Readiness for Learning

Explain with example what is meant by Readiness for Learning?

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All children can learn and their mental development, seen by the changes in ability that they show from infancy to adulthood, is due to their immense capacity for learning. The stage at which children are thought to be learning ready and so ready to benefit from formal or academic education, usually around the age of 6 or 7 years, is decided by normal mental and physical development.

At around this age, they should have reached a stage of being ‘ready’ for school. The concept of ‘learning readinesses includes the idea of ‘school readiness’ but the two terms are not identical in meaning. A child may pass a school readiness test but not be learning ready.

Why?

It is because school readiness tests do not include the child’s level of neurodevelopment. This means that they don’t consider how the child’s brain and nervous system has developed and whether the child’s various sensory motor systems are functioning well enough to support learning. School readiness tests look for signs that certain abilities have developed that are needed to perform in the classroom. These include the ability to sit still and follow instructions, manipulate a pencil, get along with peers and show certain perceptual and intellectual skills. Perceptual skills include recognizing and being able to name colours, letters and numbers. Intellectual skills include knowing one’s home address, and so on.

Many children show these abilities but the foundation of neurological systems on which these abilities rest is shaky, and they may start showing problems in school either within a short period of time or even after two or more years. Some children may seem to do well academically but their lack of learning readiness will mean that they have to use up a great deal more energy than should be necessary to cope with the behaviour and learning expected by their schools and communities.

To summarise, in order to be able to learn easily and cope with the demands of the classroom and life in general, children need to have reached a level of brain and body development that will support their functioning. This will depend on how well they have developed certain systems in their brains and bodies that are needed to support their learning.

A system can be described as a number of separate parts that work together in order to get something done. For example, a bicycle is a collection of items that are needed in order to provide transport. It needs a frame, saddle, handlebars, pedals, chain, wheels, tyres and brakes. If all those parts are in good working order, the bicycle will work well. Think of what would happen if one or more of these components are not working as well as they should. A tyre that is slightly flat will mean that one has to work a lot harder to get the bicycle to move quickly. It will place stress on the wheel itself, which might in turn affect the stability of the frame, the way the brakes work, and so on. In other words, the inefficient functioning of one of the parts of a system will have a ripple effect throughout the whole system.

In the same way, every child has certain systems that support his or her ability to learn easily. These include the components of the sensory-motor system, such as vision, hearing, touch, smell, balance and sense of body in space. If one or more of these are not functioning as they should, the child will be handicapped in that learning becomes difficult and stressful and seemingly simple tasks cause tiredness and distress.

• Delay in reaching any milestones or skipping milestones, such as crawling

• Difficulty learning to ride a bicycle

• Delay in learning to get dressed independently and tying buttons or shoelaces

• Clumsiness

• Problems with sleeping, being restless in bed, preferring to have someone sleep with him

• Difficulty keeping upright without slouching, leaning on furniture, and so on

• Tendency to chew on collars and necklines, pencils and anything else!

• Constant movement – always on the go and sitting in a chair is torture for them

• Challenged by gross motor and/or fine motor activities

• Signs of visual difficulties – holds head at a strange angle or close to page when colouring or looking at books

• Seems to have trouble listening and is easily distracted by sounds. Might also make his own irritating noises

Any of these signs (and more) could be clues that the brain hasn’t developed as it should or that the sensory systems are immature. This in turn means that faulty foundations will affect higher level skills – those demanded by school. Simply put, the child is not yet learning ready.

Example

Varying Degrees of Readiness

Imagine you are sitting in an economics class when suddenly, the professor announces that the final grade will be based on the result of a basketball tournament you will have in lieu of class next week. How prepared are you? Are your classmates more or less prepared than you are? Most likely, there would be a mix of people who were up for the challenge and others that lack the knowledge, skill, or athletic ability to play. Similarly, some students in your class are well-prepared for learning to balance chemical equations, while others have not yet acquired the academic readiness to learn that skill. Academic readiness is the degree to which a student is prepared for a learning experience. Let's find out more about factors that impact academic readiness and ways that teachers can assess academic readiness.

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