Parents start looking for good preschools once the child is about 2-2.5 years old. Parents have to do their part of research of selecting a good pre school as it builds a child’s foundation. Parents always seek answers of many questions before putting their child in the school. Most commonly asked question is how they should prepare their child and themselves to face a pre school interview.
 

Commonly asked questions in parent’s interview

School Forms - Usually in any school form basic details of parents are to be mentioned such as address, phone numbers, qualifications, income and profession of both the parents. Parent’s photographs are also essential.
 

Parents Jobs - During the interview with the admission counselor, parents are often asked whether they are in transferable jobs or not. If parents are in a transferrable job, the school authorities may advice them to take up CBSE board curriculum compared to state board curriculum as it would be recognized all over the country.
 

Separate Interviews - Parents at times are separately interviewed and one common question is asked how much time they spare with their child and how much the father is contributing towards the development of his child. Fathers are the earning members of the family and at times they neglect to look into their child’s education therefore it is very important for the father to take keen interest in his child’s education as well his overall development.
 

Distance - Parents are also asked about the distance from school to their residence, as few schools prefer children coming from nearby neighborhood only. If the child is having any medical problem the parent can reach school easily, so that is the objective to have the residence within 5-8 kms from school. Apart from this commuting time from school to residence is also reduced.
 

Medical Problems - Parents are also asked if there is any major medical problem with the child. The admission counselor may want to know about any behavioral or physical problem with the child. For example: behavioral problems like thumb sucking, bed wetting, if the child is getting fits or is turning blue in fever etc. Physical problems may include if he is handicapped by any part of the body, if the child is allergic to any anything etc.
 

Commonly asked questions in a child’s interview

Child interviews are basically an informal conversation with the child. Child is asked to identify his basic senses, simple birds, colors, shapes or animals.
 

Observing Gross Motor Skills and Finer Motor Skills - In many schools children are taken to classrooms, wherein lots of games/toys are kept. Here the child is observed as to what he picks up and how he plays with it. The child’s gross motor skills are observed, how much his muscles are developed the way he walks or jumps. Under finer motor skills the observation is done as how much the finer muscles are developed, how he picks and holds the object is been noticed.
 

Hand eye coordination - Child is also given a coloring picture and the child picks up his choice of crayon. Example- A child is given a picture of an apple, here the child picks up red crayon and colors the picture. This is one of the observations made by the admission counselor.
 

Basic conversations - The child is asked to identify who has come with him. Parents name, his siblings name etc are asked. The motive here is to see how the child communicates, his clarity of speech and diction, is the child feeling shy etc. Some schools prefer the child to speak few words in English language where as few don’t insist on it and accepts the child if he speaks in his mother tongue.
 

Some Tips for parents

• Parents need not be nervous or scared to face such interviews. Basic idea is to mentally prepare the child for the interview well in advance.
• Talk to the child about the positive aspects of school. Tell the child how you went to school or how his siblings are going.
• Converse with the child about various toys that are available in schools and it will be fun to make new friends. All this will help the child to overcome the interview process.
• Parents can also show colorful books to their child and make him identify basic pictures. Few objects in and around your home can also be shown and identified.
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