(Press-News.org) COLUMBUS, Ohio – No matter how well children are prepared for kindergarten, their transition to the classroom during the first few months plays a key role in their success, a new study suggests.
Researchers found that kids who made a more successful transition in the first 10-14 weeks of kindergarten scored higher than others on tests of academic and social-behavioral skills at the end of the school year.
Important parts of the transition – what the researchers called a “big little leap” – included making new friends, learning to work with others and adapting to new academic demands.
And a crucial finding was that this transition was important for all kids.
“Transition difficulties hurt children’s development, regardless of the initial readiness skills that they entered with,” said Jing Sun, lead author of the study and research specialist at The Ohio State University’s Crane Center for Early Childhood Research and Policy.
“Even those who are most ready for school will be affected if they encounter difficulties in the transition.”
These findings are important because a recent Ohio State study suggests that up to 70% of kindergartners struggle with some kind of difficulty during their transition, Sun said.
The study was published recently in the journal Early Childhood Research Quarterly.
The study involved 626 kindergarten students in 64 classrooms across 15 schools in one large district in Ohio. It is part of a larger project, called Early Learning Ohio, that examines children’s learning, achievement and social development during the first five years of schooling, from pre-K through third grade.
About 10-14 weeks into the school year, teachers rated each child’s difficulty transitioning to the classroom. Children were rated in five areas: academics, making friends, working within groups, being organized, and following schedule and routine.
The kindergarten students also completed assessments of their math, reading and social-behavioral skills at the beginning and end of the year.
Results showed that children who scored best on the academic and social-behavioral assessments at the beginning of the year – a sign of kindergarten readiness – were less likely than others to have transition difficulties.
“That is probably not surprising, because children with lower levels of these skills may experience more challenges in the classroom,” Sun said.
But the researchers also found that children who experienced fewer transition difficulties at the beginning of kindergarten demonstrated relatively more gains in math, reading and social-behavioral skills at the end of kindergarten, even when taking into account their kindergarten readiness skills and other factors that could play a role in skill development.
Relatedly, transition difficulties influenced development across the year for all children, regardless of their initial readiness skills.
Why is the transition to kindergarten so important?
Children with transition difficulties may face more disruptions in making connections with teachers and peers – the people who can support them and help promote their learning and social development, Sun explained.
“Without that support, it makes it difficult for them to benefit from the classroom environment, even if they were prepared coming in,” she said.
The results suggest that there needs to be more communication and connections between pre-K teachers, kindergarten teachers and parents, Sun said.
“We need to make sure that preschool and kindergarten instruction is more aligned,” she said. “There’s a drastic change between the two that some children have difficulty coping with.”
Research by the Crane Center shows that preschoolers spend 14% of their time in instruction in language and literacy, compared to 43% of the time in kindergarten. Preschool children spend 49% of their time in free play, compared to only 11% in kindergarten.
“Creating this alignment between preschool and kindergarten is difficult because of the lack of connections between the teachers,” Sun said. “We need to bring those educators together.”
In addition, schools should develop interventions to help children having difficulty adjusting to kindergarten.
“Interventions for children with transition difficulties will not only help them, but it could also lessen disruptions in classroom learning that hurt all students,” she said.
The research was supported by the Institute of Education Sciences.
Other co-authors, all from Ohio State’s Crane Center, Department of Educational Studies or Department of Human Sciences, were Laura Justice, Hui Jiang, Kelly Purtell, Tzu-Jung Lin and Arya Ansari.
END
Navigating the ‘big little leap’ to kindergarten
Skill development depends on the transition, study finds
2024-01-22
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Bad to the bone: UMass Amherst engineer aims to prevent fractures in cancer patients
2024-01-22
Bad to the Bone: UMass Amherst Engineer Aims to Prevent Fractures in Cancer Patients
National Cancer Institute funds research to assess if the treatment of cancer metastasis in patients is as damaging as the disease
AMHERST, Mass. – For some patients whose cancer has spread to their bones, the ensuing treatment can be more physically damaging than the original disease, leading to increased bone loss and fracture. Stacyann Bailey, assistant professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, has received a two-year grant from the National Cancer Institute to study the complex relationship between drugs used to treat metastatic cancer ...
