Can Pre-Academic Activities in Norway’s Early Childhood Education and Care Program Boost Later Academic Achievements in Preschoolers at Risk?

The study investigates whether structured school-preparation activities in Norwegian kindergartens can compensate for later challenges related to poor language skills, acting out and low impulse control or low socioeconomic background. The purpose of the study was to investigate the impact of (a) the individual risk factors alone and (b) the combination of the risk factors on the children’s academic results in Year 1 and Year 2, as well as on national tests in Year 2.

The children who received a structured school-preparation programme the year before they started school did better in reading but not in mathematics during their first two years of school. Children with poor self-regulation skills also benefited from the intervention, but the positive effect was only measurable in Year 1 and therefore seems to diminish over time. Seeing as self-regulation skills and academic development are interrelated, the authors of the article recommend that children who struggle to self-regulate should be offered structured school-preparation activities to make the transition from kindergarten to school as good as possible.

The data material was collected from the longitudinal study called Behavioural Outlook Norwegian Developmental Study (BONDS). The analyses used data from individual interviews with parents when the children were six months and one year old, a language test when the children were four years old, the kindergarten teacher’s assessment at the age of four, an interview with the kindergarten teacher when the children were five years old, and teachers’ assessment after the first semester in Year 1 and Year 2. A total of 932 children were included in the study.

Zambrana, I. M., Ogden, T. & Zachrisson, H. D. (2020). “Can Pre-Academic Activities in Norway’s Early Childhood Education and Care Program Boost Later Academic Achievements in Preschoolers at Risk?”. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 64(3):440-456.