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RESEARCH PRODUCT

A Multidimensional View of Children’s School Readiness

subject

description

The present longitudinal study explores, on the one hand, the nature and strengths of the relation between cognitive and behavioral self-regulation, and, on the other hand, the impact of early social, cognitive, and self-regulatory skills on later school achievement and social school adjustment. Findings indicate that working memory is the most important predictor of academic achievement in the longitudinal perspective; individual differences in social school adjustment, in contrast, were mainly explained by earlier behavioral self-regulatory skills. Executive functions, however, may additionally help us to understand the developmental mechanisms responsible for the successes and failures of school adaptation, while behavioral self-regulation, based on its adaptive role, may be quintessential in supporting a child’s successful transition into formal schooling, including its social demands. Keywords: school readiness, behavioral self-regulation, executive functions, social skills, academic achievement