School Readiness Skills Research Articles

Relative Contributions of Mothers, Fathers, and Other Caregivers’ Cognitive and Socioemotional Stimulation on Ghanaian Children’s School Readiness

ABSTRACT This study examined the concurrent contributions of mothers, fathers, and other caregivers’ cognitive and socioemotional home stimulation to children’s school readiness skills in a sample of Ghanaian kindergartners measured at two time-points across one school year (N = 2,975; M age = 5.2 years; 49% female). Research Findings: Multiple regression analyses showed that mothers and other caregivers’ stimulation – but not fathers – predicted child outcomes. Specifically, in lagged models controlling for children’s fall scores, there were small, positive statistically significant associations between mothers’ cognitive stimulation with literacy, numeracy and motor skills, and between other caregivers’ cognitive stimulation and executive function. With regard to socioemotional stimulation, only mothers’ stimulation was significantly associated with one child outcome – literacy. Father’s stimulation practices were not associated with any child outcomes. Practice or Policy: Although our results are small in magnitude, the findings support the growing evidence from sub-Saharan Africa that home stimulation is an important driver of child development and extends this work by examining different domains of stimulation, as well as contributions from various caregivers in the household. Findings highlight the need for interventions to adopt a family-inclusive approach that engages not only mothers but other caregivers to maximize improvements in children’s development.

Exploring the Theory of Preschool Skill Convergence Through a National Survey of Kindergarten Teachers

ABSTRACT Preschool effectiveness research consistently documents “fadeout” or “convergence” wherein initial preschool gains dissipate when students enter school. Most fadeout occurs in kindergarten, leading scholars to theorize about mechanisms that make kindergarten a “hotspot” for fadeout. Fielding a national survey of kindergarten teachers (n = 422), this study is the first to shed light on some of these theoretical propositions through the insights of kindergarten teachers themselves. Research Findings: Teachers report that kindergarten classrooms are heterogeneous in terms of school readiness skills and students who attended preschool often enter school near the top of their class. Kindergarten teachers report focusing instructional support on students near the bottom of the class, and consequently, see the differences between students that attended preschool and those that did not converge over the school year. Practice or Policy: This study provides practice-based insights from teachers on a commonly cited theory of preschool skill convergence. The findings buttress the need for future research that can test the specific mechanisms implicated.

Increasing teacher confidence in using universal design for learning to support students’ developmental skills through teacher education at tier 1

ABSTRACT Children’s participation and success within the school environment are dependent on developmental and school readiness skills that extend beyond academic skills, including motor, visual, visual motor integration, social, and self-regulation skills. Students enter kindergarten with a varying range of school readiness skills and developmental needs, while teachers may lack the time, support, or ability to address them. A pre-test/posttest design was used to deliver a Universal Design for Learning approach to teacher education on motor, visual, visual motor integration, social, and self-regulation skill development to 12 kindergarten and first-grade teachers using an occupational therapist-teacher collaborative teaching model. Additionally, this approach facilitated opportunities for teachers to integrate skill development within their classrooms. An author-generated survey was used to capture teachers’ self-reported confidence and knowledge of skill development. Comparing pre- and post-survey scores, using the Wilcoxon Rank Test, indicates that the method used in this study has a statistically significant effect in increasing teachers’ knowledge of developmental skills and confidence in providing classroom interventions to support student participation. These results support Universal Design for Learning’s effectiveness in supporting children’s developmental skills through occupational therapist-teacher education.

Trajectories of advanced math taking for low-income students of color in middle and high school

