Abstract
The transition to Kindergarten is precisely aligned with a period of crucial individual development—a window of qualitative change so significant that it is sometimes referred to as “the five to seven year shift.” The goal of this chapter is to focus on that qualitative shift by drawing together the changes in social-emotional, motivational, cognitive, and self-regulatory development that normatively take place during this window and to highlight their implications for identifying children’s “developmental needs” during the transition to Kindergarten. The chapter is divided into four sections: one each on social-emotional, motivational, cognitive, and self-regulatory development. Within each domain, the primary normative developmental tasks during the 5–7-year shift are described, and the kinds of supports children typically need to negotiate these tasks successfully are summarized. These sections also consider differential development in each domain, describing the needs of children whose previous experiences at home or school did not prepare them to meet age-graded milestones. The conclusion section integrates information about these developments wholistically, based on the assumption that the success of students before, during, and after the transition to Kindergarten depends on whether educational programs and families come together to meet young children’s developmental needs.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Applebee, A. N. (1996). Curriculum as conversation: Transforming traditions of teaching and learning. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Belsky, J., Schlomer, G. L., & Ellis, B. J. (2012). Beyond cumulative risk: Distinguishing harshness and unpredictability as determinants of parenting and early life history strategy. Developmental Psychology, 48, 662–673.
Berlin, L. J., & Cassidy, J. (1999). Relations among relationships: Contributions from attachment theory and research. In J. Cassidy & P. R. Shaver (Eds.), Handbook of attachment: Theory, research, and clinical applications (pp. 688–712). New York, NY: Guilford.
Blair, C., & Raver, C. C. (2014). Closing the achievement gap through modification of neurocognitive and neuroendocrine function: Results from a cluster randomized controlled trial of an innovative approach to the education of children in kindergarten. PLoS One, 9(11), e112393.
Bronfenbrenner, U., & Morris, P. A. (2006). The bioecological model of human development. In W. Damon (Series Ed.) & R. M. Lerner (Vol. Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 1. Theoretical models of human development (6th ed., pp. 793–828). New York, NY: Wiley.
Bronson, M. B. (2000). Self-regulation in early childhood: Nature and nurture. New York, NY: Guilford.
Bunge, S. A., & Zelazo, P. D. (2006). A brain-based account of the development of rule use in childhood. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 15(3), 118–121.
Calkins, S. D., & Hill, A. (2007). Caregiver influences on emerging emotion regulation. In J. J. Gross (Ed.), Handbook of emotion regulation (pp. 229–248). New York, NY: Guilford.
Chang, M.-L. (2009). An appraisal perspective of teacher burnout: Examining the emotional work of teachers. Educational Psychology Review, 21, 193–218.
Christenson, S. L., Reschly, A. L., & Wylie, C. (2012). Handbook of research on student engagement. New York, NY: Springer.
Cicchetti, D. (2016). Socioemotional, personality, and biological development: Illustrations from a multilevel developmental psychopathology perspective on child maltreatment. Annual Review of Psychology, 67, 187–211. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-122414-033259
Copple, C., & Bredekamp, S. (2009). Developmentally appropriate practice in early childhood programs serving children from birth through age 8. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children.
Crittenden, P. M. (1999). Atypical attachment in infancy and early childhood among children at developmental risk. VII. Danger and development: The organization of self-protective strategies. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 64(3), 145.
Crofton, E. J., Zhang, Y., & Green, T. A. (2015). Inoculation stress hypothesis of environmental enrichment. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 49, 19–31.
Darling-Hammond, L. (2012). Powerful teacher education: Lessons from exemplary programs. New York, NY: Wiley.
Deci, E. L., Koestner, R., & Ryan, R. M. (1999). A meta-analytic review of experiments examining the effects of extrinsic motivation on intrinsic rewards. Psychological Bulletin, 125, 627–668.
