Somewhere around the middle of the year before Prep, the question starts circling: is she ready? It gets asked at kindy pickup, at family dinners, and at three in the morning.
Most of the anxiety attaches to academics — whether a child can write their name, count to twenty, recognise letters. Those things are useful. They’re also, by some distance, the least important part of school readiness.
What Actually Predicts a Good Start
Teachers will tell you the children who settle well aren’t necessarily the ones who arrive knowing the most. They’re the ones who can manage themselves in a room full of other children.
Emotional regulation
Can they cope with not getting their way? Recover from disappointment without a complete collapse? Separate from you at the gate? A Prep classroom involves a constant stream of small frustrations, and the capacity to ride those out matters more than any letter recognition.
Communication
Can they tell an adult what they need — that they feel sick, need the toilet, or someone was unkind? Can they follow an instruction given to the whole group, rather than only when directed at them individually? Can they be understood by an adult who doesn’t know them?
Social skills
Taking turns, sharing, joining a game already in progress, coping when excluded. These are genuinely hard skills that take years to develop — nobody expects mastery at five, but some capacity helps.
Independence
Toileting alone, managing a lunchbox, putting on shoes and a hat, finding their bag. Small things individually; together they’re most of what a child does independently in a school day.
Physical readiness
Sitting on the floor for a story without sliding over. Holding a pencil without their hand aching. Enough core strength to stay upright at a desk. This is where more difficulty hides than people expect — a child who can’t sit comfortably will struggle to attend, and it looks like a behaviour problem.
Attention and transitions
Staying with a task for a short stretch, and — often harder — stopping one activity and moving to the next when asked.
Where Academics Actually Sit
Prep teachers expect to teach letters and numbers. That’s the job. What helps more is the groundwork underneath: enjoying books, noticing rhyme, hearing the first sound in a word, holding a pencil in a functional grip, telling a simple story in order.
A child who loves being read to but can’t write their name is in a stronger position than one who can write their name but finds books a chore.
Signs Worth Looking Into Before Prep
- Speech that unfamiliar adults find hard to understand
- Difficulty following instructions with more than one step
- Meltdowns that are frequent, intense, or take a very long time to settle
- Strong avoidance of messy play, certain textures, noise or crowds
- Struggling to hold a pencil, use scissors, or draw simple shapes
- Clumsiness, frequent falls, or avoiding climbing and playground equipment
- Not yet toileting independently
- Significant distress at separation, beyond the usual settling period
- Little interest in playing with other children
None of these mean a child can’t start school. They mean it’s worth understanding what’s going on, so support can be in place from day one rather than arranged after a difficult first term.
How Speech Pathology and OT Help
These two disciplines cover most of what school readiness actually involves.
Speech pathology supports being understood, following group instructions, telling stories in order, asking for help, playing and negotiating with peers, and the early literacy skills that make learning to read easier.
Occupational therapy supports pencil grip and handwriting, scissor skills, sitting posture and core strength, managing the sensory load of a classroom, self-care independence, and coping with transitions.
A single assessment before Prep is often enough. Sometimes it’s reassurance. Sometimes it’s a short block of therapy over the summer. Occasionally it identifies something more significant — and knowing that before school starts is far better than discovering it in Term 2.
What About Holding Them Back a Year?
A genuinely individual decision, and not one to make on age alone. An extra year helps some children considerably. For others it makes little difference, or means a year of being bored and out of step with friends.
The more useful question isn’t “is he ready?” but “what specifically would be hard, and can we support that?” Sometimes the answer is another year. Often it’s targeted support and a good conversation with the school.
What Helps at Home
- Practise independence — let them open their own lunchbox, do their own shoes, even though it’s slower
- Read together daily, and talk about the story rather than only reading it
- Play with other children — unstructured play is where turn-taking and negotiation get learned
- Build hand strength — playdough, threading, tearing paper, drawing on a vertical surface
- Give two-step instructions — “put your cup in the sink and get your hat”
- Talk about school positively, including that some parts might feel hard at first
- Practise the routine — visit the school, walk the route, look at the uniform
Common Questions
When should we get an assessment if we’re worried?
The year before Prep gives useful time. Mid-year is ideal — enough time for some support before school starts, without it feeling rushed. That said, later is still worth doing.
Will my child be labelled?
An assessment isn’t a label — it’s information. Plenty result in reassurance and a few practical suggestions. Where something is identified, it usually opens doors to support rather than closing them.
My child’s kindy says they’re fine but I’m not convinced.
Trust that instinct enough to check. Children often present differently across settings, and many hold it together all day and release at home. Your observations are legitimate data.
Do you visit kindys?
Yes — within approximately 10km of our Springwood clinic. Seeing a child in their kindy environment often tells us more than a clinic session, and lets us work directly with educators.
If You’re Wondering, It’s Worth Asking
Most parents worry about this. Most children are fine. But the ones who need support do much better when it starts before school rather than after a hard year.
Our Springwood clinic offers speech pathology and occupational therapy for school readiness, with clinic, home, kindy and school visits across Logan. Speech Pathology currently has immediate availability.
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