Kindergarten is an exciting time for kids. It is their first year of school, where they begin to take on new challenges independently and without parents by their side.
They learn how to cooperate with peers and resolve conflicts. They also learn to understand their feelings and perspectives, making friends with others.
Social and Emotional Development
For example, children need to be able to tell the teacher they need to use the bathroom or ask for help if they don’t understand something. They also need to know how to communicate their needs and wants to classmates in ways that don’t hurt anyone else.
Research shows that healthy social-emotional development lowers a child’s emotional distress and problem behaviors, improves classroom behavior and academic achievement, and supports the formation of positive school attachments. These skills are important not only for kindergarten, but for a lifetime of learning.
In the REDI study, proximal gains in emotion understanding, competent social problem solving, and prosocial behavior were unique predictors of children’s kindergarten adjustment, even when accounting for preschool growth in emergent literacy and vocabulary. These social-emotional skills are a strong predictor of reading achievement and learning engagement in kindergarten.
Language and Literacy Development
Whether children are adjusting to a new schedule, following a teacher’s lead or reading a simple book, the transition from preschool or pre-K into kindergarten is an opportunity for them to build important learning skills. Yet research shows that 37% of kids arrive at school without the literacy and language skills they need to thrive.
Language development in kindergarten focuses on vocabulary and developing understanding of language. Vocabulary growth helps children develop comprehension and enables them to interact socially with others. Language development in kindergarten also includes recognizing and writing letters, practicing phonemic awareness (the ability to hear and play with individual sounds in spoken words) and reading.
Families can support early literacy by incorporating home practices like shared reading, story time and creating a literacy-rich environment. The Cox Campus Course, Emergent and Early Language and Literacy Development Birth Through Kindergarten Entry, teaches educators how to support this critical developmental stage.
Physical Development
Developing strong physical skills is essential for children’s learning and overall well-being. They learn to move with confidence and coordination, both during structured and unstructured play, while also building core strength and endurance. Physical development includes both gross and fine motor movements (e.g., swinging a bat or catching a ball).
Children also develop their coordination and balance during group activities like team sports, cooperative games, and dance. Integrating movement into academic lessons like counting shapes or the alphabet promotes coordination and rhythm as well as demonstrates the relationship between physical activity and learning.
Remember that each child’s physical development is influenced by multiple factors and occurs at its own pace. Observe children to see how they progress in different areas, and support them to reach developmental milestones by drawing from your knowledge of early childhood development.
Creative Arts
As children engage in creative activities, such as drawing and imaginative play, they enhance their cognitive development. This activity allows them to think outside the box and envision possibilities, which in turn positively impacts their problem-solving abilities.
Creative arts activities also nurture children’s fine and gross motor skills. For example, grasping a paintbrush promotes the use of fine motor muscles, while running and jumping to music enhances gross motor skills.
In addition, the creative process itself offers many opportunities for social and emotional development. For example, when children collaborate on art projects and share ideas with one another, they learn to cooperate in a supportive environment. This, in turn, promotes healthy social-emotional growth.
Technology
Technology development in kindergarten provides children with an additional outlet to explore and cultivate creativity. In high-quality kindergarten programs, children use technology to learn new skills like navigating and controlling digital tools through age-appropriate, interactive learning experiences.
Educational apps are often used in kindergarten classrooms to reinforce core learning objectives. For example, popular literacy apps like ABC Mouse and Starfall teach letter recognition and phonemic awareness with fun games and stories. Math apps like Counting Caterpillar and Math Seeds help students make number concepts tangible with colorful animations and rewards systems.
While teachers are concerned about overexposure to screen time, research suggests that thoughtfully integrated technology enhances students’ learning and engagement in classrooms. In addition, limiting technology to short sessions and pairing it with hands-on activities helps avoid overexposure.