The impact of pre-school on young children's cognitive attainments at entry to reception.

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How did the length of time that children spent attending pre-school affect their attainment?

Once they had unpicked the effect of other factors on early learning, the researchers turned their attention to the specific effects of preschool experience. They excluded the effects of other factors and compared the duration of pre-school experience with assessment scores at school entry. 'Duration' was measured from a child's date of entry to one of the pre-school centres in the study.

The researchers used the following categories:

no pre-school experience (home children);
up to one years experience of pre-school;
1-2 years pre-school experience;
2-3 years pre-school experience; and
more than 3 years pre-school experience.

The results showed that children who had spent more time in pre-school attained significantly higher scores in pre-reading, early number and language than those who had spent all their time at home. For these measure in general, the longer a child attended one of the pre-school centres in the study, the stronger the positive impact on attainment. The researchers found one anomaly: in language attainment, children who had experienced only one year of pre-school actually did a little better than groups with 1-2 or 2-3 years of pre-school experience. The more typical pattern was shown by children with more than three years of pre-school experience, who did markedly better in tests of language than all the others.

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Research Home Themes \| Find digests \| About the digests resources glossary researchers contact TRIPS Introduction What were the main factors that affected children’s early progress? How did the home learning environment affect children's development? How did family background affect children's development? How did individual differences affect children's development? How did the length of time that children spent attending pre-school affect their attainment? What conclusions did the researchers draw from their study? What were the aims of this study and how was it designed? What are the implications of the study for practitioners? Where can I find out more? Send us your feedback Collated digests To view/remove/add notes and save your collated digests click here Get Word Reader The impact of pre-school on young children's cognitive attainments at entry to reception. This digest found in Early years Send to a friend Word doc 70KB Printer friendly Collate for later How did the length of time that children spent attending pre-school affect their attainment? Once they had unpicked the effect of other factors on early learning, the researchers turned their attention to the specific effects of preschool experience. They excluded the effects of other factors and compared the duration of pre-school experience with assessment scores at school entry. 'Duration' was measured from a child's date of entry to one of the pre-school centres in the study. The researchers used the following categories: no pre-school experience (home children); up to one years experience of pre-school; 1-2 years pre-school experience; 2-3 years pre-school experience; and more than 3 years pre-school experience. The results showed that children who had spent more time in pre-school attained significantly higher scores in pre-reading, early number and language than those who had spent all their time at home. For these measure in general, the longer a child attended one of the pre-school centres in the study, the stronger the positive impact on attainment. The researchers found one anomaly: in language attainment, children who had experienced only one year of pre-school actually did a little better than groups with 1-2 or 2-3 years of pre-school experience. The more typical pattern was shown by children with more than three years of pre-school experience, who did markedly better in tests of language than all the others.