# Transition Time! Using Early Childhood Readiness Assessment for Success

**Juli Pool, Ph.D., Boise State University**  
**Ching-I Chen, Ph.D., Kent State University**  
**Marisa Macy, Ph.D., University of Nebraska Kearney**

## INTRODUCTION

Foundational to a successful school transition is ‘readiness’.
- School readiness means children are ready
- School readiness means children are ready for school, schools are ready for children, and families are ready to support their child's transition to school (Pan et al., 2019).
- Successful transition requires programs to gather information about children’s skill levels in all areas of development, including adaptive, motor, cognitive, communication, social emotional, and emergent literacy and math.

## AEPS-3 READY-SET

- Appropriate for children 4-6 years old
- 40 developmentally appropriate goals from the AEPS-3 test in 8 domains

## AEPS-3 READY-SET FACS

- Information useful for
- Questions from 8 domains, plus open-ended questions
- Information useful for

| # | Skill Description |  |  |  |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Manipulate object with two hands, each performing the task |  |  |  |  |  |
| 2. | Maintains balance using three finger grip to write on paper |  |  |  |  |  |
| 3. | Jump forward |  |  |  |  |  |
| 4. | Ski |  |  |  |  |  |
| 5. | User uses cellphone application social skills |  |  |  |  |  |
| 6. | Responds and reports information regarding safety |  |  |  |  |  |
| 7. | Maintain cooperation activity |  |  |  |  |  |
| 8. | Interacts appropriately with others during small group activities |  |  |  |  |  |
| 9. | Interacts and communicates independently |  |  |  |  |  |
| 10. | Receives feedback using communication |  |  |  |  |  |
| 11. | Maintains physical health in a socially safe manner |  |  |  |  |  |
| 12. | Follows certain rules |  |  |  |  |  |
| 13. | Relates information about self |  |  |  |  |  |
| 14. | Uses language to talk and communicate with others |  |  |  |  |  |
| 15. | Uses communicational roles when communicating with others |  |  |  |  |  |
| 16. | Earns confidence using multiple strategies |  |  |  |  |  |
| 17. | Demonstrate social skills about events beyond personal experience |  |  |  |  |  |

**Assessment, Evaluation, and Programming System for Infants and Children, Third Edition (AIDP® 3)**  
Briker, Dionne, Grahame, Johnson, Mary, Barker, and Waldbillow, ©2022 Paul K. Grahame Publishing Co., Inc. All rights reserved.

## STUDY PURPOSES

1. Examine the agreement of child skill levels across developmental areas as measured by AEPS-3 Ready-Set and FACS.
2. Obtain teacher’s evaluation of the utility of Ready-Set.

## PROCEDURES

- 32 Montessori teachers from 5 schools in Florida (n = 17) and Idaho (n = 15) completed the Ready-Set on 37 children and a utility survey.
- 37 parents completed the FACS on their child.
- Average age of child was 60.2 months.
- Majority of children did not have a diagnosis of delay.
- Teachers completed the Ready-Set on participating children and sent home a FACS for the parent to complete.
- Teachers completed a utility survey (22 questions).

### The agreement of child skill levels across 8 developmental areas between the teacher-completed Ready-Set and the parent-completed FACS

## RESULTS

|  | FM | GM | AD | SE | SC | CG | LIT | MA | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FM | 0.55* | 0.40* | 0.05 | 0.28 | 0.24 | 0.27 | 0.45* | 0.31 | 0.50* |
| GM | 0.00 | 0.46* | 0.00 | 0.19 | -0.12 | 0.32 | 0.43* | 0.39* | 0.43* |
| AD | 0.15 | 0.21 | 0.21 | 0.20 | 0.09 | 0.21 | -0.05 | -0.04 | 0.16 |
| SE | 0.13 | 0.22 | -0.10 | 0.03 | 0.00 | 0.39* | 0.16 | -0.01 | 0.28 |
| SC | 0.18 | 0.36* | -0.08 | 0.23 | 0.21* | 0.35* | 0.61* | 0.52* | 0.58* |
| CG | 0.06 | 0.48* | -0.11 | 0.42* | 0.23 | 0.83* | 0.67* | 0.43* | 0.75* |
| LIT | 0.15 | 0.50* | -0.18 | 0.45* | 0.23 | 0.62* | 0.73* | 0.53* | 0.75* |
| MA | 0.13 | 0.57* | -0.19 | 0.39* | 0.16 | 0.43* | 0.69* | 0.60* | 0.66* |
| Total | -0.04 | 0.19 | -0.17 | 0.14 | 0.02 | 0.20 | 0.44* | 0.44* | 0.76* |

*P<0.05  
FM fine motor; GM gross motor; AD adaptive; SE social emotional; SC social communication; CG cognitive; LIT literacy; MA math

1. All teachers indicated the Ready-Set results provided information for summarizing individual child strengths in regards to the child's “readiness skills” for kindergarten.
2. Majority of teachers (97%) reported that Ready-Set results provided meaningful information for Parent-Teacher conferences.
3. Majority (97%) said they would use the Ready-Set again.

## QUESTIONS

1. How can these measures (Ready-Set and FACS) be used for supporting parents in their decision-making process regarding kindergarten entry?
2. How does Ready-Set differ from traditional kindergarten readiness assessments?

Thank you to EMRG BOD for support of this study! Thank you to Brookes Publishing for providing books per teacher!