Differential access to and enrollment in advanced mathematics for historically underrepresented groups is a pervasive problem in education, however, research has primarily focused on achievement rather than access. This necessitates an examination of who is accessing advanced coursework and what differentiates the course trajectories students follow across middle and high school. We utilized data from a large (N = 18,841), majority Latinx (57.6 % Latinx, 35.5 % Black, 6.1 % White/Other, and 0.6 % Asian/Pacific Islander) and low-income (77 % free/reduced-price lunch) sample of students followed longitudinally from middle through high school. Latent class analysis (LCA) categorized students into 6 classes representing commonly followed pathways of advanced math course taking from grade 6 to 12. Multinomial logistic regression was used to connect individual demographics, school readiness skills, and prior achievement variables to the likelihood of being assigned to a particular class. Prior academic performance was most strongly related to advanced math pathway assignment, but even controlling for this, gender, disability status, and cognitive and fine motor skills at age 4 also impacted the math pathway a student was likely to follow in middle and high school. Race/ethnicity was a significant differentiator only when comparing the two most advanced pathways. These findings highlight the importance of early school readiness skills and demonstrate how early opportunity gaps impact later student outcomes. Tailored intervention and supports are necessary to ensure equitable access to coursework which expands a student’s opportunities and chances for postsecondary success.

COVID-19 school closures and Chinese children's school readiness: Results from the natural experimental data.

To determine the associations between COVID-19 school closures and school readiness skills for Chinese kindergarteners. We utilized the natural experimental condition created by local COVID-19 outbreaks in 2022 (Study 1) to compare school readiness skills of children whose kindergartens were closed for 5 months (Group 1) with children whose kindergartens stayed open (Group 2). We further compared the school readiness skills of one pre-COVID-19 cohort (Cohort 2019) with one COVID-19 cohort (Cohort 2021) from a fifth kindergarten (Study 2). For Study 1, Group 1 included 445 children and Group 2 included 584 children aged 4-6 years. For Study 2, Cohort 2019 included 156 children and Cohort 2021 included 228 children aged 3-6 years. For both studies, survey data on four school readiness skills were collected from parents. Additionally, Study 1 collected parental locus of control data from parents. Controlling for covariates, Study 1 revealed that Group 1 and Group 2 did not differ in terms of language and emergent literacy or approaches to learning. However, Group 1 scored lower than Group 2 on health and well-being and arts and imagination. Study 2 revealed that Cohort 2021 scored higher than Cohort 2019 on language and emergent literacy but lower on the other three skills. The associations of COVID-19 school closures with Chinese children's school readiness skills were not uniform, with a positive relation with language and emergent literacy and negative associations with health and well-being, approaches to learning, as well as arts and imagination.

Impact of Intensive Upper Limb Therapy on School Readiness Skills in Preschool Children With Unilateral Cerebral Palsy

Abstract Date Presented 03/23/24 Engagement in high-intensity, motor-based therapeutic activity is associated with improvements in school readiness for preschool-age children with unilateral cerebral palsy with or without the inclusion of cognitive development skill training. Primary Author and Speaker: Angela Shierk Additional Authors and Speakers: Heather Roberts Contributing Authors: Fabiola Reyes, Nancy Clegg, Mauricio R. Delgado, Emily Kirby, Lindsay Miles, Rebecca Dharamraj, Ariel Alexander, Joe De La Torre

The long-lasting benefits of pre-kindergarten education on autistic children's working memory development.

Working memory is an important skill for school success, and it involves holding information in our memory while using it to solve complex problems. However, autistic children often have difficulties with working memory tasks. Also, kindergarteners on the autism spectrum tend to be less school-ready compared with their peers. In addition, children from disadvantaged backgrounds tend to struggle more with working memory and school readiness skills. All preschool-age children on the autism spectrum in the United States are entitled to pre-kindergarten (pre-K) education. However, it is unclear whether attending pre-K helps with children's working memory development in the long run. This study tested whether attending pre-K benefits children's working memory development in the long run. It also tested whether pre-K is especially helpful for autistic children's working memory development. It was found that children who attended pre-K outperformed their peers who did not attend pre-K during the first 2 years of elementary school. However, after first grade, such benefits diminished. Importantly, autistic children who attended pre-K did not demonstrate advanced working memory immediately in kindergarten, but they started to outperform their autistic peers who did not attend pre-K during first grade to third grade. This finding highlights the importance of pre-K education for autistic children in particular. It is also important for educators and parents to understand autistic children's unique learning paths that may be different from non-autistic children. This article discusses specific ways for educators to take full advantage of the long-lasting benefits of pre-K education in autistic children's working memory development.

