School starters lack key skills such as making friends, problem solving and listening in class after Covid

Basic manners and social skills are lacking in our youngest Victorians after they were forced to miss two years of preschool during lockdowns.

Basic social skills are reportedly lacking in school starters who missed out on two full years of kindergarten during the lockdowns.

Making friends, problem solving and listening in class are key skills teachers say they are having to teach young pupils who would have ordinarily been socialised before starting school.

Researchers are studying the pandemic’s true impact on children’s behaviours, as students struggle to resolve schoolyard disputes and adjust to a full school day’s structured routine.

St Peter Julian Eymard Primary School assistant deputy principal Pauline George said teachers were “chasing their tails” bringing kids up to speed on general manners and behavioural cues while delivering regular curriculum.

School starters in Victoria have missed out on kindergarten because of lockdowns.

“It’s taking longer to teach them these basic skills. We’ve lowered our expectations of these kids with increased ‘brain breaks’,” she said.

“They’re coming in still focused on themselves and haven’t moved into that phase of playing together rather than playing side-by-side.”

One grade five teacher said she has to instruct pupils to pay attention by sitting up straight and correcting their posture.

Kylie Allen, founder of Essendon-based childcare centre Inspiring Minds Studio, said kids missed out on becoming more independent by spending less time with their parents and following instructions from other adults.

Some teachers say they have had to lower expectations on kids.

“Whether that’s at kinder or childcare, they need to be exposed to different social settings,” she said.

“It’s going to be a huge shock to the system when they get to school.”

Professor Louise Paatsch from Deakin University’s School of Education said preliminary research showed students do not know how to interpret their peers’ behaviour or co-operate during group work.

She said the next step was to examine how children use spoken language to communicate socially at school.

Research suggests many students do not know how to interpret their peers’ behaviour.

“What we need is to really look now at children’s interactions with their peers, how kids use language to enter a group, start a conversation, how they react when somebody greets them,” she said.

“Our research now is also looking at how children and young people will be able to negotiate these new skills and how they use vocabulary.”

A recent Monash University study of more than 360 students found they wanted teachers’ help reconnecting with their classmates after the lockdowns.

Study co-author and educational and developmental psychologist Dr Kelly-Ann Allen said: “Students also wanted teachers to step in if someone seemed left out. Students wanted their schools to provide activities and opportunities for social connection like more clubs for people with special interests”.

Clinical psychologist Andrew Fuller said the lockdowns also impacted older cohorts, with Year 7 students behaving like grade fives, and grade three students exhibiting the social maturity of preps.

Victorian early childhood Minister Ingrid Stitt said the state government has pumped almost $5 billion into three and four-year old kinder programs, including $217 million in this year’s budget, because three and four-year-old kinder was crucial to a child’s development.

“We know the last two years have been challenging for everyone, especially families with young children,” she said.

Triple P Positive Parenting Program co-author Carol Markie-Dadds said parents can help their child’s development by modelling and praising behaviour such as friendly greetings and listening to others.