PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT IN DEVELOPMENT OF SCHOOL READINESS

Abstract

The period of early childhood is an important period for social, emotional, physical and intellectual development. During this period, children acquire the knowledge, skills and experiences needed to start school. The term "readiness for school" refers to the child's psychophysical maturity. Every child about to start school should have developed intellectual abilities (memory, focusing and reasoning), as well as other skills and knowledge and a certain degree of socio-emotional maturity. Abilities and skills related to readiness for school affect children's later academic success and, later in life, the child's ability for an effective adaptation process within the family and society in general. Given the fact that school readiness is a prerequisite for starting school, preschool educational institutions, as well as families, should be involved in the development of school readiness skills. The questionnaires "Parental assessment of school readiness" and "Questionnaire on aspects of the psychophysical development of preschool children" used in the empirical part of the work collected data that will provide insight into the research goal. The goal of the research was to examine the following: (1) In what way are parents in Croatia involved in developing their children's school readiness? (2) What is the relationship between parental involvement and children's school readiness? Also, this research should have looked into the possibility of using the "Parental assessment of school readiness" questionnaire for generalizing data on parental involvement and assessment of school readiness in the Croatian context. Hence, 419 parents of preschool children from all five regions of the Republic of Croatia participated in the research. Statistical procedures were used to analyze the relationships between parental assessment of school readiness and parental involvement in the development of school readiness. The obtained results indicate the construct and internal validity and reliability, and applicability of the "Parental assessment of school readiness" questionnaire in the Croatian context. This paper highlights the importance of the active participation of parents in the development of school readiness skills, given that parental involvement in the development of school readiness has proven to be effective and significant.