Considerations About Deciding to Send a Child to School

Discussion For parents there can be a lot of pressure to “get it right” when deciding to send their child to school. Positive adult life outcomes such as employment, physical and mental health, and prosocial relationships are associated with higher educational attainment. Higher educational attainment such as finishing high school and potentially an advanced degree is associated with positive school experiences and domain specific skill attainment (e.g. reading, writing, math skills) and is also associated with readiness to begin school. Therefore if a child is “not ready” to start school, then the parent can feel that they are setting their child up for potentially poorer outcomes for their entire life. Especially as children spend a significant amount of their time in school over many years, the quality of that education is important. Which also means that starting children in school when they have the knowledge, skills and attitudes to successfully learn is important. Risk factors for poor school readiness includes: Poverty – one of the most important, this is across ethnic and racial groups, most likely because of lack of resources, less parental education, poorer health, etc. Living foster or kinship care – especially foster care, most likely because of unstable living arrangements Maternal depression – potentially being less available to the child Developmental disability Prenatal/natal factors such as tobacco or alcohol exposu...
Source: PediatricEducation.org - Category: Pediatrics Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: news