Helping Your Child Prepare for Kindergarten

CLEVELAND - If your little one is getting ready to start kindergarten next month, now is a good time to start preparing them, and not just with learning things like letters, numbers and colors.

“There's a lot of different things that parents can do to help their children be ready. There's academic readiness, social readiness and behavioral readiness. And each one of those things needs some time and attention in order for a child to be successful in school,” said Kimberly Giuliano, MD, pediatrician at Cleveland Clinic Children’s. 

Dr. Giuliano said other skills that are important include teaching your child how to sit still and follow instructions.

The same goes for waiting for their turn to talk, using an inside voice and knowing when to ask for help. 

Sometimes a child may be too nervous to speak up and struggle in silence instead.

Dr. Giuliano said your child should also be fully potty trained and be able to remove clothes on their own. 

“If a child is struggling, avoid things that have zippers and buttons. If there's just an elastic waistband that can go up and down, that's going to make it a lot easier for the child headed off to school,” she suggested.

Dr. Giuliano said if your child doesn’t know how to do some of these things, that’s okay. 

There’s plenty of time to practice, even after the school year gets going.