Breakthrough research enhances stability and efficiency of perovskite solar cells
2024-01-22
A team of researchers from the School of Energy and Chemical Engineering at UNIST, jointly led by Professors Sung-Yeon Jang, Jungki Ryu, and Ji-Wook Jang, in collaboration with Professor Sang Kyu Kwak from Korea University, have achieved remarkable advancements in the stability and efficiency of perovskite solar cells. Their groundbreaking work not only paves the way for the commercialization of perovskite solar cells (PSCs), but also offers significant potential in green hydrogen production technology, ensuring long-term operation with high efficiency.
Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have garnered attention due to their reduced toxicity and broad light absorption ...
Scientists trap krypton atoms to form one-dimensional gas
2024-01-22
For the first time, scientists have successfully trapped atoms of krypton (Kr), a noble gas, inside a carbon nanotube to form a one-dimensional gas.
Scientists from the University of Nottingham’s School of Chemistry used advanced transmission electron microscopy (TEM) methods to capture the moment when Kr atoms joined together, one by one, inside a “nano test tube” container with diameter half a million times smaller than the width of a human hair. The research has been published in the journal of the American Chemical Society.
The behaviour of atoms has been studied by scientists ever since it was hypothesized that ...
Hybrid machine learning method boosts resolution of electrical impedance tomography for structural imaging
2024-01-22
Electrical impedance tomography (EIT) is a non-destructive imaging technique used to visualize the interior of materials. In this method, an electric current is injected between two electrodes, creating an electric field, and other electrodes measure distortions caused by the presence of foreign objects inside the material. Compared to other imaging methods, such as X-ray imaging, computed tomography, and magnetic resonance imaging, EIT has the advantages of being low cost and less cumbersome as it does not require large magnets or radiation. Therefore, it holds great potential as a non-destructive structural health monitoring ...
New study finds liquid laundry detergent packet exposure burden among young children remains; increase in exposures among older children, teens, and adults
2024-01-22
(COLUMBUS, Ohio) – A new study conducted by researchers at the Center for Injury Research and Policy of the Abigail Wexner Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and the Central Ohio Poison Center investigated trends in calls to poison centers across the country for exposures to liquid laundry detergent packets. The study investigators identified declines in the number, rate and severity of liquid laundry detergent packet exposures among children younger than 6 years. However, the exposure burden remained high. Additionally, exposures have increased among older children, teens and adults.
The study, published in Clinical Toxicology, found that in the most recent ...
Food from urban agriculture has carbon footprint 6 times larger than conventional produce, study shows
2024-01-22
Photos
A new University of Michigan-led international study finds that fruits and vegetables grown in urban farms and gardens have a carbon footprint that is, on average, six times greater than conventionally grown produce.
However, a few city-grown crops equaled or outperformed conventional agriculture under certain conditions. Tomatoes grown in the soil of open-air urban plots had a lower carbon intensity than tomatoes grown in conventional greenhouses, while the emissions difference between conventional and urban agriculture vanished for air-freighted crops like asparagus.
"The exceptions revealed by our ...
Scientists make COVID receptor protein in mouse cells
2024-01-22
UPTON, NY—A team of scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory and Columbia University has demonstrated a way to produce large quantities of the receptor that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, binds to on the surface of human cells. That binding between the now-infamous viral spike protein and the human “ACE2” receptor is the first step of infection by the virus. Making functional human ACE2 protein in mouse cells gives scientists a new way to study these receptors and potentially put them to use. In addition, as described in a paper just published in the journal Virology, the ...
Researchers unveil new way to counter mobile phone ‘account takeover’ attacks
2024-01-22
Computer science researchers have developed a new way to identify security weaknesses that leave people vulnerable to account takeover attacks, where a hacker gains unauthorized access to online accounts.
