The transition to school: adaptation in young children with and without intellectual disability.
Teaching social and self-regulation skills before kindergarten may ease school entry for kids with intellectual disability.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Lecavalier et al. (2006) followed the children starting kindergarten. Half had intellectual disability (ID). Half were neurotypical.
Teachers filled out checklists about each child’s social skills, self-regulation, and school adaptation three months into the year.
What they found
Kids with ID scored lower on every measure. The gap was large for school adaptation.
Across both groups, strong social skills and good self-regulation predicted better adaptation. The link was just as strong for kids with ID.
How this fits with other research
Vieillevoye et al. (2008) and Bowen et al. (2012) extend this finding into the lab. They show that pretend play builds the same self-regulation skills L et al. linked to school success.
Hui Shyuan Ng et al. (2016) and Wan et al. (2023) close the loop. They prove you can teach these exact skills before school starts. Their behavioral-skills-training packages gave preschoolers with ID or autism new social and self-regulation responses that lasted.
Menezes et al. (2021) sweep 18 later studies and confirm: inclusive-classroom social-skills interventions work when peers join in. L et al.’s 2006 data set is inside that review, so the paper is both precedent and participant.
Why it matters
You now have a clear path. Screen rising kindergarteners for social and self-regulation gaps. Run short BST or play-based groups the summer before school. Target initiation, sharing, and turn-taking. Kids with ID start stronger and the whole class benefits.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: Previous research has highlighted the importance of the transition to school for young children and their families. A child's successful adaptation to school is likely influenced by a number of factors, including academic, social, emotional, behavioural and cognitive competencies. Children with intellectual disability (ID) may be at heightened risk for early school difficulties, in part due to their deficits in cognitive and adaptive behaviours. METHODS: Factors associated with the adaptive transition to school in young children with (n = 24) and without (n = 43) ID were examined. Adaptive transitions were defined as having few teacher-reported problem behaviours and positive student-teacher relationships. Child self-regulatory skills and both parent- and teacher-reported social skills were evaluated to determine if they predicted positive adaptation in school for 5- to 6-year-old children. Data were gathered from child assessments, parent reports on standardized measures, direct observations of delay of gratification tasks and teacher reports on standardized measures. RESULTS: Children with ID had significantly more teacher-reported problem behaviour, poorer overall student-teacher relationships, fewer parent- and teacher-reported social skills and fewer self-regulation skills than typically developing children. Self-regulation at child age 36 months (latency to touch a desired toy) was significantly related to adaptation to school, as were parent and teacher reports of social skills. Social skills significantly predicted adaptation to school, even after accounting for the effects of child IQ and adaptive behaviour. CONCLUSIONS: Children with ID had less positive early school experiences, as indicated by multiple indices of adaptation to school. Fostering early social skills may be an important target for increasing the positive adaptation to school for young children, especially those with ID.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2006 · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2788.2006.00783.x