Ready to Enter: What Research Tells Policymakers About Strategies to Promote Social and Emotional School Readiness Among Three- and Four-Year-Olds

A recent and compelling study entitled Neurons to Neighborhoods, conducted by the Board on Children, Youth, and Families of the Institute of Medicine, calls attention to the importance of early emotional development in young children.1 Based on a careful review of neuroscience and developmental research, it highlights compelling evidence that a child’s earliest experiences and relationships set the stage for how a child manages feelings and impulses, and relates to others. It also highlights emerging and perhaps surprising evidence that emotional development and academic learning are far more closely intertwined in the early years than has been previously understood. What research tells us is that, for some young children, emotional and behavioral problems serve as a kind of red flag. Without help, evidence suggests that these emotional and behavioral difficulties may stabilize or escalate and negatively affect early school performance. In turn, early school performance is predictive of later school outcomes. 2 Thus, paying attention to the emotional status of young children has important implications for policy and practice strategies designed to promote school readiness.