Who is taking dance electives, when, and for how long? Adolescents’ dance participation and persistence in middle and high school

ABSTRACT Inclusive and equitable dance education practices remain an important issue in United States public school settings. We explore adolescents’ participation in public school dance electives through the examination of an ethnically diverse, longitudinal sample of students living in Miami, Florida (N = 24,368), as they progress through secondary school between the 2009–2010 and 2015–2016 academic years. We describe participation rates in dance electives and give results from linear probability regression models showing the characteristics (demographics, school readiness skills, prior school suspension, attendance, and academic achievement) of adolescents who enroll and persist in dance electives between middle and high school. We found that 14% of students enrolled in a dance elective during middle school and only 2% of students did so in high school. The highest levels of uptake in dance electives occurred in 7th and 9th grade. Most adolescents enrolled in a dance elective for only one academic year. Ethnicity, gender, disability status, and prior academic performance were significant predictors of initially selecting into a dance elective in middle school, and for persisting in a dance elective in high school. These results prompt further discussion of the integration of inclusive dance pedagogy in public school contexts.

Building Bridges! Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Their Transition from Kindergarten to School - A Scoping Review.

The goal of this study was to map the research on the transition from kindergarten to school for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Further, the goal was to identify the elements influencing the transition process as well as the variables that would promote a smooth and positive transition experience for the children in question. The study also aimed to identify knowledge gaps on the subject and the current practice in the field. The study is a scoping review that includes peer reviewed articles from the databases ERIC, Google scholar, PsycINFO and Web of Science and the search was restricted to articles in English from 2019 to 2024. The search terms used were autism spectrum disorder, autism, transition, preschool, ECEC, inclusion, education intervention, early childhood, early education and kindergarten. After identifying and screening current articles from the databases, the articles were ascertained for relevance in three stages. In phase one, the title was considered. Phase two consisted of reviewing the abstract, and the final stage was to review the full text. At each stage, articles that did not prove relevant to the goal of the study were excluded. This left us with thirteen articles for inclusion in this article. In the selected articles the following elements are necessary for children with autism to have a positive transition from kindergarten to school: 1) School readiness skills and school inclusiveness, 2) Comparable educational opportunities and psychological support, 3) Collaboration and professional competence, 4) A balance to ensure a better transition, and 5) Inclusion and support and 6) Children's perspectives. The research gaps identified were: 1) that few studies take the child's perspective into account and 2) that there is an overemphasis on subjective experiences of effectiveness, and a lack of focus on measurable effects within studies on transition and inclusive education.

Head Start Children’s Dual Enrollment in State Pre-K: Prevalence and Child Outcomes

The current study investigated the prevalence and outcomes related to Head Start (HS) children’s dual enrollment in state-funded prekindergarten (state Pre-K) using a secondary analysis of a statewide integrated administrative dataset (N = 2,986). It also explored whether a program partnership between HS and the local school district (within the same geographic service area) was associated with HS children’s higher enrollment in Pre-K. Findings showed that over half of the children attending HS additionally participated in Pre-K. Such dual enrollment, which reflects more daily hours of center-based early care and education, predicted higher teacher-reported school readiness skills, including cognitive, language, literacy, math, physical, and social-emotional skills. The rate of HS children’s dual enrollment was higher when their HS grantee had a stronger partnership with the local school district. Our findings highlight the importance of systematic efforts to maximize the utilization of ECE-allocated resources for low-income children.

Investigating the Impact of a Motor Program on Preschoolers With Disabilities

A semistructured preschool motor program was developed in response to the paucity of evidence-based motor programs for preschoolers with disabilities in inclusive classrooms. A randomized controlled trial (RCT) was undertaken to examine the impact of the CHildren in Action: Motor Program for PreschoolerS (CHAMPPS), a 21-week intervention that includes 42 Universal Design for Learning–embedded lessons with suggestions for supporting school readiness skills. Eight intervention and 8 control classrooms across 2 states participated in the RCT. Data on 51 children with disabilities provide initial evidence on how CHAMPPS positively impacted children's active engagement, motor, and social development. The promising results include gains in motor skills, sustained physical activity levels during motor play, increased on-task behavior, and high feasibility and usability ratings by teachers. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.

