Making the “primina”, that is, starting school at five and a half years instead of six, is a possible choice. But is it also the best for children?
The school advance was introduced with law 53/2003, which established the possibility of enrolling the 5 and a half years of the first class of primary school who will turn 6 by 30 April of the reference school year. A possibility subsequently formalized with the legislative decree n. 59/2004.
It then remains to be understood whether to enroll in a five and a half year old boy in primary school both the right choice to make.
Generally the elements that induce the parent to take this decision are the fact that the child recognizes the letters or knows how to read, is “awake”, curious, knows how to count, has a good chatter and “the knows long” on many things.
But the requirements needed to start school have little to do with these elements. Instead, it is essential to have achieved a certain autonomy, an adequate level of attention and concentration, a good cognitive and emotional maturity, as well as knowing how to respect the rules of the group.
Autonomy
An autonomous child is able to keep the toys in place, he remembers where he has put his things, he knows how to close his shoes alone, he is able to cut food with a knife and fork, he knows how to dress and undress without asking for help. They are all important elements because at school it will have to take off and get your jacket back, she will have to change your shoes when there is physical education (with a short time available), she will have to remain sitting for the duration of the lessons, she will have material to take care of and not to be missed or ruin, she will have a backpack to prepare, she will need her hands to be ready to use the pen well. In short, he will have to prove sufficient autonomy.
The level of attention and concentration
A child who has reached an adequate level of attention and concentration should be able to start a game and to conclude it without abandoning it after a few moments; He should also be able to play alone, inventing stories or situations without continually asking for an adult intervention; It should participate in the management of domestic life, for example by preparing and disappearing the table.
If the child manages to do these things, or other similar, independently, we can imagine that he will be able to remain concentrated for a long time And this, once sitting at the school desk, will allow him to carry out the task that is assigned to him without difficulty, whether he listens to a story, coloring a drawing, copying from the blackboard or working with numbers.
Cognitive maturity
A child who knows how to tell what happened yesterday or last summer, who realizes if we gave him an extra or less candy, which distinguishes those who have the biggest ice cream and those who have a smaller one, who are able to listen to a story and then to draw – in a fairly detailed way – the character who hit him the most, He certainly has the basic knowledge that will allow him to learn to read, write and account without difficulty.
The emotional maturity
If a child reacts to the no complaining, but without exploding, if the detachment from his parents is not always a tragedy, if in the face of the frustration of a desire (for example: “Today it rains and therefore you cannot go by bicycle”) finds a constructive alternative, if when it is wrong try again to do better, then the child will be able to face theEmotional commitment required by the school.
Compliance with the group’s rules
A class, as the psychologist Daniela Lucangeli says, is a living organism and Every child who is part of it determines the climate and the ability to work in the learning phase but also of the game.
It is therefore clear that a child who knows how to play with others, who knows how to share and collaborate, who respects his turn, will be able to integrate into the class, to respect its rules and to make its contribution so that the group can learn among the school desks.
The class group
Suppose now that a 5 and a half year old boy possesses all these requirements: it’s time to decide whether to make him “the firstial” or not.
There are two other elements to consider: the class group and the loss of one year of experiences.
Some of his classmates will have one year more than him. Which means that they will have one year of more experiences and will have greater familiarity with any domain of learning. It is important to underline it because if our five and a half year old child bases his self -esteem not only on the fact that he can do things but also on the fact that he is a step forward to his peers, suddenly he could find himself having difficulties than others and no longer being “the best”.
This, of course, is not a rule (the global development of a child does not depend only on age, but also on other factors), but it remains a possibility.
It is therefore worth reflecting if it is appropriate to put the child in a situation that could request him a greater effort than what he would take in the same situation, but postponed by one year. If an excessive effort is imposed on a child, in fact, enthusiasm and motivation will learn to learn because it will consider it too difficult.
One year of less experiences
The school advance necessarily involves a deprivation: the child is denied a whole year of play, discovery of the world and fermentation of the skills acquired. I use the expression “fermentation of skills“Because it is precisely what happens between five and six and a half years. In this period the experiences that have been made are transformed, the abstraction phase begins, and it is as if the children mixed the elements that have seen, felt, discovered, and transformed them through a chemical reaction, such as fermentation, to make them become a complex product such as wine or bread. Children, in this phase, include in the experiences that have the experiences that have the experiences lived and prepare new ones.
What decision then?
The advice to parents who think they choose the school advance, therefore, is of carefully evaluate all the elements we have discussed and to talk about it with the teachers of the kindergarten, with the pediatrician and possibly with development experts and pedagogistsin order to have a picture of the situation as clear as possible, in the interest of the development of the child.
