Kindergarten transition (KT) is a critical topic in early education that has been studied with attention to the role of psychological support, parental engagement, and transition-related challenges. Sheridan et al. (2020) offer a good source to explore KT as their study systematically assesses and summarizes almost 250 parents’ practices in the pre-KT and KT periods and such activities’ implications for children’s success. According to their research, the student’s chances of adapting to the kindergarten environment successfully depend on the degree of parental involvement in fostering the child’s early literacy competencies and communicative abilities (Sheridan et al., 2020). Thus, the family’s contributions to minimizing KT-related difficulties are enormous.
Also, KT becomes more complicated as a result of psychological adjustment challenges and unmanaged stress. Jiang et al. (2021) present another good source for studying KT since their case study explores more than 680 kindergarten students’ KT-related difficulties and assesses each area’s individual influence. The areas of concern during KT include socializing, self-organization, learning, and participating in group work (Jiang et al., 2021). Based on the analysis of teachers’ reports, KT-related challenges affect all students without exception, and over 25% of children experience difficulties in all adaptation-related areas (Jiang et al., 2021). Therefore, KT is a stressful period for any child and should be approached in a way that minimizes negative affect.
KT should be handled to recognize emerging learners’ limitations and avoid cognitive overloads in kindergarten settings. According to chapter five of the course text, kindergarten-age children’s executive function and memorizing strategies are rather undeveloped (Beyer & Lazzara, 2020). In my opinion, in the KT process and when preparing a child for entering a new educational setting, it is of vital importance to account for age-specific developmental characteristics. Specifically, making sure that the expectations imposed on new kindergarten students are realistic is essential.
References
Sheridan, S. M., Koziol, N., Witte, A. L., Iruka, I., & Knoche, L. L. (2020). Longitudinal and geographic trends in family engagement during the pre-kindergarten to kindergarten transition. Early Childhood Education Journal, 48(3), 365-377. Web.
Jiang, H., Justice, L., Purtell, K. M., Lin, T. J., & Logan, J. (2021). Prevalence and prediction of kindergarten-transition difficulties. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 55, 15-23. Web.