- Hello, and welcome to an Ohio Learns 360 Family Webinar.

I'm Amy Juravich from WOSU Public Media.

We're here today to discuss kindergarten readiness.

Is your child ready for kindergarten?

What do parents need to know when making this important decision?

Joining us for this discussion is Arya Ansari, Assistant Professor of Human Development and Family Science at Ohio State University.

He has done extensive research into factors that influence early development in low-income and minority children.

Welcome to the webinar, Arya.

- Good evening, everybody.

Thank you for having me.

- And there are a lot of factors that parents take into consideration when signing their child up for kindergarten, and of course one of those considerations is age.

Now, today we are going to be digging deeper into our notion that your child is ready for kindergarten, just because they're five-years-old.

So Dr. Ansari, would you like to start with, besides the being five-years-old, what do you think is the most important factor to consider when deciding if your child is ready for kindergarten?

- Absolutely, yeah.

So there's a lot of points of considerations, both on the academic, and social, and the physical development side of things, but you know, I think one of the most important indicators on the social side of things are children excited to be going to kindergarten, to be going to school?

And so for me, one of the most important markers is the social and emotional side of things, when thinking about kindergarten readiness and that transition.

- Okay, so you would be more interested in the social and emotional aspect for the child, him or herself.

Because you can Google, "Is my kid ready for kindergarten?

", right?

And you can find so many lists.

I found so many lists of things to check off.

Can your child say the alphabet?

Can your child count to 10?

Things like that.

So where is it in that social and emotional learning perspective versus the basics of the alphabet?

Where do you make that line?

- Yeah, so I think the important thing to note is like, some folks consider the academics, right?

Some folks are in the social camp.

What I would say it's a holistic perspective we need to take at the end of the day, one thing to note is there is ample evidence that suggests that the counting skills, the one, two, threes, and the ABCs, are things that kids learn rather quickly when they make that transition in kindergarten, right?

It's things that teachers emphasize as children are entering kindergarten for those first few months.

And so what's oftentimes not emphasized, or the skills children need to be able to engage in the one, two, threes, and the ABCs, is being excited to be there, being able to sustain their attention, to manage their frustration, their interpersonal skills and things like that, which are a prerequisite for being able to engage in the academic environment of kindergarten and beyond.

And so while I think it's important to take that holistic perspective, and it's overwhelming when you sort of Google and see everything that is out there about what children should know, and be able to do, I think an important starting point is the social side of things.

- Yeah, there was a list that I found where it said, "Your child should be able to, obviously, use the bathroom on their own, you know, that's important, zip up their own coat", and then it went into tying their shoes, and I was like, "Wait a second, my kindergartner can't tie his shoes.

Oh no!"

- And then that can be incredibly overwhelming.

And I have a nine month, 11-month-old, and we get those questionnaires, and it's always overwhelming about the things your child should be doing to be on target.

And what I would say is every child is different.

There is no one set standard, all kids bring different skills, different strengths, areas of weakness that they should be working on, and so when looking at these lists, what I would emphasize is take it with a grain of salt.

All kids have a unique experience, they will learn these things in time, and so Google has its benefits, and it also has its drawbacks.

- Yeah.

So talking about that social and emotional piece, the idea of maybe being able to follow simple directions if the teacher gives them a direction, or being able to sit still long enough to be a part of the class, would those be important factors too?

- Absolutely, so I think, you know, we've done some work in Ohio where we found that some of the core things children struggle with during the transition to kindergarten is making friends, sort of how to interact with classmates, working in a group setting.

For many kids, this is the first time where they're in a more structured environment, if they haven't been in an early care and education program, being organized, following those schedules and routines, which are all of course things that parents can help work or skills and things parents can work on in the home environment, but those are some of the things we see that kids struggle with during that transition in those initial months of kindergarten, setting aside the academics.

- If you are just joining us, this is an Ohio Learns 360 webinar.

