Psychológia a patopsychológia dieťaťa, 53, 2019, č. 1, s. 57–68

SCHOOL READINESS: WHAT? WHO? HOW?

The article is concerned with the current state of understanding, diagnosing and treating the school readiness in Slovakia, from both theoretical and practical point of view. In the first part of the article, school readiness is defined as an umbrella term integrating readiness of a child for school, readiness of a family for school, and also readiness of a school for child in their mutual interaction. It is emphasised that child’s readiness for school should be understood as a multicausally determined and multidimensional concept reflecting five broad areas: physical and motor development, social and emotional development, language and communication development, approaches toward learning, cognitive development and general information. The second part of the article is devoted to discussion on advantages and limitations of diagnostic tools in relation to school readiness. The author differentiates between two big groups of screening methods. The first one is more traditional and emphasises mainly cognitive aspects. This group of tools measures current performance of a child. The second group of methods is represented by diagnostics based on long-term observation of a child. In the third and fourth part of the article, the author describes the current state of school readiness management and discusses a role of a psychologist in it.