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The following is a summary of “School Readiness among U.S. Children: Results from the 2022 National Survey of Children’s Health,” published in the M2024 issue of Pediatrics by Ghandour et al.
This study aimed to present up-to-date national and state-level estimates and to identify factors associated with the proportion of young children deemed Healthy and Ready to Learn (HRTL) utilizing a refined metric derived from the National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH). Analyzing data from 11,121 children aged 3 to 5 years participating in the 2022 NSCH, a comprehensive parent-reported survey addressing the health and well-being of children across the United States, we employed a multidimensional approach encompassing 27 items distributed across 5 domains: Early Learning Skills, Social Emotional Development, Self-Regulation, Motor Development, and Health. Assessment scores, categorized as ‘On Track,’ ‘Emerging,’ or ‘Needs Support’ in accordance with age-appropriate developmental benchmarks, facilitated the determination of children’s status.
Those deemed ‘On Track’ in 4 to 5 domains without any domain requiring support were classified as HRTL. Our findings revealed that in 2022, 63.6% of 3- to 5-year-old children met the criteria for HRTL, with the highest proportions observed in the Health domain (88.9%) and slightly lower rates observed in the Early Learning Skills and Motor Development domains. Notably, approximately 9.0% of children necessitated support in multiple domains, highlighting areas warranting attention for intervention. The study further identified various child, family, and community-level factors associated with HRTL status, including participation in early childhood education, special healthcare needs status/type, parental involvement in activities such as reading, singing, or storytelling, exposure to adverse childhood experiences, parental mental health and education, food sufficiency, engagement in outdoor play, household language, access to neighborhood amenities, rural residence, and access to medical care.
These results underscore the importance of utilizing a revised measure to assess school readiness and illuminate modifiable factors that offer diverse intervention opportunities at multiple levels, ranging from the individual child and family to broader community contexts.
Source: sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1876285924000688