Why and How are Preschool Aged Children Who Are Living at or Below the Poverty Level Lacking in Kindergarten Readiness Skills - Research Paper Example

 Abstract Kindergarten readiness skills are critical to ensuring that children can join kindergarten and progress in education. However, children who come from poor backgrounds face difficulties in acquiring these skills. The paper identifies the reasons that hinder children from gaining these skills. The paper looks at how poverty has become a stumbling block for children to acquire kindergarten readiness skills. Introduction The United Nations Millennium Summit approved 8 Millennium Development Goals in 2000 that were to be achieved by 2015. Some of the goals were meant to eradicate hunger and poverty so as to achieve universal primary education. Poverty prevents the chances of attainment of education, while at the same time; attainment of education is one of the chief mechanisms that help to escape poverty. Poverty is a continual problem around the world and has negative impacts on many aspects of family life and effects for children. In many countries, poverty is a chronic stress for families and children that may impede successful change in developmental roles that include school performance. Children who are raised in poor backgrounds have a high chance of facing social and academic problems as well as poor well-being and health that can easily undermine educational performance. Universal education will play a significant part in eradicating impediments that children from poor backgrounds face. Why and how children from poverty families may be lacking in kindergarten readiness skills It should be reiterated that education main should open doors for each student to succeed, both in life and school. Children’s success in school decides their triumph as adults, deciding whether they join college, where they may go to college, what careers they enter, and how much they earn. There are some reasons that prevent education from playing this role as an equalizing factor. Schools that serve low-income students receive less funding as compared to the well-endowed areas. The few resources make the schools have difficulties in attracting qualified teachers. The schools face many challenges in the process of addressing the student’s needs since they also receive less or no support from parents (Snow, 2006). In past years, Kindergarten used to be children’s first familiarity in school. Children used the opportunity to learn separation from immediate family, begin to understand concepts of academic, and be part of a group. In modern days, kindergarten is different. Most of the children have stayed in preschool programs or childcare for at least one year. The kindergarten curriculum is now fast paced and more academic, and teachers may lack time to help children regulate to school. Educators have named specific skills that show children’s readiness to be involved in a kindergarten setting: (Parents’ place, 2014). 1. Motor and Self-care skills: It is the ability of students to perform self-care and self-help tasks, use a crayon and pencil properly, and have coordination on the playground. 2. Self- regulation skills: It refers to the ability to control impulses, pay attention, being involved in a teacher-directed activity that includes circle time, play together, and follow directions. 3. Social expression skills: It is the ability to listen and tell stories, relate well to children and adults, express their needs, and show a desire for learning. 4. Kindergarten learning skills: It refers to the ability to write personal name, deal with books, count around 10 objects, and be able to recognize letters, shapes and primary colors, and rhyming words.   Educators have managed to identify signs that can indicate children are not ready to join kindergarten: i. Difficulty in separating from their parents and joining other situations. i. Lack of self-control: aggression, impulsivity, and a tendency to easily get frustrated. ii. When a child lacks interest in academics, group activities, and teacher-directed activities. iii. Weak language skills: showing difficulties in communicating feelings or ideas clearly. iv. Health issues, which include large/small motor delays and premature births associated complications.   Several inequalities face children before they enter school. It is expected that schools must improve performance for every child, regardless of income, race, class, and prior achievement. It is unreasonable to anticipate schools to eliminate any pre-existing inequalities just after children enter the education system, particularly if the schools are over-challenged and under-funded (Snow, 2006). Children from poor backgrounds start kindergarten with considerably lower cognitive skills compared their advantaged counterparts. Children from disadvantaged families are then placed in lowly funded schools, thus magnifying the first inequality. Poverty is a major risk factor that faces poor children. Mothers who live in poverty are frequently unmarried and have poor education; they usually possess higher rates of poor health and depression than mothers who are affluent. They may also demonstrate poor parenting skills in specific dimensions. The gap in school readiness goes down after adjustment for health, demographic, and behavioral differences amongst the poor, moderate and high income families. Poverty remains a critical influence on school readiness through its impact on the observed differences between the poor and rich families. Statistics show that higher scales of depression and punitive parenting style can result from economic stress. Punitive parenting style has many disadvantages in raising children. The style of leadership creates a poor relationship between parents and children since children will be operating out of fear of their parents. School readiness mirrors a child’s capacity to succeed both socially and academically in a school environment. Readiness requires well-being of physical and necessary motor development, an optimistic approach to other life experiences and emotional health, age-necessary social knowledge, general knowledge, language skills and cognitive skills. Poverty greatly negatively influences a child’s readiness for school. Children are affected through aspects of home life, schooling, health and neighborhoods. Several poverty-related features can easily impact child development and school readiness. The factors include the incidences of poverty, the duration of poverty, the depth of poverty, the timing of poverty, community characteristics (concentration of crime and poverty in the neighborhood, and school features) and the effect poverty has on the child’s parents, neighbors