A new school year is right around the corner and many families are excitedly preparing to send their little ones off to Kindergarten! When a child starts Kindergarten, it can be a very exciting time but it can also bring up a lot of questions. Is my child ready for kindergarten? What should they be able to do at this age?
Each child is different and these questions are good to reflect upon to discover what their strengths are, as well as what areas they may need additional support.
Upon entry into kindergarten, here are some skills that a child typically demonstrates:
- Understand words for primary colors and simple shapes
- Hear/react to name being called from other room
- Understand words/names for family members
- Talk about activities at school, with friends, etc.
- Talk about daily events using 4 sentences at a time
- Answer wimple “wh” questions (who, what, where)
- Ask “when” or “how” questions
- Use pronouns (i, you, me, we, they)
- Use plurals
- Sentences are made of 4+ words
- Make believe play with verbalization during play
- Understand size concepts (larger, longer, etc.)
- Speech should be understood by others most of the time
Upon completion of kindergarten, here are some skills that a child typically demonstrates:
- Follow 1-2 step directions
- Listen to stories
- Follow simple conversations
- Retell a story about their day
- Also answer “wh” questions about past events (i.e. what did you have for lunch?)
- Understand that sounds make up words
- Pick out words that rhyme
- ID first sounds in words
- They should be able to make sounds for letter (i.e. “buh” for B)
- Begin recognizing some words by sight
- Say all sounds in words with errors being on harder sounds (ch, sh, l, r, etc)
These lists do not include every skill that your child may be demonstrating, just like they are an exact list of what your child has to have mastered. These lists serve to provide general milestones to keep an eye out for.
If your child is in need of additional supports in any of the above areas, or other elements of speech and language, call 586-323-2957 to schedule a free speech and language screening with one of our clinicians.