We are discussing kindergarten readiness, and we'd like to thank Ohio Learns 360, and the Ohio Department of Education for their support of this initiative.

The Ohio Learns 360 Initiative is a partnership between Ohio's eight PBS stations with support from the Ohio Department of Education.

At a statewide level, Ohio Learns 360 will be supporting families, educators, and students through community events, afterschool programs, summer programs, and virtual programs like this one.

You can learn more at ohiolearns360.org.

And for our audience from home right now, we want to hear from you, please use the Q and A function in this webinar to ask a question.

What questions do you have about kindergarten readiness?

We are here tonight with Arya and, sorry, Assistant Professor of Human Development and Family Science at Ohio State University.

So I would like to get back to that, what we were talking about, you know, being able to sit still, follow directions, and parents working on that with their kids at home.

How much of that can parents work on at home versus them being in a preschool environment, before they enter kindergarten?

So like a pre-K class, that would be a place, depending on the structure of the pre-K program, where they would learn to sit still, and follow directions, right?

- Absolutely.

So, and again, I think that you raise a really important point, right?

There are stuff parents can do, and then there's stuff that kids can learn in early care and education or preschool programs if they're enrolled in those environments or programs.

In terms of what parents can do, you know, I think, you know, important things to work on is encouraging children to express their emotions, how they're feeling, what they're feeling, why they might be frustrated, helping children ask for help when they need it, and sort of managing their frustrations when they're not necessarily getting what they want, and in the home environment, right?

Routines or common things that parents can implement, this is, you know, it's dinnertime, before dinnertime we do, you know, we're playing math games, or we're doing some kind of activity, right?

And then now we're transitioning to dinner, and after dinner is the transition of bath time, or whatever have you.

I think just being very clear about what the daily schedules are, and things of that nature, will help children transition for those who might not have early care and education experiences, make that transition to kindergarten a little bit easier.

Granted, it's still different when you go from being at home, or being with a family in a family setting to that more formal environment.

But I think just talking through emotions, talking about, and then encouraging children to share their feelings and going, establishing those daily routines has been shown to be important in the broader work that folks have been doing.

- So can we talk a little bit more about preschool, pre-K?

How important is that for kindergarten readiness?

Would you consider it essential?

- So I wanna from the outset, acknowledge that there are a variety of early care and education programs, pre-K programs, preschool programs, there's a lot of different terms for this, what I will say is, it just depends, right?

Does it meet a family's current situation?

No, there's no one type of program that is the best at the end of the day, it is what is best for an individual family, and all the considerations that go into that decision.

With that said, there is plenty of evidence or ample evidence to suggest that children who do end up in early care and education programs in the years leading up to kindergarten do better in terms of their academic and socio-emotional abilities, relative to children who do not in those early years.

- Is there any sort of, in your research, have you found that certain pre-K programs prepare children better for kindergarten than others?

There's play-based programs, there's probably preschools, you know, that look more like kindergarten I guess, in the way that they're set up, and then I know that there's some preschools, where most of the time is spent outside, right?

So you were saying that it's different for every child, but what should a parent be looking for, if they're trying to decide about, you know a pre-K program, 'cause they're thinking ahead to kindergarten?

- So I can imagine, this is potentially very overwhelming, right?

And I know during 'cause of the COVID pandemic, things have become even more challenging, I know wait lists are incredibly long.

So what I would say is, again, there's the family aspect of like when you're working, does that program meet your needs?

Some families might be working in the evenings, some families might need full day care, so it's important to, from the outset, make sure that the programs structure and hours make sense to support not just the child, but also to support the family, right?

So that they can go to work, that if they're pursuing education, to pursue education, but if those things all line up, there are a number of points, or a number of things to look at.

I think with regards to one of the first things I would be, when I'm like looking for a place, or if I was looking for a place would be whether it's a secure and sensitive environment for the child.

To your point about sort of the playful learning environment, I think that's absolutely important, and it's important to acknowledge it's not necessarily, it's not play, it's not either or, it's not play or academics, you can learn academics while playing.

