School Readiness: Looking Beyond the ABCs

What Parents Believe School Readiness Is

Back to school is around the corner and it reminds me of one of the biggest questions I am asked by parents is:

"Is my child ready for preschool?"

When parents ask this question, they are often looking at the academic skills they can easily see and measure.

·       "My child knows their ABCs."

·       "They can count to twenty."

·       "They know their colors and shapes."

·       "They can write their name."

Some children can even read a few words before entering preschool.

As a parent educator, I understand why families focus on these skills. They are visible milestones. Parents spend time reading books, practicing letters, counting objects, and celebrating each new accomplishment. These moments represent hard work, dedication, and a desire to help their child succeed.

I love that.

The challenge is not that parents value academics. Academic skills are important. Research suggests that parents who value school readiness often engage in more learning activities at home, which can positively influence children's academic outcomes. Parents are responding to the messages they receive about what schools value and what success looks like.

The problem is that academics have become one of the most visible indicators of readiness.

·       A child can demonstrate that they know the alphabet.

·       A child can show that they can count.

·       A child can identify shapes and colors.

What is much harder to measure is a child's ability to regulate emotions, persist through challenges, communicate needs, recover from disappointment, interact with peers, or transition between activities.

Yet these developmental skills are often what determine whether a child can successfully participate in a classroom environment.

This creates an interesting disconnect. Parents often define readiness through the skills they can observe, while educators frequently evaluate readiness through a much broader developmental lens.

What Developmental Research Says School Readiness Is

Developmental research consistently describes school readiness as much more than academic knowledge.

Rather than focusing solely on literacy and mathematics skills, researchers view readiness as a multidimensional concept that includes cognitive, social-emotional, behavioral, physical, and language development.

One area that appears repeatedly throughout the literature is self-regulation.

Self-regulation refers to a child's ability to manage emotions, control impulses, focus attention, adapt to changing situations, and persist when tasks become difficult. Blair and Raver argue that self-regulation may be one of the most important foundations for school readiness because it allows children to engage in learning experiences and benefit from classroom instruction.

A child may know their letters and numbers, but if they struggle to attend to instruction, follow routines, manage frustration, or participate in group activities, they may have difficulty demonstrating what they know within a classroom environment.

Researchers have also identified executive functioning skills such as working memory, cognitive flexibility, and inhibitory control as important contributors to school success. These skills support a child's ability to remember directions, transition between activities, solve problems, and regulate behavior.

In addition, research suggests that readiness extends beyond the child alone. Families, schools, communities, and learning environments all play a role in supporting children's development. Readiness is increasingly understood as a shared responsibility rather than a checklist of skills children must master before entering school.

What is particularly interesting is that many of these developmental competencies are less visible than academic skills. A parent can easily identify when a child learns a new letter. It is much harder to measure curiosity, resilience, persistence, emotional regulation, or the ability to navigate social relationships.

Yet developmental research consistently points to these competencies as essential components of school readiness.

What I Have Observed Over the Last Twenty Years

After more than twenty years working as a preschool teacher, childcare director, parent educator, substitute teacher, doula, and early childhood professional, I have found myself returning to the same observation over and over again.

Sometimes children know their ABCs, but there is still something missing at the root of everything.

Throughout my career, I have worked with children who entered preschool knowing every letter of the alphabet. Some could count far beyond developmental expectations. Some could identify sight words and were already beginning to read.

Yet some of those same children struggled to sit during circle time, engage with peers, transition between activities, or recover when things did not go their way.

At the same time, I have worked with children who knew very few letters and numbers but walked into the classroom ready to participate. They could separate from caregivers, communicate their needs, engage in play, build relationships, ask questions, and explore their environment with confidence.

The difference was rarely intelligence.

The difference was rarely potential.

More often, the difference was the developmental foundation underneath the academic skills.

When I think about school readiness today, I think less about what children know and more about whether they can participate in learning.

·       Can they communicate their needs?

·       Can they interact with peers?

·       Can they manage frustration with support?

·       Can they transition from one activity to another?

·       Can they follow routines?

·       Can they persist when something is difficult?

·       Can they ask for help?

·       Can they build relationships with teachers and classmates?

These are the skills that often determine whether children can access learning opportunities within a classroom.

What I have learned over two decades in the field is that readiness is not a destination that children either reach or fail to reach.

It is a developmental process.

Children arrive at school with different strengths, experiences, backgrounds, personalities, and needs. Some enter with strong academic skills. Others enter with strong social-emotional skills. Most arrive with a unique combination of both.

That is why I believe we need to move beyond asking whether a child is ready for school.

A more meaningful question may be:

What developmental foundations has this child built, and what support do they need next?

·       The ABCs matter.

·       Early literacy matters.

·       Early mathematics matters.

But those skills do not exist in isolation.

They grow from a foundation of relationships, self-regulation, communication, curiosity, confidence, and opportunities to learn through meaningful experiences.

And after twenty years of working with children and families, I have come to believe that those foundations are where the real conversation about school readiness begins.

About the Author

Sally Cote is an early childhood educator, parent educator, curriculum developer, and Master of Education candidate with more than 20 years of experience supporting children and families. Her professional experience includes working as a preschool teacher, childcare director, substitute teacher, doula, and family support professional. Through her work, Sally advocates for developmentally appropriate practice, meaningful play, family engagement, and whole-child approaches to learning. She is passionate about helping families understand child development and creating environments where children can thrive socially, emotionally, physically, and academically.

References

Blair, C., & Raver, C. C. (2015). School readiness and self-regulation: A developmental psychobiological approach. Annual Review of Psychology, 66, 711–731. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-010814-015221

Keys, T. D., Farkas, G., Burchinal, M. R., Duncan, G. J., Vandell, D. L., Li, W., Ruzek, E. A., & Howes, C. (2013). Preschool center quality and school readiness: Quality effects and variation by demographic and child characteristics. Child Development, 84(4), 1171–1190. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12048