Using a “child's‐eye view” of social success to understand the importance of school readiness at the transition to formal schooling

Abstract

Recent research into school readiness has highlighted the importance of not only children's cognitive and socio‐emotional skills, but also the degree to which they have family support in the home. The current study examines the association between social success upon school entry and teacher‐ratings of school readiness as assessed by the Brief Early Skills and Support Index (BESSI), controlling for language ability. Importantly, social success was assessed using a “child's‐eye view” with peer‐reported assessments of both social preference and reciprocated friendships. A total of 244 children (131 boys, Mage = 61 months, SD = 4.78 months) in their first year of formal schooling participated. Child school readiness was found to be important for social preference, with the association being more marked for boys versus girls. Family support was the only independent predictor of children's reciprocated friendships. The use of the BESSI, with its broad scope compared to other measures of school readiness, highlights the importance of focusing both on a child's cognitive and socio‐emotional skills at school entry and their family support when exploring the association of school readiness to children's social success at the transition to formal schooling.

Using sensors to study the social dynamics of outdoor play.

“…finding of this nature based on outdoor play data; however, it is consonant with research 20 showing that a 'child's-eye view' of social success, and of play, can often be at odds with adults' 21 perspectives (Factor, 2004;Fink, Browne, Hughes, & Gibson, 2018). Observation using sensors 22 may present a useful way of understanding the child's social world while overcoming some of 23 the challenges of self-, adult-, or peer-reported measurements.…”

Pathways from the early language and communication environment to literacy outcomes at the end of primary school; the roles of language development and social development

“…The construct of school readiness captures the extent to which a child is ready to thrive in the context of formal schooling (Snow, 2006). It can be viewed across several domains, including academic competences such as literacy and numeracy, and so-called 'non-cognitive' or 'learning readiness' skills such as social awareness, self-regulation, independence and persistence in problem-solving (Blair & Raver, 2015;Carton & Winsler, 1999;Denham, 2006;Fink et al, 2019).…”

Adaptácia a štandardizácia diagnostického nástroja DIFER na zisťovanie aktuálnej vývinovej úrovne 4-8 ročných detí na Slovensku

“…Výsledky mnohých medzinárodných výskumov ukazujú, že v živote človeka je z hľadiska rozvoja osobnosti veľmi senzitívnym obdobím prvých osem rokov (Fink et al 2019;Podráczky 2015Podráczky , 2017. dodáva, že investície do vzdelávania v ranom detstve majú dlhodobú sociálno-ekonomickú návratnosť.…”