Promoting School Readiness and Early Learning Implications of Developmental Research for Practice

Grounded in cutting-edge developmental research, this book examines what school readiness entails and how it can be improved. Compelling longitudinal findings are presented on the benefits of early intervention for preschoolers at risk due to poverty and other factors. The volume identifies the cognitive, language, behavioral, motor, and socioemotional skills that enable young children to function successfully in school contexts. It explores specific ways in which school- and family-based interventions--including programs that target reading and language, math, self-regulation, and social-emotional development--can contribute to school readiness. The book also addresses challenges in the large-scale dissemination of evidence-based practices.

Michel Boivin, PhD, is Professor of Psychology and Canada Research Chair in Child Social Development at Laval University in Qu\u00e9bec. He is Director of Laval University's Research Unit on Children's Psychosocial Maladjustment and of the Strategic Knowledge Cluster on Early Child Development, a pan-Canadian consortium. Dr. Boivin is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. His research focuses on the biological, psychological, and social components of child development. He has played a central role in the creation and follow-up of large population-based longitudinal studies of children, including the Qu\u00e9bec Newborn Twin study and the Qu\u00e9bec Longitudinal Study of Child Development. Karen L. Bierman, PhD, is Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Director of the Child Study Center at The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State). She was the founding director of the Children, Youth, and Families Consortium at Penn State, and has also served as director of Penn State's Social Science Research Institute. Dr. Bierman's research focuses on child social-emotional development and the design and evaluation of school- and community-based prevention programs that promote social-emotional learning and school readiness. She has served as an educational advisor to a number of organizations devoted to improving early education for disadvantaged children, including Head Start and Sesame Street.

I. Setting the Stage: The Importance of School Readiness for School Success 1. School Readiness: Introduction to a Multifaceted and Developmental Construct, Michel Boivin and Karen L. Bierman 2. Early Predictors of High School Completion: The Developmental Interplay between Behavior, Motivation, and Academic Performance, Frank Vitaro, Mara Brendgen, and Richard E. Tremblay 3. Assessing the Predictive Validity and Early Determinants of School Readiness Using a Population-Based Approach, Michel Boivin, H\u00e9l\u00e8ne Desrosiers, Jean-Pascal Lemelin, and Nadine Forget-Dubois II. Determinants of School Readiness 4. A Multilevel Approach to the Examination of Cognitive Skills in School Readiness, Mark Wade, Heather Prime, Dillon Browne, and Jennifer M. Jenkins 5. The Role of Oral Language Development in Promoting School Readiness, Ginette Dionne, Catherine Mimeau, and \u00c9mylie Mathieu 6. Early Child Care Experiences and School Readiness, Sylvana M. C\u00f4t\u00e9, Marie-Claude Geoffroy, and Jean-Baptiste Pingault III. Supporting School Readiness with Evidence-Based Programs and Practices 7. The Role of Language and Literacy Interventions in School Readiness, Barbara A. Wasik and Annemarie H. Hindman 8. Promoting Math Readiness through a Sustainable Prekindergarten Mathematics Intervention, Prentice Starkey, Alice Klein, and Lydia DeFlorio 9. The Development of Self-Regulatory Skills and School Readiness, Christine Pajunar Li-Grining, Jaclyn Lennon, Maria Marcus, Valerie Flores, and Kelly Haas 10. Integrating Evidence-Based Preschool Programs to Support Social-Emotional and Cognitive Development, Karen L. Bierman, Celene E. Domitrovich, Robert L. Nix, Janet A. Welsh, and Scott D. Gest 11. Parenting Programs That Promote School Readiness, Janet A. Welsh, Karen L. Bierman, and Erin T. Mathis IV. Going to Scale with Evidence-Based Programs: Sustaining High-Quality Practice 12. Better Beginnings, Better Futures: A Comprehensive, Community-Based Early Child Development Project to Facilitate Transition to Primary School and Beyond, Ray DeV. Peters and Angela Howell-Moneta 13. Large-Scale Dissemination of an Evidence-Based Prevention Program for At-Risk Kindergartners: Lessons Learned from an Effectiveness Trial of the Fluppy Program, Fran\u00e7ois Poulin, France Capuano, Frank Vitaro, Pierrette Verlaan, Monique Brodeur, and Jacinthe Giroux 14. Informing Policy to Support Evidence-Based School Readiness Programs and Practices, Rob Santos 15. School Readiness in a Developmental Perspective: Summary of Findings and Implications for Future Research and Practice, Karen L. Bierman and Michel Boivin