Assessment of school readiness and the importance of executive functions for learning

Coelho, Rachel Mocelin Dias; Grisi, Sandra Josefina Ferraz Ellero; Brentani, Alexandra Valéria Maria; Ferrer, Ana Paula Scoleze

doi:10.1590/1984-0462/2024/42/2022196

Acessibilidade / Reportar erro

Brasil

Revista Paulista de Pediatria

Español English

Brasil

Español English

sumário « anterior atual seguinte »

Sumário

Original Article • Rev. paul. pediatr. 42 • 2024 • https://doi.org/10.1590/1984-0462/2024/42/2022196 copy

Assessment of school readiness and the importance of executive functions for learning

Avaliação da prontidão escolar e a importância das funções executivas para o aprendizado

Authorship SCIMAGO INSTITUTIONS RANKINGS

ABSTRACT

Objective:

Considering the importance of the beginning of the academic trajectory for children to reach their full development, this work aims to evaluate the school readiness of preschool-age children and identify which factors influence these results, in order to contribute to the proposition of strategies that allow improving the teaching-learning process and child development.

Methods:

This is a cross-sectional, descriptive and analytical study with 443 preschool children belonging to the West Region Cohort (ROC Cohort), from the public school system of the city of São Paulo. School readiness was assessed by the International Development and Early Learning Assessment (IDELA) tool. Non-parametric techniques were used for the correlation analysis between IDELA scores and sociodemographic and socioeconomic conditions: Spearman's parametric correlation, Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests.

Results:

The children's mean age was 69 months (standard deviation — SD=2.8; ranging from 55 to 72 months) and most of them came from families with low socioeconomic level. Most children showed adequate readiness in the overall score (65%) and in most domains, except for emergent literacy, in which most (56.9%) were classified as “emergent”. The highest percentage of insufficiency was identified in executive functions (4.1%), which showed a correlation only with the caregiver's education.

Conclusions:

Children had adequate school readiness scores, except for emergent literacy, but the insufficiency in executive functions may compromise the future schooling of these children. Thus, pedagogical proposals should consider these aspects for learning and pediatricians need to reinforce the habit of reading and playing games to stimulate child development.

Keywords:
School; Executive function; Literacy; Learning; Child development

Domain	Maximum	Median	Average	Detour-pattern
Overall score	99	79,	76.4	13.4
Motor	100	87.7	82.6	18.7
Emergent literacy	100	70.0	67.6	19.2
Emergent numeracy	100	83.0	79.9	14.0
Social-emotional	100	81.0	77.2	16.5
Executive functions	100	75.0	72.8	26.0

		Average (min-max)	Overall score		Motor		Emergent literacy		Emergent numeracy		Socio-emotional		Executive functions
		Average (min-max)	CC	p-value	CC	p-value	CC	p-value	CC	p-value	CC	p-value	CC	p-value
Child's age (months)		69 (55–72)	0.177	<0.001^* * Spearman's correlation,	0.221	<0.001^* * Spearman's correlation,	0.128	0.007^* * Spearman's correlation,	0.158	0.001^* * Spearman's correlation,	0.077	0.103^* * Spearman's correlation,	0.037	0.437^* * Spearman's correlation,
Age at entrance (months)		10,4 (2–12)	-0.018	0.798^* * Spearman's correlation,	0.075	0.272^* * Spearman's correlation,	-0.006	0.928^* * Spearman's correlation,	-0.045	0.513^* * Spearman's correlation,	0.065	0.345^* * Spearman's correlation,	-0.120	0.079^* * Spearman's correlation,
		N	Mean (SD)	p-value	Mean (SD)	p-value	Mean (SD)	p-value	Mean (SD)	p-value	Mean (SD)	p-value	Mean (SD)	p-value
Sex
	Male	216	75.6 (13.5)	0.203^† † Mann-Whitney test.	81.4 (18.9)	0.114^† † Mann-Whitney test.	65.9 (19.7)	0.088^† † Mann-Whitney test.	80.1 (13.8)	0.597^† † Mann-Whitney test.	76.7 (17.2)	0.964^† † Mann-Whitney test.	71.8 (26.2)	0.345^† † Mann-Whitney test.
	Female	227	77.1 (13.3)	0.203^† † Mann-Whitney test.	83.8 (18.4)	0.114^† † Mann-Whitney test.	69.1 (18.7)	0.088^† † Mann-Whitney test.	79.6 (14.3)	0.597^† † Mann-Whitney test.	77.6 (15.7)	0.964^† † Mann-Whitney test.	73.8 (25.8)	0.345^† † Mann-Whitney test.
Gestational age
	<37 weeks	28	74.1 (14.2)	0.348^† † Mann-Whitney test.	79.4 (23.0)	0.590^† † Mann-Whitney test.	62.7 (21.5)	0.225^† † Mann-Whitney test.	79.2 (10.9)	0.387^† † Mann-Whitney test.	75.6 (18.5)	0.706^† † Mann-Whitney test.	70.5 (23.6)	0.459^† † Mann-Whitney test.
	≥37 weeks	415	76.5 (13.3)	0.348^† † Mann-Whitney test.	82.8 (18.4)	0.590^† † Mann-Whitney test.	67.9 (19.0)	0.225^† † Mann-Whitney test.	79.9 (14.2)	0.387^† † Mann-Whitney test.	77.3 (16.3)	0.706^† † Mann-Whitney test.	72.9 (26.2)	0.459^† † Mann-Whitney test.