You can learn academics during mealtime, right?

Counting carrots, identifying colors.

And so I think if I were to look for a program, one of the first things I would look for is the secure and sensitive environment, and sort of that playful learning component that combines the play and the learning in one.

- So, you said, you know, whenever you, if you can have factors or you consider, you know, when you're picking a pre-K or preschool program, sometimes we have to factor in the finances.

You know, not all preschool or pre-K programs are free.

Now there are some, but as you were talking about, there's wait lists, and some of them don't have the hours that fit your needs of your family and all of that.

So would you say that if this idea of preschool or pre-K just doesn't fit in with your family, looking for free programs, you know, library story times, things like that, how would that factor into help with kindergarten readiness?

- Yeah, so it's important to just like, there are programs that are more formal, center-based programs that operate either half day, full day, we can call that preschool or pre-K.

There's also other environments or other types of programs that are known as family childcare providers, that have a little bit more flexibility in terms of their hours and cost, and there are of course subsidized free programming as well if given income eligibility.

But if we put all that aside, right?

There are a lot of other resources parents can utilize, you know, in terms of promoting not only the social that which we kind of talk about, but also the the academic side of things, right?

In the home environment, you could, one of the most important things a parent can do is read to their child every day when they can, given opportunity, that has been shown to have tremendous benefits for children.

You know, if there are opportunities to be practicing the alphabet, identifying upper- and lowercase letters, practicing tracing, identifying numbers, counting, identifying shapes, sorting objects by characteristics, like these are things that can easily be done in the home environment without sort of stepping outside of the home.

Then there's all kinds of activities that are out and about in terms of the library, there's a lot of rich museums and resources in the broader Columbus area too that can be utilized.

And so I think there's a lot of things that parents can supplement in the home environment, and what I would say is even if your child is in an early care and education program, you should still be doing these things in the home environment.

It's a tag team effort between a teacher, if your child is in these programs, and the parent, at the end of the day.

- So at the offset for this program, I was talking about one of the factors of going to kindergarten is being five-years-old, right?

So is, you know, if your child is five-years-old, and you are not sure that they're kindergarten ready, should you send them?

I mean, there's a lot of time right now, like you register for kindergarten right about now, and then there's eight whole months until it's actually time.

So would you say that the five-year-old thing is a big factor?

I mean, and we're not sending four-year-olds to kindergarten, I know we're not allowed to do that, but what if someone's in-between five and six, you know?

- Yeah, so that is challenging, right?

What I can say is from the research arm, or the research side, the evidence is is a bit mixed, in terms of the benefits of drawbacks of holding back children.

There is some evidence, there is some work that says, if you feel like your child isn't ready, and you hold them back a year, because they're at the sort of the cutoff, and they enter in the following year, they enter kindergarten demonstrating stronger readiness, right?

But what studies have found is that those children who might have been lagging behind, do catch up, especially academically speaking, over the course of that fall, over the course of the kindergarten, and first grade year.

So even if there was some gaps in academic abilities, or skills, or, those kids make it up in the first year or two.

- That's -- - But I wanna acknowledge that this is a personal decision, there's a lot of things, the factors that go into play, in terms of the the costs, as well, if parents are opting out.

Or not opting.

- Yeah, well, and those poor kids and parents with those summer birthdays, you know, especially August birthdays.

Oh no.

- As a summer child, it is, I can admit, it's incredibly stressful, so ... - This is an Ohio Learns 360 webinar, and I'm Amy Juravich.

We're talking about kindergarten readiness, and to our audience at home, we want to hear from you.

Is your child ready for kindergarten?

What questions do you have about getting your child ready to take that important step?

Please ask your question in the Q and A portion of this webinar, and Amy Palermo from WOSE Classroom will deliver your question to our guest.

And Amy, we have a question?

