How Family Affects School Readiness

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The Family Environment

 In a child's early years, their surroundings at home play a vital role in a child's early development and their success in school. These family factors including the home environment, the level of involvement by fathers and the economic circumstances of the family can have significant effects on children's school readiness.

The home environment, including family relations, the quality of parent-child interactions, the physical environment within the home, the parents' mental health and the availability of learning materials in the home can have a significant influence on a child's school readiness, particularly on their social, emotional and cognitive development.


 

Parent-Child Relationship

The parent-child relationship is so important as it is the child's first socialisation experience, and the quality of that initial relationship may have a lasting impact on the child's social and behavioural development. The absence of a relationship between the parent and child that is nurturing, warm and responsive to children's needs can directly affect the child's development. Research has found that parental praise is associated with higher educational goals, school achievement and appropriate school behaviour.

Incidents of maternal depression have been linked with increased developmental difficulties for children, especially in early childhood. In particular it can have a negative impact on the child's behaviour and mental health if the nurturing relationship between mother and child is damaged.

Children who experience family violence, whether as witnesses of the violence or as victims of abuse, are at increased risk of developing a variety of psychological problems.

 

Involvement of Fathers

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A father's involvement in a child's early life can have significant consequences for each dimension of early years development and school readiness. Reseach has identified several ways in which a father's involvement promotes positive child educational outcomes:

  • It promotes physical play and parent-child play, which stimulates the child's emotional and cognitive development.
  • It is usually matched with mother involvement, so that chidren raised in such families benefit from having two highly involved parents which in turn leads to diversity in stimulation.
  • It indicates good parental relations, which creates a positive family environment and leads to better child outcomes.

The evidence suggests that the earlier fathers become involved with their children's learning and socialisation the better. The intellectual skills of 15-30 month-olds are significantly related to the amount of time that fathers and children interact, the father's aspirations for their children's independence and the father's engagement in play.