UC Irvine

The transition to kindergarten is a critical milestone for many children. Children who enter kindergarten ill-prepared may experience early academic and social difficulties that persist into their elementary school years. This dissertation examines the relationship between learning-related skills, executive functioning, and math achievement between the preschool grade and fifth grade. The purpose of this study is to identify the early executive functioning skills and classroom learning-related skills that predict academic success. I also examine the stability of one important executive functioning skill, sustained attention, between preschool and elementary school and the effects persistent problems with sustained attention through elementary school. Data were drawn from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Study of Early Childcare and Youth Development (SECCYD), a longitudinal dataset collected across the United States.

The results suggest that among three learning-related social skills, teacher ratings of attention problems in the classroom in first grade was the strongest predictor of concurrent and later math performance, even when controlling for individual executive functioning skills, gender, income, and maternal education. Next, sustained attention skills at 54 month - as measured by the Continuous Performance Task- was the strongest predictor, among the three executive functioning skills, of classroom attention problems and classroom work habits through elementary school.

This study also found that sustained attention skills relatively stable between 54 months and fourth grade. Analysis of trajectories suggests that students with persistently low attention control had weaker work habits and more attention problems as they progress through fifth grade. In fact, the gap in work habits skills between those with persistently low sustained attention skills and those with average attention skills increases between first and fifth grade. Finally, teacher-student relationship in kindergarten partially mediated the relationship between low sustained attention skills at 54 months and later attention problems in first and third grade. The significance of early skills, behaviors, and classroom experiences are highlighted in this study.