- We do, we have two questions, and it's the exact thing that y'all were just talking about, but getting in specifically with age, we have a participant, "My son misses the age deadline by only five days, and we're considering getting him tested, and sending him this coming year instead of waiting another year.

He's been in high quality, early care preschool since he was three-months-old, and does very well socially and academically.

Is there any reason you think it would be better to wait a year rather than send him this year?"

- What are your thoughts?

- So ... Yeah.

- All right, go ahead.

- No, go ahead.

Ready for your thoughts.

- Yeah, so that is, again, I would say, it's, it just depends on the individual child, and I know that's tough, right?

There is not a one size fits all sort of recommendation, but if your child just misses that cutoff, and there is different districts have different windows of time in terms of what the cutoff looks like, and you feel like your child is ready, I would say, go for it, right?

If it makes sense for your child, your child demonstrates the academics, the social-emotional skills, that is important.

That makes a ton of sense.

And what I would say is, you mentioned that your child was in an early care education program.

It's important to also talk with the teachers, right?

They bring an important perspective to the table in terms of their, whoever they were with in the past six months to a year, in terms of what their skills and progress is looking like.

And if everything lines up, then, you know, go for it.

The evidence suggests that holding children back a year, or sending them forward a little bit early, in the grand scheme of things, isn't going to benefit nor harm the child in the grand scheme of things.

So if it makes sense, it makes sense.

- Okay, and we have another question.

- So I'm gonna ask this question, and again, I think you just said, it doesn't harm or help, but what about those who want to hold their child back one more year to give 'em an advantage?

- So that's where there has been some evidence to suggest that in that immediate term, right?

Those kids or those children may enter kindergarten, and some do enter kindergarten demonstrating stronger academic knowledge, stronger socio-emotional skills.

But what kind of we see in the following six months to a year is that that advantage, relative to a child who might not have been held back, sort of dissipates with time, so that by first grade, or maybe second grade, we're talking about a level playing field.

And so the evidence-wise, on average, it sort of, there is that immediate benefit, but long-term, kids kind of level out, and end up on a similar trajectory.

- And do you know, I mean, I don't really know, maybe every district is different, but the one participant said that their child misses the cutoff by five days, then in their six days, then seven days, then 10 days.

Is there, like, do districts allow you if the child is anywhere within the range of five to six-ish to test in, or is that not allowed?

Do you know?

- So I don't know, and what I can say is like, it varies by district right here, and I know here locally in Ohio, like some districts have a cutoff of September 30th, some have it a little bit earlier, so it varies, and so what I would say, and this is right around the time parents are putting in their applications for kindergarten, is to have those conversations with the district, so that, with the district leadership, so that you're on the same page about what options exist, and that there's not any miscommunication, because these policies and practices do vary district by district, in some districts we have seen kids are able to get in a little bit earlier, even though they missed that hard cutoff, right?

So some exceptions are sometimes made, and so it just kind of depends on what district you're in, what the policies are in place, and what leadership, where leadership is at at that point in time.

- And I know that there's the idea of the academics, and then we were also talking about the social and emotional aspect of it, of whether you're ready for kindergarten, and you said the social and emotional part, you would probably rank higher.

I'm sure that there are parents out there who are listening to this, who think their child is absolutely brilliant, right?

Can spell their name, first name, last name, knows the whole alphabet, maybe they're even reading books that maybe a kindergartner or first grader would be reading.

Can they send their child to kindergarten, if they think maybe they're not ready, they're not quite there social and emotionally, but they are just reading so much more than all their preschool friends.

Is that enough?

- Sure, so like what I would say to that is, again, like all kids bring strengths, areas where they excel, and areas they might not be excelling as much in, and so the important thing is to understand what those areas of strengths are, and where those areas of weaknesses are.

And so here in the state of Ohio, you know, there are what's known as kindergarten readiness assessments, and they're not testing in the traditional sense that we oftentimes think about, but it happens in those early stages of kindergarten in the first month or two, where in day-to-day activities with teachers asking children in questions, right?