Most mobiles are now home to a complex ecosystem of interconnected operating software and Apps, and as the connections between online services has increased, so have the possibilities for hackers to exploit the security weaknesses, often with disastrous consequences for their owner.
Dr Luca Arnaboldi, from the University of Birmingham’s School of Computer Science, explains: “The ruse of looking over someone’s shoulder to find out their PIN is well known. ...
What factors affect patients’ decisions regarding active surveillance for low-risk prostate cancer?
2024-01-22
Because low-risk prostate cancer is unlikely to spread or impact survival, experts and guidelines recommend active surveillance, which involves regular monitoring and thus avoid or delay treatment like surgery or radiation therapy and their life-changing complications. A new study examined the rates of active surveillance use and evaluated the factors associated with selecting this management strategy over surgery or radiation, with a focus on underserved Black patients who have been underrepresented in prior studies. The findings are published by Wiley online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society.
For the study, called the Treatment ...
New sustainable method for creating organic semiconductors
2024-01-22
Researchers at Linköping University, Sweden, have developed a new, more environmentally friendly way to create conductive inks for use in organic electronics such as solar cells, artificial neurons, and soft sensors. The findings, published in the journal Nature Communications, pave the way for future sustainable technology.
Organic electronics are on the rise as a complement and, in some cases, a replacement to traditional silicon-based electronics. Thanks to simple manufacturing, high flexibility, and low weight combined with the electrical properties typically associated with traditional semiconductors, it can be useful for applications such as digital displays, energy storage, ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
QUT scientists create material to turn waste heat into clean power
Major new report sets out how to tackle the ‘profound and lasting impact’ of COVID-19 on cardiovascular health
Cosmic crime scene: White dwarf found devouring Pluto-like icy world
Major report tackles Covid’s cardiovascular crisis head-on
A third of licensed GPs in England not working in NHS general practice
ChatGPT “thought on the fly” when put through Ancient Greek maths puzzle
Engineers uncover why tiny particles form clusters in turbulent air
GLP-1RA drugs dramatically reduce death and cardiovascular risk in psoriasis patients
Psoriasis linked to increased risk of vision-threatening eye disease, study finds
Reprogramming obesity: New drug from Italian biotech aims to treat the underlying causes of obesity
Type 2 diabetes may accelerate development of multiple chronic diseases, particularly in the early stages, UK Biobank study suggests
Resistance training may improve nerve health, slow aging process, study shows
Common and inexpensive medicine halves the risk of recurrence in patients with colorectal cancer
SwRI-built instruments to monitor, provide advanced warning of space weather events
Breakthrough advances sodium-based battery design
New targeted radiation therapy shows near-complete response in rare sarcoma patients
Does physical frailty contribute to dementia?
Soccer headers and brain health: Study finds changes within folds of the brain
Decoding plants’ language of light
UNC Greensboro study finds ticks carrying Lyme disease moving into western NC
New implant restores blood pressure balance after spinal cord injury
New York City's medical specialist advantage may be an illusion, new NYU Tandon research shows
Could a local anesthetic that doesn’t impair motor function be within reach?
1 in 8 Italian cetacean strandings show evidence of fishery interactions, with bottlenose and striped dolphins most commonly affected, according to analysis across four decades of data and more than 5
In the wild, chimpanzees likely ingest the equivalent of several alcoholic drinks every day
Warming of 2°C intensifies Arctic carbon sink but weakens Alpine sink, study finds
Bronze and Iron Age cultures in the Middle East were committed to wine production
Indian adolescents are mostly starting their periods at an earlier age than 25 years ago
Temporary medical centers in Gaza known as "Medical Points" (MPs) treat an average of 117 people daily with only about 7 staff per MP
Rates of alcohol-induced deaths among the general population nearly doubled from 1999 to 2024
[Press-News.org] Navigating the ‘big little leap’ to kindergartenSkill development depends on the transition, study finds