Physical Readiness for Waldorf First Grade
Milestones Teachers Use to Assess a Child's Development
First grade and academic work typically begin in Waldorf schools at age seven. Waldorf teachers evaluate a child’s physical, emotional, spiritual, and intellectual readiness with a variety of different tests. This article covers the physical signs of first-grade readiness.
Seven-Year Cycles of Child Development
In the Waldorf movement, a child’s growth is believed to occur in a series of distinct seven-year stages. Each stage has its own set of developmental tasks which need to be completed before the child is ready for the work of the next cycle. Developmental changes unfold naturally from within as the child grows. Waldorf educators believe a school’s job is to work with the natural cycles of the child’s development, not try to change or hurry them. In fact, the Waldorf movement sees today's trend to start children reading, writing, and doing arithmetic early as damaging to a child’s imagination and ability to think independently.
First Grade when First Stage of Development is Complete
The Waldorf Early Childhood Association of North America describes a child’s first few years of life as a gradual process of coming down to earth from spiritual realms.
During those first years, the child gains control of his or her physical body—mastering such monumental challenges as learning to walk, talk, and think. A great deal of the child’s life energy before age seven is devoted to building internal organs, muscles, bones, and the brain and nervous system. When that first phase of growth is complete, the energy that was devoted to physical development is freed up to be used for more intellectual work.
The Association of Waldorf Schools of North America lists a variety of benchmarks teachers use to assess whether a child has completed that first phase of growth.
Body Shape and Size
By about seven, the typical child leaves behind the infant’s shape with its large head, chubby torso, and short arms and legs, and develops a more elongated shape with less baby fat, longer arms and legs, visible joints instead of dimples, and indentations at the waist and neck. Waldorf teachers look for a head-to-body ratio of 1:6, arches in the feet and visible knuckles in the hands, development of an “S” curve in the spine, and the beginnings of more defined facial features.
Change of Teeth
The loss of baby teeth and appearance of permanent teeth correspond to important brain developments that help a child process abstract concepts. According to Waldorf educator Caroline Ostheimer in the summer 1984 issue of the magazine In Context Quarterly, “[Brain] research has demonstrated that [the change of teeth] is the time when the corpus callosum, the bundle of nerves that connects the two halves of the brain, is completed.” Teachers look for a first grader to have at least one loose tooth, unless both of the child’s parents were very slow to get their permanent teeth.
Coordination
A first grade child should be able to eat, drink, wash, and use the toilet on her own. Academic work requires the child to be able to sit still and focus for longer periods than before, track left and right across a page, and develop enough hand-eye coordination to read and write. Waldorf teachers look for the child to have established a preference for either the left or right side, although side dominance could still be in flux at this age. Other signs of well-developed coordination include being able to sew and finger knit, tie shoes, button and zip clothing, climb stairs with alternating feet on each stair, walk a low balance beam, hop on one foot, catch and throw a ball, and shake hands with the thumb held away from the fingers.