and other relatives. Children from low-income earning families face health challenges. The health challenges are due to lack of enough resources to seek for proper medical attention. The food types that these families eat may also contribute towards poor health of the children. Poor health implies that the children may not be able to attend pre-kindergarten school as expected. The situation leads to poor performance of the students. These children may also face the challenge of being unable to grasp basic skills that their friends from rich families can grasp. A child’s home has a predominantly strong effect on school readiness. Children from low-income backgrounds lack the stimulation to be ready for school. Children from poor families do not learn the skills of social life required to make them ready for school. Some of the problems are parental inconsistency (daily routines and parenting), repeated changes of main caregivers, poor role modeling and lack of supervision. In most circumstances, the children of these parents also need support. Some researchers have suggested that children from poor households score lower on measures of communication and vocabulary skills, numbers knowledge, symbol and copying use, ability to cooperative play and concentrate with other children from households that earn a higher income. It was also found that schools with the largest number of children with lower school readiness were from neighborhoods of high poverty. A recent nationally representative kindergarten assessments indicate that children from disadvantaged backgrounds join school lagging behind children from advantaged backgrounds in terms of social competencies and knowledge that are recognized as allowing children to perform well at the most basic level (Rand Corporation, 2005). Significant gaps are apparent for children from a poor background in measures of mathematics proficiency and reading, in pro-social behaviors and problems of behavior, and readiness to learn. Children from enriched environments join schools better prepared. The differences enlarge as these children progress in school life. In other words, children from poorer background may lack the ability to progress at the same speed as their better off friends, so achievement gaps widen over time. The disadvantage state of poor children makes them fail to meet expectations at their grade level on core subjects. For instance, educational assessments in grades eight and twelve show that about half of children from poor backgrounds score below average on reading and math tests, indicating that the children have less grasp of the skills and knowledge at the grade level. Another picture of problems in a school realization for disadvantaged children includes grade repetition, high rates of special education post, and dropping out of school (Lapointe, Ford & Zumbo, 2007). Experts argue that early childhood is an important period to make healthy lifestyle practices and presents itself as a critical target for physical activity and healthy eating interventions. Researches have indicated that preferences for food and dietary habits established during childhood may persist into adulthood. Poor nutrition can easily hinder the development of children (Booth & Crouter, 2008). Child development hugely depends on good nutrition. Families that are living below the United Nations' defined poverty line may find it hard to provide a balanced diet. When children lack proper feeding, their development is hindered. Learning will prove to be a big mountain to climb as the children will lack concentration. Concentration is critical if young children are to learn anything in school. Children from poor ground will most lag behind in terms of academics due to hardship they endure on a day to day basis. Proper feeding is a prerequisite for children to perform well in school. For children born in poverty stricken backgrounds, they may be old enough to join kindergarten, but not ready in terms of development. Kindergarten is the start of children’s formal education and can easily impact children’s progress in school and the manner in which children relate to other people for the rest of their life. The success or failure of a child at this stage can easily affect a child’s self-esteem, well-being, and motivation. Poverty is closely associated with poor conditions. Poor conditions hinder a good environment for children to progress academically. Children from poor backgrounds hardly have enough time to concentrate on their studies (Bireda, 2011). Parents may lack quality time to spend with their children to give them help with educational issues. Parents can play a significant role in assisting their children to perform well in school. Parents need to have quality time with their children in order to offer them guidance. Low income parents are always busy looking for ways to support their families. On the other hand, relatively rich parents provide their children with the right food and resources to achieve progress in academics. Rich parents can provide home coaching for their children for them to catch up with what they study in school. Conclusion It is evident that children living in families below the poverty line lack kindergarten skills. Many factors hinder such children from being at par with children from well to do families. Lack of enough food, parents' attention, fees and other resources have become an impediment for some children to acquire basic kindergarten readiness skills. All should be done to ensure that the country helps children of low income earners. Formulated policies will play a big role in allowing children from a poor background have a level playing ground just like their counterparts from rich families. References Bireda, M. (2011). Schooling poor minority children: new segregation in the post-Brown era. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Education. Booth, A. & Crouter, A. (2008). Disparities in school readiness: how families contribute to transitions into school. New York: Lawrence Erlbaum. Lapointe, V. R., Ford, L., & Zumbo, B. D. (2007). Examining the relationship between neighborhood environment and school readiness for kindergarten children. Early Education and Development, 18(3), 473-495. Parents’ place. (2014). Is Your Child Ready for Kindergarten? Retrieved on 15th April 15, 2014 from http://www.parentsplaceonline.org/parenting-tips/your-child-ready-kindergarten. Rand Corporation. (2005). Children at Risk. Retrieved on 15th April 15, 2014 from http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB9144/index1.html. Snow, K. L. (2006). Measuring school readiness: Conceptual and practical considerations. Early Education and Development, 17(1), 7-41. Read More