Parents are often concerned about their young children's academic skills, but although children may be able to learn to count and learn some letter names and sounds, these are not the most important skills for school readiness.
School readiness is a broad concept, but it's vital to your child if he or she is to succeed through school and even beyond.
And if you're in any doubt about school readiness, rather wait the extra year before sending your child to school, say experts.
Gone are the days when age was the only criterion for entering school, something that makes sense when you recognise that each child is unique and develops at his or her own pace.
School readiness is assessed according to your child's development in the following areas: physical, emotional, intellectual and social.
And so while little Vusi may be a whizz at numbers at an early age, he may not be emotionally ready for school. Or maybe Anna has great concentration skills, and can do 80-piece puzzles, but her verbal skills are weak, and she is shy.
Both these children would be better off spending an extra year in pre-school, or Grade R.
But, says psychologist Bettie Rall, that's something parents often don't want to hear, mostly because of their feelings around it.
If you're really thinking of the good of your child, you should realise an extra year will give your child a headstart. "If your child is not ready emotionally, he'll always be the weakest in class, his self-concept will be affected, socially he'll be labelled as one of the slow or dumb ones.
"And then there will be the added pressure of extra classes to keep up. In addition to five hours' school, there will be occupational therapy. And with this comes extra labels."
Rall says that many children who are not ready to start school may cope until Grade 4, when they start the learning subjects, but then they get stuck. "And it's a lot easier to cope with staying an extra year in Grade R than in Grade 4."
To be school-ready, a child is expected to have certain intellectual, emotional, social and physical skills to cope at school, says Rall.
Cognitive skills include language development, number skills, memory and concentration and general knowledge. Language skills must include concepts - children must not only be able to name a chair, but know what furniture is.
They must be able to grasp three concepts in a row, for example - what's round, green or red, and you can eat it?
Number skills include counting up to 20, recognising numbers up to 10 and concepts like longest/shortest, big/small.
Emotional intelligence is now recognised as being extremely important, and includes independence, the ability to work independently and confidence.
"The child must feel she can cope with what happens at school," says Rall. "A child must also be able to calm themselves when upset, delay gratification and have emotional control."
Children must have the courage to be able to take risks - to try a sum that stretches them, a puzzle that's more complex.
Also under emotional intelligence are perseverance, endurance and resilience - can they accept it when they make a mistake? Do they have the ability to lose and still enjoy participating?
Of course children are not expected to be all these things - but they must show some ability in these areas.
Socially, children must be able to communicate with peers, to assert themselves and to interact in groups.
Physically, they need fine motor control (the pen grip) and need to be able to draw shapes and use scissors. They also need gross motor skills, such as balancing and being able to catch a ball.
Usually the pre-school or Grade R teacher will be able to guide parents as to whether children are ready for school but, if in doubt, a psychologist can assess them with such tools as a motor integration test and asking the child to draw a body.
Rall says she knows lots of stories about children who are not emotionally ready for school, and who end up being behind the rest of the class.
"Rather ahead of the class than behind," she says, "The feedback I get is that they have a positive self-image.
"We talk about emotional intelligence: if they're not coping emotionally, they're not going to succeed. If they have a negative experience in the first three years of school, it affects the rest of their school career."
Under the new curriculum, says Rall, children are expected to work independently and there's more group work.
"They need to be ready. If there's any doubt, keep the child back.
You will see the benefits when your child comes first, not last, in the class, has friends and is not only coping, but reaching her potential."
Erica Bezuidenhout is a pre-school teacher with more than 25 years of experience, and she agrees with Rall. She also sees parents who are reluctant to keep their children back. An example of this is children who attend pre-school with the specific aim of improving their English before attending school. But that alone is not enough for school readiness.
"Even though it may seem to parents that they have learned a lot in the year, because their English is good, they should follow the advice of the teacher, or have their child assessed, as to other readiness skills.
"If the child is not ready he is going to struggle at school all the time," Bezuidenhout says.
"An undisciplined, destructive and distracted child is not going to be able to cope in class."