Are You Ready for a Story? Kindergarten Children’s Emotional Competencies during a Story-Reading Situation Is Associated with Their Readiness for School

The current study aimed to explore the associations between children’s emotional reactions to stories and their school readiness skills. One hundred and fifty kindergarten children (Mage = 66.98 months; 66 boys) were interviewed to examine their emotional reactions to a story, and the children’s kindergarten teachers reported on the children’s school readiness skills: verbal abilities, approaches toward learning, and social skills. Using bibliotherapeutic terms and methods, the children’s identification with the main character in the story, their insight about the story, and their ability to connect the story to their own experiences were coded. Findings revealed associations between the children’s emotional responses to the story, specifically, the children’s identification and echoing with all three school readiness indicators (verbal abilities, behavior, and approaches toward learning). Additionally, the children’s insight into the story mediated the link between verbal abilities and approaches toward learning and between verbal abilities and hyperactivity. Practically, the current study offers a new approachable method that practitioners can use as a possible emotional tool in early education. Children’s responses to a story can provide a unique opportunity to better understand children’s perceptions of different narratives and socio-emotional situations, which can direct educators in their work. Empirically, the current study can guide further research and training on utilizing stories to understand children’s readiness for school.

IMPLEMENTING YOUTUBE AS A MEDIUM FOR TODDLERS WITH AUTISTIC SPECTRUM DISORDER IN SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

IMPLEMENTING YOUTUBE AS A MEDIUM FOR TODDLERS WITH AUTISTIC SPECTRUM DISORDER IN SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

Factor structure of school readiness skills: conceptual vs. statistical distinctions.

School readiness skills are a broad set of abilities that children develop in early childhood that support achievement once they enter formal schooling. Three components of school readiness skills are of focus in the current study: executive function (EF), language/literacy, and mathematics. The current study examines to what extent 13 direct assessments of these skills statistically align with theoretical models for distinct construct- and timepoint-specific latent factors. The sample included 684 children (52.34% male; 42% Black/African American; Mage = 4.80 years in the fall of prekindergarten) assessed in the fall and spring of the prekindergarten year. Factor analyses revealed the most statistical support for a model with a latent random intercept across timepoints and constructs, along with timepoint-specific latent factors in the fall and spring of prekindergarten (independent of the random intercept). The timepoint-specific latent factors primarily consisted of early literacy and mathematics assessments. These findings challenge commonly held practices of creating construct-specific latent factors in early childhood research and, to a lesser extent, timepoint-specific latent factors without consideration of the substantial shared variance across different constructs and timepoints. Implications for the factor structure and developmental theory of school readiness skills are considered, as well as practical considerations for future research.

Earlier mastery of English predicts 5th Grade academic outcomes for low-income dual language learners in Miami, USA

AbstractEarlier acquisition of English is associated with better academic performance for dual language learners (DLLs), but large-scale, prospective, longitudinal studies examining how trajectories for English acquisition relate to school-based outcomes, accounting for relevant covariates, are rare. We explored how the grade in which DLLs (N = 17,548; 47% female; 80% free/reduced-price lunch; 86% Latino, 10% Black, and 4% White/Other) acquire English proficiency, defined by the school district, relates to academic outcomes (grade retention, GPA, reading and math test scores) in 5th grade, controlling for gender, ethnicity, poverty, and school readiness skills at age 4. Earlier acquisition of English, especially before 2nd grade, predicted better performance on each 5th grade outcome. Earlier proficiency in English was even more important for 5th grade outcomes for those with initially high cognitive skills, Latino/Hispanic DLLs (compared to Black DLLs), and those not in poverty. Implications for practice and research are discussed.

Teacher depressive symptoms and children's school readiness in Ghana.

