Readiness to Learn at School Among Five-year-old Children in Canada

By Eleanor M. Thomas, Special Surveys Division, Statistics Canada

Executive summary

Children’s first years in school are fundamentally important for their later learning.

Success in the early years of school has implications for future achievement in school and beyond. Early school success has been linked to the abilities, behaviours and attitudes that young children bring with them as they enter school for the first time. Information about where Canadian children stand on these dimensions as they begin their school careers can provide important insights for developing educational policies and practices in the country.

Among the factors at school entry that may contribute to early school achievement are the language and communication skill of children, their academic skill, self-regulation of their own learning, self-control of their behaviour, and their social competence and independence. 

Child and family characteristics, such as the sex of the child, income level of the child’s household, parent education, and family structure, have been linked to children’s readiness to learn as they enter school. In addition, experiences in the home and community have been linked to children’s readiness to learn, including the quality of their relationships with parents, educational activities at home, and opportunities to participate in group activities with peers, whether recreational or educational.

The present report used data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth (NLSCY) to describe the readiness to learn at school of Canadian children who were 5 years old in 2002/2003. It describes home environment factors that may be linked to measures of readiness to learn. Finally, the report looks back two years in time, to see if trends in readiness to learn were already apparent when the children were 3 years old.

Language and communication skill
Academic skill
Self-regulation of learning
Self-control of behaviour
Social competence
Readiness to learn and home environment
Summary

Language and communication skill

Language and communication skill are central to learning at school. Both vocabulary level and ability to communicate thoughts and needs have been identified as key components of readiness to learn. Canadian 5-year-old children varied in their abilities in this domain according to their sex, household income level, and other family characteristics.

• In receptive vocabulary, children in higher income households scored higher than those in lower income households. Vocabulary knowledge was higher for those whose mothers had more education, and for those in two-parent families. In communication skill, girls scored higher than boys. Again, higher income children scored higher than lower income children, and those whose mothers had higher education levels also scored higher than others. Looking back to age 3 demonstrated that differences in communication skill between girls and boys and between higher and lower income children already existed two years earlier (Figure 1).

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Academic skill

The academic knowledge and skill that children bring to school may contribute to their early learning. Number knowledge was one of the abilities tested. In addition, children were assessed in copying and symbol use, a measure that has been linked very strongly to academic achievement. Differences appeared among Canadian 5-year-olds in both measures.

• The number knowledge of children was linked to child and family characteristics. Children with higher household income levels and higher parent education levels, and those with two-parent family structures all tended to have higher number knowledge scores than other children.
• For copying and symbol use, similar socioeconomic patterns appeared. In addition, girls outperformed boys in this ability (Figure 2 ), and children with parents born outside Canada outscored those with parents born in Canada. Copying and symbol use, which includes skills that are specifically taught in school, was higher for those 5-year-olds who were in kindergarten than for those who were not.

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Self-regulation of learning

Self-regulation of learning included measures of attention, work effort, and curiosity level, all considered important for early school success. Few differences appeared among children with different backgrounds on these variables. However, differences between girls and boys appeared for two of these measures.

• Attention scores were higher for girls than for boys at age 5. Looking back 2 years found little difference in attention between girls and boys at age 3, suggesting that this difference forms over the preschool years, between age 3 and age 5 (Figure 3).
• There was a tendency for children in the lowest income category to score lower in attention than those in higher income groups. This difference was already apparent at age 3, and attention score did not change appreciably over the 2-year period for any of the income groups (Figure 3).
• Boys were rated higher in curiosity level than girls at age 5. Looking back to age 3 indicates that this difference existed two years earlier, but that the difference increased over the 2-year period, in part because of a greater decline in curiosity ratings for girls (Figure 4).

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Self-control of behaviour

Teachers rate the ability to control impulsive behaviour as critical for children entering school.

