ExchangeEveryDay Past Issues

In the Beginnings Workshop section of the November 2003 Exchange magazine, David Elkind contributed "The First Grade Challenge: Transition Stress," in which he offered advice regarding the challenge for young children is to make the leap from an early childhood to a formal classroom setting without undue emotional turmoil. One message he offered was this...

"In helping prepare children for the challenge of first grade, parents often make an understandable, but incorrect assumption. They assume that what their children need to succeed in first grade are the basics of reading and arithmetic. In fact, most first grade teachers will have a different set of expectations for successful adjustment to first grade. These are:

* The ability to listen and follow instructions given by an adult.
* The ability to start a task and bring it to completion without help.
* The ability to work cooperatively with other children, take turns, stand in line, and so on.

If a child has these three social abilities, learning the academic skills is much easier than it is without them. It is important to communicate to parents how important these social skills are and to encourage them to reward and support these skills in their children. Of course they should continue to read to their children and help them learn the names of the letters and numbers; but the social skills should be given equal, if not more importance."

The entire David Elkind article is up for viewing on the home page of our web site, www.ChildCareExchange.com.

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