They gauge their academic and socio-emotional development, and areas of strengths and areas of weaknesses.

And what I would say is, teachers use that to tailor what children need, but that is something you can work with the teachers about developing a plan and coordinating efforts, because when both the parent and the teacher are on the same page, and when coordinated efforts are made, children reap far greater benefits than when this kind, these investments are happening in isolation, and perhaps might be not maximizing those opportunities.

- And what would you say if a parent has a five-year-old, who is like full-fledged, you know, the right age, and they know that they're not kindergarten ready, but they wanna make the jump and just send them, and then I guess, if the child needs to repeat kindergarten, so be it, but they want to send them, is that okay?

- Yeah, so there is, I mean, kindergarten retention happens, and what the evidence to that, what we've seen in the broader literature is that if kids are retained, they will eventually make ground and catch up, but the important thing is what the repercussions are for children in terms of their social and emotional development, right?

And making sure that it doesn't have a lasting impact on children's thoughts and perceptions of themselves, and their abilities and their skills, and I would say that's retention at any grade level, right?

Children are being retained for their best interests.

And so what I would say is, make sure that there is a plan in place to support children if that happens, down the line.

- And Amy Palermo from WOSU Classroom has another question from our audience.

- Yeah.

So where can parents go to learn about age-appropriate skills they can be teaching at home?

- Yeah, so I think there is, Google has a lot of resources, and it's important to weed out the good advice, and sort of the not so great advice, I think that locally, what I would say, the Crane Center for Early Childhood, the Crane Center here at OSU develops a lot of friendly reading material about perspectives of principles, early care and education principles, teachers about what four-year-olds should be able to do, what four-year-olds need to demonstrate to be kindergarten ready, so they have wonderful resources that I would encourage folks to check out.

I would check out the NAEYC website, where they talk about developmentally appropriate skills, and what children should be demonstrating, so there is a lot of great organizations out there that are focused on early childhood development, early childhood education, that sort of distill some of these concepts of what kids should know, as they make that transition to kindergarten, but what I would emphasize again is these are benchmarks, and some kids will meet certain benchmarks, some kids may not meet certain benchmarks, and that's okay, all children are different, all children bring unique experiences to the table, and it's important to, as you read these things, to sort of have that caveat in mind.

- You've done extensive research in the idea of early education for low income and minority children.

Are you finding is there a gap in the access to preschool for that group?

Preschool is not, a preschool or like a daycare setting is not available to everyone equally.

- It's not.

It's actually, it's definitely not.

I would encourage parents to go to the Ohio website.

You can look, you can Google QRIS Step Up to Quality, it has a wonderful resource where you can sort of identify programs, you can sort of type, like you can specify, "I want care these days, I want care during these hours", and it's scary how, just based on a few manipulations of "I need care in the evenings", right?

How that sort of whittles down the options to a handful, when looking at Columbus City more generally.

And so we've done work that shows that there are tremendous gaps, not only here in Columbus City, but also nationally, in terms of who has access to formal early care and education programs, there's a gap across the income distribution, there's a gap for children of Color, and once children get their foot in the door, there's also a gap in the quality of these programs.

And so the programs that are of highest quality are oftentimes children from lower income homes oftentimes don't have access to those programs, either they're far out not in their areas that work for parents in terms of getting to work, and so there's a lot of issues in terms of equity and access that needs to be addressed, not just locally, but also nationally.

- Well, we're not gonna solve the preschool and pre-K problem here tonight, but we definitely can be thinking about it, and considering it.

And so you mentioned that, you know, in-between now, when it's the time to register for kindergarten, and when the school year starts, which is next August, so that's eight months, you mentioned that there's a lot that parents can do at home.

And not to say that parents don't have a lot on their plate and a lot to do, but let's talk a little bit more about what a parent can do if at home, especially if they don't have access to the preschool program that they wish they could send their kid to.

What are the key, what's a few key things that you would tell parents to work on at home in preparing, since we have many months before kindergarten?

