Children’s Developmental Needs During the Transition to Kindergarten: What Can Research on Social-Emotional, Motivational, Cognitive, and Self-Regulatory Development Tell Us?

Abstract

The transition to Kindergarten is precisely aligned with a period of crucial individual development—a window of qualitative change so significant that it is sometimes referred to as “the five to seven year shift.” The goal of this chapter is to focus on that qualitative shift by drawing together the changes in social-emotional, motivational, cognitive, and self-regulatory development that normatively take place during this window and to highlight their implications for identifying children’s “developmental needs” during the transition to Kindergarten. The chapter is divided into four sections: one each on social-emotional, motivational, cognitive, and self-regulatory development. Within each domain, the primary normative developmental tasks during the 5–7-year shift are described, and the kinds of supports children typically need to negotiate these tasks successfully are summarized. These sections also consider differential development in each domain, describing the needs of children whose previous experiences at home or school did not prepare them to meet age-graded milestones. The conclusion section integrates information about these developments wholistically, based on the assumption that the success of students before, during, and after the transition to Kindergarten depends on whether educational programs and families come together to meet young children’s developmental needs.