiences vestibular processing issues may become distressed when their feet leave the ground, alternatively, they may crave vestibular input and spin or rock excessively.

Visual perception is the ability to understand, interpret and remember what one sees and respond accordingly.

Visual processing is the ability to perceive, interpret, and respond to visual stimuli. For example; a child who has difficulty processing visual information may be easily distracted by visual stimuli within their environment or become focused on a certain part of an object such as watching the wheels of a toy truck spin.