Research and Innovation
Three and four-year olds in Massachusetts are being expelled from prekindergarten at a rate that is ninth highest in 40 states.1Supporting Statistic
- Social and behavioral competence in young children predicts academic performance in the first grade over and above cognitive skill and family background.2
Healthy Childhood Development – Research & Innovation
Knowing shapes and colors. Counting to 10. Indicators for school readiness, right? Not exactly. Science now indicates that a child’s emotional health and social competence are as important as cognitive development in being ready for school. According to national estimates, 10-25% of young children has behavioral problems that impede learning. Only less than a third of these children have received early screening and targeted interventions. A disproportionate number of these children are low-income.
As part of their mission to improve lives, and with support from the Millennium Fund, United Way of Massachusetts Bay (UWMB) contracted with Brandeis University’s Heller School to conduct a needs assessment to better understand how UWMB-funded agencies define social-emotional competence in young children, what practices are currently being used to address social-emotional development, and the scope of program needs.
The needs assessment found that nearly 30% of the children enrolled in UWMB-funded programs serving young children exhibit a range of behaviors that are concerning to staff.
In response, UWMB is currently developing ways to enhance the delivery of services to families with young children and to support those in the early education field with appropriate training and resources that will enable them to support children’s social and emotional health.
One plan in development is for Connected Beginnings/the Massachusetts Birth to Five Mental Health Training Institute. The purpose of the Institute is to provide, coordinate and evaluate mental health training to the early care and education and out-of-school time workforce in an effort to enhance their ability to address the social and emotional need of young children within their families and their early care and education programs.
The benefits? Prevention is less costly than intervention. By making sure the social and emotional needs of children are met during the most important developmental years of 0-6, the risk for disruptive behavior and the subsequent need for costly intervention are reduced greatly.
2Cybele Raver & J. Knitzer, Ready to enter: What research tells policy makers about strategies to promote social and emotional school readiness among three-and four-year-olds (2002)