Multiple Dimensions of Biological Development: Implications for Kindergarten Readiness Among Young Children in Poverty

The purpose of this study was to examine differences in low-socioeconomic (SES) children’s kindergarten readiness reflecting multiple dimensions of their biological development. Independent variables included birth-weight, health status, gender, and kindergarten entry age. Dependent variables included measures of academic achievement, psychomotor development, as well as parents’ and teachers’ ratings of social competence. A low-SES sample of 3,301 boys and 3,208 girls who were enrolled in kindergarten for the first time were drawn from the United States Department of Education Early Childhood Longitudinal Study – class of 1998 – 1999 Kindergarten Cohort data set. Multivariate analyses of variance were performed on the readiness variables to determine differences in performance among children with different biological factors. Results indicated that there were differences among children depending on certain aspects of their biological characteristics, thus indicating that children who reside in poverty are not a homogeneous group who should be viewed and taught as though they were homogeneous in their characteristics. Implications for teaching and future research are suggested.