- Yeah, so I would say right off the bat, just read with children, you know, sort of engage in that back and forth conversation about what's happening in books.

Don't just read for the sake of reading, but make it fun and engaging for children, as you're doing, so like you can implement mathematics, science, social emotional skills in it, right?

Like counting the fish in the book, if we're reading a book about fish, sort of having children sort of identify letters in a book, and things of that nature.

And so I would say read to your child every day if you have a chance, or have your child work with you in terms of reading.

That's one of the most important things a parent can do well, on a regular basis.

- And thank you again for joining us with this Ohio Learns 360 webinar.

We're talking about kindergarten readiness, and I'm Amy Juravich.

To our audience at home, what questions do you have about making sure your child is ready for that big step to kindergarten?

Please ask your question in the Q and A portion of this webinar, and Amy Palermo from WOSU Classroom will deliver your question to our guest.

This Ohio Learns 360 webinar is a part of an initiative between Ohio's eight PBS stations, with the support of the Ohio Department of Education.

At the statewide level, Ohio Learns 360 is supporting families, educators, and students through virtual programs, including series like this one.

You can find out more at ohiolearns360.org.

And again, we are talking with Professor and Researcher from Ohio State University who has studied the factors that influence early development in low-income and minority children.

And Amy Palermo, you do have a question?

- We do have another question.

So what are some tips for parents?

Should it be formal, should we be teaching through play, should we use rewards, should we use charts?

What are your recommendations or tips for those at home?

- Yeah, so I can say as a researcher, there isn't much evidence one way or another in terms of charts and rewards.

I think parents know their children best, right?

And what their children are responsive to and excited about, and so I would say go try different things, see what works, if something doesn't work, there's no need to keep trying it, change it up a little bit, and if a child responds positively to something, roll with it.

Keep doing that, because the end of the day, the most important thing I would say, and it goes back to what I mentioned at the first point, one of the very first points was, we wanna make sure children are excited to learn, are eager to go to school, right?

And so it's sort of instilling that habit, and that belief in them.

And so I would say to that question, whatever works for your child, roll with that.

- And we do have one more question from the audience?

- Yes.

One of our guests asked, "Do children need to know how to write when going to kindergarten?"

- So writing at this age is like, it's what we're oftentimes talking about is tracing, writing your name, writing a child's first name, or last name, that's kind of the extent of it at that early age, I would say the identification of upper- and lowercase letters is things is oftentimes looked for.

But writing, I would at this age call it more so tracing, more than anything.

- Well, and you mentioned the upper- and lowercase letters.

I have a kindergartner, and he went into kindergarten, and he knew 22 of his 26 letters, yay, I'm so excited, and he knew them all uppercase, no lowercase.

And then kindergarten starts with lowercase, and he comes home and he is like, "I don't know any of these letters."

- Yeah, it's a shock to the system, right?

It's a totally, it's totally different.

And so again, that goes back to kids will excel in certain areas, in this case being uppercase letters, and then there's another area to work on.

And I think the important thing is, this is just the beginning.

Kids will continue to develop.

If they're lagging behind, they will catch up.

And so again, it's important to keep that in mind, and not to place that great of a burden on ourselves or on parents, to sort of think that this is the end all be all.

Kindergarten readiness is a snapshot in time, there will be future snapshots, future assessments, future diagnostics.

And so I just want for folks to keep that in mind, as sort of their children are transitioning to kindergarten either in the next six to eight months, or down the line.

- And to my son's preschool, they did teach him the lowercase letters.

He was just an uppercase man, you know, that's what he wanted to focus on.

But now we're to nine weeks into the kindergarten year, and he is in love with the lowercase letters.

Has it all, has it all going on.

So you're right, it just, it's amazing how quickly kids can adapt and develop, just watching them before your eyes.

It's been surprising to me, kindergarten is quite an amazing thing, don't you think?

