Communication Competencies of the Child before Starting Compulsory Education as a Factor Affecting the Readiness for School

The paper focuses on the issue of the transformation of Czech education with an emphasis on the steps leading to the integration (and subsequent inclusion) of children with special educational needs in mainstream schools. On the basis of the criterion of the achieved level of communication competency of a pre-school-aged child, we present the child's readiness for compulsory education, outline the specifics of working with selected categories of special needs of children, and, on the basis of research, draw attention to the current readiness of teachers for working with such children and the status of such a child within the class.The aim of the paper is to call attention to the risks which may be associated with the inclusion that is being prepared in Czech education.This article was written as a part of the grant project titled Social aspects of inclusion in basic education in the context of international research (the research is a part of the international project - Inclusive Education no. 4401/11- Institute for Research and Development at Faculty of Education - Palacky University, Olomouc, Czech Republic).