School readiness and factors that influence decision making

Abstract

Occupational therapists are frequently asked to make recommendations regarding a child's school readiness. The primary objective of this study was to investigate the factors that influence the decision making of parents and teachers regarding this issue. The home environments and developmental status of 215 preschool children (age: M = 62.2 months, SD = 4.65) were assessed. Parents and teachers completed questionnaires about each child's behaviour, temperament, and readiness for school. Their perceptions were analysed separately. Results showed that chronological age, and the presence of adaptability, well-developed social skills, and the ability to persist with an activity until completed influenced parents' as well as teachers' perceptions of school readiness. In addition, teachers' decisions were influenced by gender (girls were perceived as being more ready for school than boys), and the presence of the temperament characteristic of inhibition (withdrawn, shy behaviours). These results indicated that factors other than a child's developmental status influenced parental and teacher decision making, challenging occupational therapists to adopt a broader focus when consulting with parents and teachers about school readiness. Limitations of the study included the self-selected sample resulting in potential bias owing to the over-representation of families from higher socioeconomic backgrounds. It is suggested that future research take the form of a matched pairs design, and focus on a comparison between a population of children perceived to be ready to progress to school and a group perceived not to be ready.

Temperament and Preschool Children’s Peer Interactions

“…Temperament has been identified as a contributor to children's peer interactions (Fabes et al, 1999;Sterry et al, 2010); therefore, helping teachers and parents recognize children's temperamental characteristics may facilitate better social experiences for children. Teachers make classroom management decisions about children's small-group activities, task engagement, and social interactions by taking children's temperament characteristics into account (McBryde, Ziviani, & Cuskelly, 2004;Pullis & Cadwell, 1982). For example, Pullis and Cadwell (1982) found that as children with more difficult temperaments (e.g., high reactivity and low adaptability) became involved in activities, teachers' use of monitoring increased.…”

Parental Perspectives on Children’s School Readiness: An Ethnographic Study

“…This echoes the proposal (Mashburn and Pianta 2006) that children's interactions and relationships with peers, parents, and teachers are the source of many of the readiness skills that educators value. Other studies have also argued for the importance of these 'fitting in' skills (Piotrkowski et al 2000;McBryde et al 2004;McAllister et al 2005). Duncan et al (2007) reported that the strongest predictors of later achievement are school-entry mathematical, reading, and attention skills, with social skills a poor indicator irrespective of socioeconomic background.…”

A study of relationships between parents’ and teachers’ demographic factors and their judgments about children’s activities and school readiness in primary schools of Tehran

“…In addition in this study, female teachers appeared to have slightly higher expectations with respect to social skills than male teachers. Moreover, McBryde et al (2004) found that teachers perceived girls to be more ready for school than boys and chronological age influenced teachers' beliefs about school readiness. In this paper, school readiness defined as a child's skills, behaviors, or attributes in relation to the expectations of individual classrooms or schools.…”