It is important that your child has certain social skills before he or she enters preschool. This will help your child in paying attention and interacting with her peers. Examples of these social skills include the ability to wait, sit down at the table and eat meals, listen to a short story, use words such as please and thank you, share things such as toys and clothes and put away her belongings. The child should also have the ability to have a conversation with others and follow simple directions.
It is important that your child has certain motor skills before he enters preschool. Motor skills are necessary for your child to function in preschool. Motor skills range from fine motor skills to gross motor skills. Fine motor skills are small hand movements and include being able to hold small scissors, a pencil or a crayon or to be able to put together a small puzzle. Gross motor skills are large movements including running, jumping, skipping, walking backwards and going up and down stairs without falling.
It is also important that your child has certain academic skills before she enters preschool. Academic skills include specific reading skills, mathematics skills and science skills. Examples of these skills are recognizing shapes, being able to sort items by color, shape and size, identifying body parts and counting from one to 10. Specific reading skills include letter knowledge, word recognition, recognizing parts of a story, recognizing words by their sounds, comprehension, being able to read and write simple sentences and general listening and speaking skills. Mathematics skills include understanding patterns and being able to count. Science skills include being able to classify objects between living, non-living and once-living objects.
It is also important that your child knows a certain amount of personal information. This includes knowing his full name, age, address, telephone number and his mother and father's names.