Approaching Kindergarten: A Look at Preschoolers in the United States. Statistical Analysis Report

摘要

This report examines the prevalence of selected accomplishments and difficulties in a national sample of 4,423 children from 3 to 5 years of age who had not yet started kindergarten. The accomplishments and difficulties examined in this report represent characteristics related to dimensions or domains of development that are important to a child' s early learning: physical well-being and motor development, social and emotional development, language usage, and general knowledge. The accomplishments consist of signs of emerging literacy and numeracy, such as pretending to read stories or counting to 20, and small motor skills, such as buttoning clothes and holding a pencil properly. The difficulties encompass signs of physical activity-attention difficulties, speech difficulties, and less than optimal health. The determination of whether the child displayed each of these accomplishments and difficulties is based on reports from one of the child' s parents, usually the mother. These data were collected in January through April 1993 as part of the National Household Education Survey.