- Absolutely, and I just wanna reiterate that, it is a fantastic like a case example of what we were talking about, that the literature shows, time and again, even if your child enters kindergarten behind a little bit, lagging behind in the alphabet knowledge, or language abilities, or mathematics, kindergarten is an amazing environment, where they'll be able to make progress, and make grounds in those areas, so I appreciate you sharing that.

- Yes, kindergarten has amazed me, and just the things that differ from preschool in kindergarten, I have been blown away.

And one other thing I wanted to ask you about, we're running a little short on time, but we still have several minutes left.

You have studied absenteeism a lot.

Can you talk about absenteeism?

Because you can be absent a lot in preschool.

So can you talk about the absenteeism idea in preschool, and its importance of not being absent a lot, and getting ready for kindergarten?

- Absolutely.

So it is, in all the years of education, absenteeism is actually, it's one of its highest points in preschool, it drops down all in the elementary school years, and middle school years, and it kind of rebounds to a similar level in high school, so absenteeism is a serious issue, particularly in the preschool years.

All it takes, as schools oftentimes talk about, think about absenteeism as chronic absentees, which means you miss 10% or more of a school year, or 10% or more of instructional time, and all it takes is for a child to miss two days a month, and you are now a chronic absentee.

And the evidence is pretty clear and conclusive that be it in preschool, be it in kindergarten, be it in first, second, third, fourth, fifth grade, whatever year of education, including in the early childhood years, if kids aren't showing up, they're not benefiting from that environment, they're not gaining as much, relative to their classmates, and peers who are showing up.

And we see this particularly in the academic side, but there's also evidence that socially these children are also not doing as well, and this is a serious problem, because if it's happening in preschool, what we're seeing is it kind of establishes a habit, and those trends in school absences continue on throughout children's educational careers.

- So let's talk a little bit more about that absenteeism idea, because, you know, I'm a firm believer in, you know, if you're sick, stay home.

But I'm thinking is it maybe that absenteeism in preschool kind of doesn't feel, 'cause it doesn't feel as official as kindergarten, or, you know, it's just like, if your kid is four-years-old, and wakes up and throws a temper tantrum, and doesn't wanna go to school, then you just say, "Okay", is that, can you talk more about that?

- Yeah, so what I would say is, there's often, not often, there's some perceive absences in preschools not being as important, because it's preschool, it's not as formal as K through 12, it's more about play, but what I would emphasize again is, there's a lot of learning happening in those preschool environments.

And so regardless of whether a child misses school because they're sick, or a parent is just like they, or for whatever other reason, all of those absences matter to a comparable degree, and they begin to add up, and sort of result in less optimal developmental outcomes for kids.

And so regardless of whether it's, "I'm tired today or my child is sick, or we're going on vacation", it all matters in a similar way, and this is not to say don't take vacations, do take vacations, all of that is important, but it's important to sort of keep in mind how much your child has missed, and when what your child, when your child has missed time from school, and what was missed during that period.

Is there anything you can do to help your child make ground or catch up on whatever content was missed, and be strategic in those ways.

- And we, Amy Palermo from WOSU Classroom has another question.

- We do.

So one of our parents has a child that is very good with academics, but is a little reactive when something happens, and struggles with that emotional aspect.

Is there anything this parent can do specifically to help in this area, because they don't wanna hold them back, but don't want to send them forward without this ability, and fear of classroom disruptions, and teacher's responsibilities.

- Absolutely.

So what I would say is to try to identify what the source of the issue is, or what's sort of triggering the frustration, and so sort of communicate, right?

I can understand like in that heat, when a child is like frustrated and yelling, it can be incredibly frustrating, right?

But it's to sort of talk with the child to express those emotions, get the child to express their emotions, to begin to understand like what's going on, what is triggering these reactions, or this child's, or my child's frustration, and to work with your child around that, and to then coordinate with teachers, right?

"My child gets frustrated when X, Y, Z happens.

How can we best game plan to work together at school, and at home to tackle these issues together?"