Dochy, F., Segers, M., Van den Bossche, P., & Gijbels, D. (2003). Effects of problem-based learning: A meta-analysis. Learning and Instruction, 13(5), 533–568.
Duncan, G. J., Dowsett, C. J., Claessens, A., Magnuson, K., Huston, A. C., Klebanov, P., … Sexton, H. (2007). School readiness and later achievement. Developmental Psychology, 43(6), 1428–1446.
Durlak, J. A., Weissberg, R. P., Dymnicki, A. B., Taylor, R. D., & Schellinger, K. B. (2011). The impact of enhancing students’ social and emotional learning: A meta-analysis of school-based universal interventions. Child Development, 82(1), 405–432.
Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. New York, NY: Random House.
Eccles, J. S., Midgley, C., Wigfield, A., Buchanan, C. M., Reuman, D., Flanagan, C., & McIver, D. (1993). Development during adolescence: The impact of stage-environment fit on adolescents’ experiences in schools and families. American Psychologist, 48, 90–101.
Elkind, D. (2015). Giants in the nursery: A biographical history of developmentally appropriate practice. St. Paul, MN: Redleaf Press.
Erikson, E. H. (1959/1994). Identity and the life cycle. WW Norton & Company.
Fleshner, M., Maier, S. F., Lyons, D. M., & Raskind, M. A. (2011). The neurobiology of the stress-resistant brain. Stress, 14, 498–502. https://doi.org/10.3109/10253890.2011.596865
Gunnar, M. R. (2016). Early life stress: What is the human chapter of the mammalian story? Child Development Perspectives, 10(3), 178–183.
Hmelo-Silver, C. E. (2004). Problem-based learning: What and how do students learn? Educational Psychology Review, 16(3), 235–266.
Hoffman, M. L. (1994). Discipline and internalization. Developmental Psychology, 30, 26–28.
Jennings, P. A., & Greenberg, M. T. (2009). The prosocial classroom: Teacher social and emotional competence in relation to student and classroom outcomes. Review of Educational Research, 79(1), 491–525.
Kagan, S. L., & Tarrant, K. (Eds.). (2010). Transitions for young children: Creating connections across early childhood systems (pp. 33–44). Baltimore, MD: Brookes.
Kindermann, T. A. (2016). Peer group influences on students’ academic motivation. In K. A. Wentzel & G. Ramani (Eds.), Handbook of social influences on social-emotional, motivation, and cognitive outcomes in school contexts (pp. 31–47). New York, NY: Routledge.
Kochanska, G. (1997). Mutually responsive orientation between mothers and their young children: Implications for early socialization. Child Development, 68, 94–112.
Kochanska, G., Coy, K. C., & Murray, K. T. (2001). The development of self-regulation in the first four years of life. Child Development, 72(4), 1091–1111.
Kochanska, G., Koenig, J. L., Barry, R. A., Kim, S., & Yoon, J. E. (2010). Children’s conscience during toddler and preschool years, moral self, and a competent, adaptive developmental trajectory. Developmental Psychology, 46(5), 1320.
Kochanska, G., Philibert, R. A., & Barry, R. A. (2009). Interplay of genes and early mother–child relationship in the development of self-regulation from toddler to preschool age. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 50(11), 1331–1338.
Kopp, C. B., & Neufeld, S. J. (2003). Emotional development during infancy. In R. J. Davidson, K. R. Scherer, & H. Goldsmith (Eds.), Handbook of affective sciences (pp. 347–374). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Lupien, S. J., McEwen, B. S., Gunnar, M. R., & Heim, C. (2009). Effects of stress throughout the lifespan on the brain, behaviour and cognition. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 10, 434–445.
Mashburn, A. J., & Pianta, R. (2010). Opportunity in early education: Improving teacher–child interactions and child outcomes. In A. J. Reynolds (Ed.), Childhood programs and practices in the first decade of life: A human capital integration (pp. 243–265). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Osterman, K. F. (2000). Students’ need for belonging in the school community. Review of Educational Research, 70, 323–367.
