Children heading into junior infants are not prepared in terms of their practical skills.
That's according to a recent study conducted by Children's School Lives.
The study found that 4,000 Irish children have lots of academic knowledge but struggle with things like putting on a coat, or pushing in a chair.
Maria O'Connor is Principal at Butlerstown National School in Waterford. She says children must be provided with the best possible foundations from which to learn and develop.
"We've been saying for years - things like nursery rhymes, spine motor skills, breathing readiness and most importantly - learning through play - they are the foundations of any success in school. Academic success, if the children aren't happy and they don't have the foundations for these things, they are not going to thrive."
Maria believes that play-based learning is instrumental in helping to develop practical skills for children within this age group.
"At the end of the day, we want to educate the children - to thrive and be their very best selves, in a quite holistic way. So rather than be able to write reams of letters and so on at the start of junior infants, we want to develop those tiny little hands. You know, the bones haven't even fully formed, in the hands of junior infants - so they need to do things like making jigsaws, kneading, threading, using tweezers. All those sorts of skills, are really really important."
She told WLR about how Butlerstown National School offers advice to parents on teaching practical skills to their kids.
"We have a list of 80 activities, that if parents would like to help their children with daily tasks and teaching them the practical things. It's probably going back to what grannies and granddads are great at - like setting the table, choosing their clothes, dressing themselves. All of those skills, you may not think that they're associated with school. Those skills really give a fantastic foundation and a base for children."
For all the latest news in Waterford, click here.
