Conclusion
The current study suggests that typical preschool experiences
are associated with gains in some, but not all, of children’s school
readiness skills. For literacy, those skills emphasized in preschool,
such as decoding and letter knowledge, are positively affected by
time spent in preschool. Results suggest effects accumulate and that
more preschool is better than less, as children demonstrated significant
growth during both years of school. Thus, children completing
their second year of preschool had higher scores on decoding
and letter knowledge than children finishing their first year of
preschool, even though the two groups of children were similar in
age. In contrast, vocabulary growth was not associated with time
spent in school for either year of preschool.
The present work included self-regulation, which is emerging
as an important indicator of school readiness in addition to
children’s literacy skills. Gains in self-regulation were associated
with age but not with early schooling experiences. Although the
reasons for these null effects remain unclear, professional development
in the content and pedagogy of early self-regulation may
serve to boost children’s early self-regulation if it is not currently
a focus within the classroom (akin to what has been demonstrated
in first grade; see Cameron et al., 2005). In conclusion, preschool
instructional strategies that combine explicit self-regulation, early
literacy, and language instruction (Bodrova & Leong, 2003, 2006)
may be a promising holistic approach to early childhood education,
especially if children are given access to these curricula over
multiple years.