Kids who begin kindergarten with elementary mathematics and reading skills are most likely to experience academic success later on — whether or not they have social or emotional problems — a new study has found.
The study was based on an analysis of existing data from six longitudinal studies involving more than 35,000 preschoolers in the United States, Canada and England.
“The single most important factor in predicting later academic achievement is that children begin school with a mastery of early math and literacy concepts,” said Greg Duncan, a Northwestern University researcher and the study’s author.
Surprise finding
But it was the disassociation between social and emotional behaviours and later academic learning that surprised the researchers.
They found that kids who were disruptive did not have any difficulty learning as much as their better-behaved classmates.
“Children who engage in aggressive or disruptive behaviour or who have difficulty making friends wind up learning just as much as their better-behaved or more socially-adjusted classmates, provided they come to school with academic skills. We do not know if their behaviour affects the achievement of other children,” said Mr Duncan.
“The paramount importance of early math skills — of beginning school with a knowledge of numbers, number order and other rudimentary math concepts — is one of the puzzles coming out of the study.”
Mathe‘magic’
Taking into consideration IQ, family income, gender, temperament, previous educational experience, and whether children came from single or two-parent families, the study found that the mastery of early math concepts was the strongest predictor of future academic success.
Mastery of early mathematic skills predicts not only future math achievement, but also future reading achievement, the study said.