• Girls and boys differed in self-control of behaviour at age 5, with girls scoring higher than boys. Looking back to age 3 found no such difference. The difference came about as a result of increasing self-control on the part of girls over the 2-year period, while boys did not increase in this attribute.

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Social competence

Playing cooperatively with other children leads to good early adjustment to school, including building positive relationships with peers and teachers.

• Children from lower income households were rated as lower in playing cooperatively with others than those from higher income households. Looking back two years showed that differences in cooperative play among income levels were relatively small at age 3, but that they increased, largely because higher income children who had been high in cooperative play tended to remain high over the two years, while lower income children who had been high in cooperative play were less likely to remain high.

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Readiness to learn and home environment

Previous research has found important links between some home environment variables and readiness to learn. Positive parent-child interaction, cognitive stimulation in the home, and participation in educational and recreational activities were considered in this report.

• Receptive vocabulary scores were highest for children with high positive parent-child interaction scores, for those who were read to daily, and for those who participated in organized sports or physical activities.
• Communication skill was highest for those with high positive parent-child interaction scores and for those who participated regularly in organized sports and physical activities.
• Number knowledge was highest for those who were read to daily, and for those who participated in sports, physical activities, and lessons in the arts.
• Copying and symbol use scores were highest for children who participated regularly in organized sports, in lessons in physical activities, and in lessons in the arts.
• Cooperative play was associated with high positive parent-child interaction scores, and with regular participation in unorganized sports.

Do differences in home environment variables partly explain the differences in readiness to learn measures between children at different income levels? 

Children in lower and higher income homes differed in receptive vocabulary score, communication skill score, number knowledge score and copying and symbol use score.  They also differed in home environment variables that predicted readiness to learn. The question asked was, are differences in readiness to learn measures between household income levels partly accounted for by differences in home environment variables for these groups?

As with all correlational data, links found among income levels, home environment variables, and readiness to learn measures do not imply causality. While the home environment variable may have resulted in the readiness to learn measure, it is also possible that the readiness to learn measure affected the home environment variable. Alternatively, an underlying factor that was not considered in the analysis could explain both the home environment variable and the readiness to learn measure, and it may be linked to income as well. However, some of the relationships found here among income level, home environment variables, and readiness to learn measures are consistent with studies in the research literature.

• Children in low income households who were read to daily had higher scores in vocabulary than children in low income households who were not read to, just as higher income children did (Figure 5). However, they were less likely to experience daily reading than higher income children. This may help to account for the higher vocabulary scores of the higher income children overall. Similarly, differences in receptive vocabulary score between lower and higher income children were partly accounted for by participation in organized sports and physical activities.
• Differences in communication skill score between lower and higher income children were partly accounted for by positive parent-child interaction (Figure 6), and by participation in organized sports and physical activities.
• Differences in number knowledge score between lower and higher income children were in part accounted for by daily reading to the child.
• For copying and symbol use score, participation in organized sports and lessons in  physical activities (Figure 7) partly accounted for income level differences, as did lessons in the arts.

These findings can all be interpreted in the same way: whether children were living in low income or higher income households, daily reading, high positive parent-child interaction, participation in organized sports, lessons in physical activities, and lessons in the arts were linked with higher scores on readiness to learn measures. The fact that the lower income children were less likely to experience the home environment factor may help to explain the overall differences in readiness to learn scores between the income levels.

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Summary

This report provides an overview of Canadian children as they enter school as 5-year-olds. It looks at the collection of abilities, behaviours and attitudes that they bring with them, attributes that are important for early school achievement. The report shows that children vary on some dimensions of readiness to learn at school, according to their sex, their family characteristics, their background, and their home environment and experiences. It also shows that some of the differences in readiness to learn may already be evident two years earlier, when the children were 3 years old. Finally, the report indicates factors in the home environment that may contribute to differences among different economic groups. The report adds to what we know about readiness to learn. It provides information that may be useful for policy analysts, teachers, researchers, and parents themselves as they work toward maximizing the potential of preschool children everywhere.

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