Is your Child Graduating from Nursery to School?
Is your child graduating from Nursery?
A child’s life is full of milestones, and sometimes it seems like they flash by in a blur! One day they are a tiny infant in your arms, and then suddenly they are off to nursery. It only seems like 5 minutes after that they are getting ready to go to school full-time.
As a parent, it is a lot of work to prepare yourself for your child moving from one phase of life to another, but how can you help your child to make the transition?
“The idea of infants aged 4 donned with gowns, and a mini mortar board hat sounded too silly.”
Graduating from nursery
When I first heard about children graduating from their nursery, I thought it couldn't be a real thing. The idea of infants aged 4 donned with gowns, and a mini mortar board hat sounded too silly. However, the more I thought about, the more I realized how much sense it made.
I realised it was not like university graduation at all, of course, but rather something to help prepare the child to transition from one environment to another. The idea is that these children would no longer be with the same people, the same friends, or the same routine. The idea of marking this transition was worthy, regardless of what I thought was a misleading title. Infants need to know they are moving on, and to feel that this move is to something bigger and better.
The transition from nursery to school
Despite the help the graduation gives, moving from nursery to school is a lot of work! Children are going from a few hours of engagement followed by an afternoon nap to a full-time schedule. For 6 weeks at a time, they need to be consistently in the right place at the right time, and always remember everything they need for school, such as their lunch bag, and to remember to bring it home too!
A lot of work for the child, but also a real nightmare for the parents, too! It’s all go, go, go! It can be a really daunting prospect, so what can be done to ease the transition – for both of you?
Morning routine for children aged 4+
Children at age four can usually remember 1.5 or 2 things in their active memory. Three things can be too much, and they are most likely to forget at least one. They just don't have the capacity yet for lengthy lists of information at this age.
This ability to hold items in their active memory is better known as working memory. As working memory is still in the early stages of development for children at this age, they can only hold onto a small number of instructions at a time. They need to be given fewer to follow or be constantly reminded. This is what makes the morning so stressful for parents.
“To get those new to school on board with morning routines, we have developed a way to bypass working memory capacity”
Something fun to make mornings easier.
To get those new to school on board with morning routines, we have developed a way to bypass working memory capacity to help them sequence all the activities that need to be done as seamlessly as possible. It can not only help your child to build good habits and be easier to organize in the morning, but can also be a lot of fun too. Engaging your child with something fun and creative can make these tasks feel like less of a chore (for both of you!).
We thought about the number of daily tasks each morning and understood that remembering them all is near impossible if a child has a maximum capacity of two items at one time. That is when we came up with the idea of using the nursery rhythm "One two buckle my shoe." This was the starting point for this experiment to see if children could remember ten things two at a time, just like in the nursery rhyme.
One, Two: Duvet and Loo (do you bed/ use the bathroom)
Three, four: Bix and bowl (Weetabix and then put your bowl in the dishwasher)
Five, six: Teeth and face (brush teeth and wash face)
Seven, eight: Shirt and hair (wear uniform and comb hair)
Nine ten, boots and bag (foot wear and school bag).
The idea of working to a child's natural capacity of keeping two things in their working memory but adding to a known nursery tune makes the whole thing easier and more fun.
When tasks are interconnected, there is flow
Do you sometimes leave your 4-year-old to get ready and return a few minutes later to find them staring out the window? Well, now you know why! As they can only process one activity at a time, they do not see the interconnectedness of events – for example, all the different things they need to do to be ready for school. They get distracted.
But if activities are somehow linked to other activities, they can more easily see the chain of events involved. The first thing in teaching children to concentrate is to get them to think about their current activity and understand what can follow next. You can see real progress if they can start to acknowledge these activities by singing along to the song.
Morning routines can build concentration skills
Working with your child to build a solid morning routine can benefit them in all sorts of ways, not just making the morning run more smoothly. They are building some very important skills which will help them in so many ways at school, and in later life.
Being able to sequence events, activities and ideas is the prerequisite for logical skills, and having logical skills is the building block for learning to read and maths.
We might not know what our children will do when they leave school in another 15 years, but we can be certain that building good concentration skills will always put them in good stead whatever their path in life.
We hope this has been helpful to you, but if you feel you need more guidance, you can reach out to use at Raviv Practice London at any time for a chat about how we can help you. Contact us here.
If you want to read more about how to change habits this blog will be of interest.
PROMOTION
If you are reading this blog in May/June 2023, please know we are doing an eight-week promotion 50% off Reflex Assessment. It is a simple non-evasive hour-long session of movements which your child EITHER can OR can not do with success.
We use MNRI (this stands for Masgutova Neuro-Sensory-Motor and Reflex Integration) Please share this info with other parents. Thanks.
Dyslexia? Dyspraxia? ADHD? ASD? Speech & Language? Developmental Delay? Anxiety?
Is every school day a struggle? As a parent, you may feel exhausted and on this journey alone. Each year you see the gap getting wider. You need to do something - change the approach, help your child learn for themselves, find a way to turn this around - to help while you can - do this NOW. the first step is free.
About the Author
Usha Patel is a Neurocognitive Therapist and Director at Raviv Practice London. Parents searching to help their suspected/neurodiverse child can get evidence-based solutions with results in as little as 8 weeks. Those in search of jargon-free help can get started straight away.