This study investigated associations between kindergarten teachers' (N=208) depressive symptoms and students' (Ghanaian nationals, N=1490, Mage =5.8) school-readiness skills (early literacy, early numeracy, social-emotional skills, and executive function) across 208 schools in Ghana over one school year. Teachers' depressive symptoms in the fall negatively predicted students' overall school-readiness skills in the spring, controlling for school-readiness skills in the fall. These results were primarily driven by social-emotional skills (r=.1-.3). There was evidence of heterogeneity by students' fall skill levels; teacher depressive symptoms predicted more negative spring overall school readiness for children who had higher fall school-readiness skills. Findings underscore the importance of teachers' mental health in early childhood education globally, with implications for policy and practice.

Impact of Kindergarten Transition Practices in Promoting Positive Behavioral School Readiness Skills

Successfully adjusting to the behavioral demands of kindergarten is a pivotal, yet challenging, developmental milestone for students, making it imperative that schools have a comprehensive menu of universal transition practices and targeted transition interventions available. This systematic review was conducted to synthesize and evaluate the existing research on the outcomes associated with universal transition practices and targeted transition interventions aimed at improving social-emotional behavioral skills important to the transition to kindergarten. 17 studies were identified that met the inclusion criteria. Results from this review highlight the utility of targeting self-regulation skills in students transitioning to kindergarten through multi-component interventions that incorporate caregiver involvement. Limitations, directions for future research, and implications for practice are discussed.

The playful learning curriculum: A randomized controlled trial

Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) in Norway has play, exploration, and discovery as foundations for children's learning, but lacks a curriculum that describes and supports principles of playful learning. The present study examines the effects of the Playful Learning Curriculum in ECEC on children's school readiness skills in the play-based ECEC context of Norway. A total of 96 ECEC centers signed up for the project and recruited 1,313 children. Centers were randomly assigned to an intervention (n = 49) and a control group (n = 47). Intervention centers were asked to implement the curriculum for at least eight hours per week for nine months, and control centers continued as usual. Outcomes included the Ani Banani Math Test (ABMT), the Preschool Early Numeracy Skills Screener (PENS), the Norwegian Vocabulary Test (NVT), and the Weschler's Intelligence Digit Span Test (DS). Analyses clustered by centers and controlling for blocks showed a significant effect of the intervention on children's mathematics skills, ABMT (d =.079, p =.03) and PENS (d =.104, p =.01), but no significant effects on working memory assessed by DS (d =.070, p =.14) or expressive vocabulary assessed by NVT (d = -.011, p = .65). This study shows that a well-defined age-appropriate curriculum based on playful learning may strengthen children's preschool mathematics skills in a play-based ECEC context.

An investigation of Head Start preschool children's executive function, early literacy, and numeracy learning in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic's impact on preschool children's school readiness skills remains understudied. This research investigates Head Start preschool children's early numeracy, literacy, and executive function outcomes during a pandemic-affected school year. Study children (N = 336 assessed at fall baseline; N = 237-250 assessed in spring depending on outcome; fall baseline sample: mean age = 51 months; 46% Hispanic; 36% Black Non-Hispanic; 52% female) in a network of Head Start centers in four states (Nevada, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin) experienced low in-person preschool exposure compared to national pre-pandemic norms. Children experienced fall to spring score gains during the pandemic-affected year of 0.05 SD in executive function, 0.27 SD in print knowledge, and 0.45-0.71 SD in early numeracy skills. Descriptively, for two of the three early numeracy domains measured, spring test score outcomes were stronger among children who attended more in-person preschool. We discuss implications for future research and policy.

Early care and education.

This chapter briefly reviews the history of early care and education (ECE) in the United States, the ECE conceptual frameworks, how ECE is organized, who uses ECE, and associations between ECE experiences and child outcomes. Nonparent care is now experienced by most children in the United States, with home-based care most common for infants and toddlers and center-based care for preschoolers. ECE settings that involve frequent and responsive teacher-child interactions and access to age-appropriate activities appear to promote children's cognitive and social development, although those associations tend to be quite modest. Publicly funded programs like Head Start and pre-kindergarten programs tend to serve children from low-income families, and are successful in promoting school readiness skills, especially early academic skills. However, the impacts of today's programs largely disappear in the first years of elementary school, and even flipped from being positive to negative in the methodologically most rigorous studies. Explanations for this fadeout are explored.