So there is multiple parties that are helping the child, or one's child address those challenges.

And so again, if anything, a coordinated effort will go much further than an individual effort, but the first step is to understand what is causing these issues to begin with.

- And we have time for one more question from the audience.

- All right, so we have a teacher that's joined us, and wants to know, this teacher has a lot of anxious parents concerned that their child isn't ready.

So how can this teacher help calm the parents, and assure them?

- That's a fantastic question, and as a parent myself, you know, I wear the research hat, and then I also wear the parent hat, and it's amazing how, as a parent, like all the research stuff just goes out the window.

And so I think from a teacher's side, the most important thing to do is to ... And I wanna acknowledge that teachers have a lot on their plates and especially in the last stretch there, there's been a lot thrown at them, and so I think though with all that said, the most important thing to do is to communicate with parents, to be open and transparent about strengths and weaknesses.

If there are areas that children need to develop, like are sort of potentially struggling, have those conversations.

I think that open lines of communication are critical.

I think as parents, we always are nervous about these benchmarks that we see, and I can say that as a parent myself, "These are the benchmarks my child is missing", and you know, I go to my child's teacher, and have all these questions, but it's then having that conversation, and establishing that trust that I will, you know, we will communicate if there are concerns, and develop a plan together.

But that's best I can do.

- And in the last, we have a couple of minutes left, and for the last question, I wanna go back to something you said at the very, very beginning.

You were talking about how one of the most important factors on whether your child is ready for kindergarten is, is your child excited to go to kindergarten?

Yes.

So I would think, I'm not a teacher, so I wouldn't pretend, but I would think that a kindergarten teacher, when deciding if a child should join his or her class, the teacher would say, "I want the child to want to be here", right?

So is there anything parents can do to make sure the child wants to go to kindergarten?

- Yeah, so it's, you know, I think it's talking to, especially for children, who don't have, for children who have early education experiences, it's walking them through what this transition will be like.

It's an important shift, right?

Children are, a lot of children are going to a new building.

The children they knew, the teachers they knew, they're no longer there, and so treating that transition is a very important milestone in a child's life, it is critical and not just dismissing, not thinking that, "Oh, it's just a transition.

It's okay, my child will figure it out."

So working through that transition, having your child visiting the classrooms, or the school with the child in advance will go a long way.

Connecting with the child's teacher will go a long way.

So easing that transition, I think, will go a long way in terms of promoting enjoyment and excitement.

And what I would say in terms of other things, again, like academics doesn't have to be worksheets, at this page, it doesn't have to be in any sense and like dictation or anything.

You can make it fun.

We can make it fun, during mealtime, in the outdoors, so it's making sure that children understand, learning can be fun and it is exciting, as they're transitioning to kindergarten, but also recognizing that that transition is incredibly scary, and that's something as a family unit we have to tackle, so that children know what they're getting into, and they're not scared, as opposed to being ready and excited.

- Well, wonderful, yes.

And kindergarten is so fun.

So I will just, we can end on that note, to be excited about kindergarten, yes.

This has been an Ohio Learns 360 webinar.

Thank you for joining us, and thank you to Arya Ansari, Assistant Professor of Human Development and Family Science at the Ohio State University.

Thank you so much for joining us today, and please provide your feedback on tonight's topic, and help inform future topics by completing a brief survey.

The URL is on the screen now, and if you're not able to take a photo, a link will be emailed to you in the next 24 hours, to anyone who registered for tonight's event.

And please join us in February for our next topic, Reading and Literacy in Elementary School.

Thank you to Ohio Learns 360, and the Ohio Department of Education for this event, and thank you to Amy Palermo from WOSU Classroom, and the television production team at WOSU for making this event possible tonight.

You can watch other webinars in this series, and find information about upcoming virtual events, including links to register, by visiting our website, ohiolearns360.org.

And I'm Amy Juravich from WOSU Public Media, thank you for joining us, we'll see you next time.