		Average (min-max)	Overall score		Motor		Emergent literacy		Emergent numeracy		Socio-emotaional		Executive functions
		Average (min-max)	CC	p-value	CC	p-value	CC	p-value	CC	p-value	CC	p-value	CC	p-value
Caregiver's age (years)		35 (20–71)	-0.014	0.765^* * Spearman's correlation;	-0.002	0.962^* * Spearman's correlation;	-0.024	0.608^* * Spearman's correlation;	0.011	0.823^* * Spearman's correlation;	-0.006	0.906^* * Spearman's correlation;	0.002	0.971^* * Spearman's correlation;
		N	Mean (SD)	p-value	Mean (SD)	p-value	Mean (SD)	p-value	Mean (SD)	p-value	Mean (SD)	p-value	Mean (SD)	p-value
Maternal education
	Until 9 years	136	75.6 (12.8)	0.303^† † Kruskal-Wallis test;	84.2 (16.8)	0.082^† † Kruskal-Wallis test;	66.8 (18.8)	0.594^† † Kruskal-Wallis test;	78.3 (14.3)	0.069^† † Kruskal-Wallis test;	77.6 (15.3)	0.977^† † Kruskal-Wallis test;	67.5 (25.7)^‡ ‡ different letters denote statistically significant differences;	0.002^† † Kruskal-Wallis test;
	Until 12 years	250	76.1 (14.2)		80.7 (20.2)		67.3 (19.4)		79.8 (14.6)		77.0 (16.6)		74.4 (25.3)^‡ ‡ different letters denote statistically significant differences;
	>12 years	56	79.0 (10.5)		87.4 (14.7)		70.3 (18.8)		83.9 (9.6)		76.5 (18.5)		78.1 (27.8)^‡ ‡ different letters denote statistically significant differences;
Marital status
	With partner	280	76.0 (14.2)	0.721^§ § Mann-Whitney test,	82.4 (18.8)	0.678^§ § Mann-Whitney test,	67.5 (19.9)	0.921^§ § Mann-Whitney test,	79.4(15.3)	0.940^§ § Mann-Whitney test,	76.1 (17.7)	0.192^§ § Mann-Whitney test,	73.0 (26.9)	0.443^§ § Mann-Whitney test,
	No partner	161	76.9 (11.9)	0.721^§ § Mann-Whitney test,	83.0 (18.6)	0.678^§ § Mann-Whitney test,	67.5 (18.0)	0.921^§ § Mann-Whitney test,	80.7 (11.7)	0.940^§ § Mann-Whitney test,	79.1 (14.1)	0.192^§ § Mann-Whitney test,	72.4 (24.5)	0.443^§ § Mann-Whitney test,
Economic class
	A/B	50	77.6 (11.2)	0.188^† † Kruskal-Wallis test;	84.2 (15.9)	0.908^† † Kruskal-Wallis test;	70.1 (17.3)	0.143^† † Kruskal-Wallis test;	82.9 (11.0)	0.119^† † Kruskal-Wallis test;	74.8 (17.9)	0.203^† † Kruskal-Wallis test;	75.5 (25.0)	0.406^† † Kruskal-Wallis test;
	C	337	76.7 (13.6)		82.2 (19.2)		67.9 (19.6)		79.9 (14.1)		77.9 (16.4)		73.1 (25.7)
	D/E	55	73.4 (13.9)		83.6 (17.9)		63.2 (17.9)		76.8 (15.8)		75.2 (15.7)		68.2 (28.6)

Sociedade de Pediatria de São Paulo R. Maria Figueiredo, 595 - 10o andar, 04002-003 São Paulo - SP - Brasil, Tel./Fax: (11 55) 3284-0308; 3289-9809; 3284-0051 - São Paulo - SP - Brazil
E-mail: rpp@spsp.org.br

Acompanhe os números deste periódico no seu leitor de RSS

[1] *Corresponding author. E-mail: ana.ferrer@hc.fm.usp.br