Examination of Parent's Views about their 60-77 Months Old Children's Maturity of Primary School

Abstract

The concept of school readiness typically refers to the child's attainment of a certain set of emotional, behavioral and cognitive skills needed to learn, work and function successfully in school. Unfortunately, the common philosophy of “ready for school” can be understood by parents and caregivers as children's readiness for the expectations of school (Marquez, 2006). In a more constructive way school readiness concept has many aspects, for example; while attending to a school, children must cope with many new demands; they must meet new academic challenges, learn new school and teacher expectations, and gain acceptance into a new peer group. In the entrance to a school, chronological age is an important factor, but also factors like; gender, previous experience, social skills, intellegence, general health and family composition, well- being, and socioeconomic status play important role. In Turkey obligation to attend primary school age was 6-7 years old. In 2012-2013 educational year, Turkish Ministry of Education changed the compulsory education period to twelve years and the attendence of compulsory education period was changed to 5-6 years old. The aim of the study is to examine parent's views about their children's readiness and maturity attending to primary school. 60-80 months old of children attending four different primary schools took part in the study. An inquiry consisting of questions about children's basic developmental areas, academic skills and school maturity was prepared for the study. The inquiry was applied to voluntary parents. The view of parents were examined according to children's age. No significant differences were found between older and younger children's parents views.