Pre-school education and school maturity of children from socially disadvantaged backgrounds

• Main Authors: Panajotis Cakirpaloglu, Richard Kořínek
• Format: Article
• Language: ces
• Published: University of Ostrava 2014-12-01
• Series: Psychology and its Contexts
• Subjects: adaptability; cognitive development; preschool education; social development; socially disadvantaged environment
• Online Access: http://psychkont.osu.cz/fulltext/2014/Cakirpaloglu,Korinek_2014_S.pdf
• ISSN: 1803-9278; 1805-9023

The adaptability of children to the school environment and their potential to succeed there is closely linked to the development of their cognitive and social skills. These are primarily linked to personal factors -physical maturity as well as mental or emotional maturity and the environment in which those children grow up. This fact is evident in children growing up in disadvantageous socio-economic conditions. In general the school readiness of children from socially-disadvantaged backgrounds is affected by the specific environment, the primary family and a number of other factors. A significant support of psychosocial development and successful adaptability at the start of the compulsory education is the preschool education, especially for children growing up in disadvantageous socio-economic conditions. The presented study focused on the effect of pre-school education on school readiness in first grade children. 24 children from socially disadvantaged environment were tested twice - for first time shortly after the beginning of their first grade and for the second time before the end of the first grade. The children were then divided into two groups - those who attended pre-school education and those who started school without any pre-school education programme. The attendance thus made the independent variable in the research design. There were three research questions - what is the impact of pre-school education on: Q1: general cognitive functioning (tested using the Intelligence Image Scale), Q2: on the ability to acquire the reading skills (tested using the Reversal test by Edfeldt) and Q3 on the social maturity of the children (tested using the Vineland scale of adaptive behaviour) The results of the study suggest that pre-school education has significant effect on social skills and this effect increases during the first year. The reading skills were better in children who attended the pre-school education however this impact decreases over time. There was no statistically significant difference between cognitive functioning in both groups of children. No negative effects of pre-school education were identified. The results are in partial contradiction to other research and literature - specifically the outcome in cognitive functioning was unexpected. This can be attributed to limited number of participants. However we suppose that the results support the importance of pre-school education. Its impact could be further studied using longitudinal studies as well as focusing in more detail on the individual aspects of social exclusion and its effects on school readiness.