Pagani, L. S., Fitzpatrick, C., Archambault, I., & Janosz, M. (2010). School readiness and later achievement: A French Canadian replication and extension. Developmental Psychology, 46(5), 984–994.
Sameroff, A. J., & Haith, M. M. (Eds.). (1996). The five to seven year shift: The age of reason and responsibility. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Skinner, E. A., & Pitzer, J. (2012). Developmental dynamics of engagement, coping, and everyday resilience. In S. Christenson, A. Reschly, & C. Wylie (Eds.), Handbook of Research on Student Engagement (pp. 21–45). New York: Springer Science.
Skinner, E. A., & Zimmer-Gembeck, M. J. (2016). The development of coping: Stress, neurophysiology, social relationships, and resilience during childhood and adolescence. Springer.
Sherman, L. J., Rice, K., & Cassidy, J. (2015). Infant capacities related to building internal working models of attachment figures: A theoretical and empirical review. Developmental Review, 37, 109–141.
Suskind, D., Suskind, B., & Lewinter-Suskind, L. (2015). Thirty million words: Building a child’s brain: Tune in, talk more, take turns. New York, NY: Dutton Adult.
Thompson, R. A. (2015). Relationships, regulation, and early development. In R. M Lerner (Series ed.) & M. Lamb (Volume Ed.) Handbook of child psychology and developmental science; Vol. 3 Socioemotional processes (7th ed., pp. 201–246). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Ursache, A., Blair, C., & Raver, C. C. (2012). The promotion of self-regulation as a means of enhancing school readiness and early achievement in children at risk for school failure. Child Development Perspectives, 6(2), 122–128.
Vacca, R. T., Vacca, J. A. L., & Mraz, M. E. (2005). Content area reading: Literacy and learning across the curriculum. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
Wellman, H. M., Fang, F., & Peterson, C. C. (2011). Sequential progressions in a theory-of-mind scale: Longitudinal perspectives. Child Development, 82, 780–792.
White, R. W. (1959). Motivation reconsidered: The concept of competence. Psychological Review, 66, 297–333.
Wigfield, A., Eccles, J.S., Fredricks, J.A., Simpkins, S., Roeser, R., & Schiefele, U. (2015). Development of achievement motivation and engagement. In R. M. Lerner (Series Ed.) & M. Lamb (Volume Ed.), Handbook of child psychology and developmental science, 7th Ed. Vol.3. Socioemotional processes (pp. 657–700). New York, NY: Wiley.
Zelazo, P. D. (2015). Executive function: Reflection, iterative reprocessing, complexity, and the developing brain. Developmental Review, 38, 55–68.
Zhang, M., Parker, J., Eberhardt, J., & Passalacqua, S. (2011). “What’s so terrible about swallowing an apple seed?” Problem-based learning in kindergarten. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 20(5), 468–481.
Zill, N., Collins, M., West, J., & Hausken, E. G. (1995). Approaching kindergarten: A look at preschoolers in the United States (NCES 95–280). Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics.
Zimmer-Gembeck, M. J., Webb, H. J., Pepping, C. A., Swan, K., Merlo, O., Skinner, E. A., … Dunbar, M. (2015). Review: Is parent-child attachment a correlate of children’s emotional regulation and coping? International Journal of Behavioral Development, 41(1), 74–93.
Zins, J. E., & Elias, M. J. (2007). Social and emotional learning: Promoting the development of all students. Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation, 17(2–3), 233–255.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Skinner, E. (2018). Children’s Developmental Needs During the Transition to Kindergarten: What Can Research on Social-Emotional, Motivational, Cognitive, and Self-Regulatory Development Tell Us?. In: Mashburn, A., LoCasale-Crouch, J., Pears, K. (eds) Kindergarten Transition and Readiness . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90200-5_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90200-5_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-90199-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-90200-5
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and PsychologyBehavioral Science and Psychology (R0)