Characteristics of at-risk children in transitional and regular kindergarten programs

The present study examined the demographic, cognitive, achievement, perceptual, visual-motor, and behavioral characteristics of three groups of children at the end of their first year in (a) a transitional prekindergarten program and (b) a regular kindergarten program following retention or promotion recommendations. Results indicated that retained children differed from their promoted peers. They tended to be younger in age and to have lower achievement test scores and a higher incidence of behavior, perceptual, and visual-motor problems. What was striking was the similarity of transitional and retained students on all measures except behavior and teacher predictions. Transitional children did not demonstrate the behavioral deviances of the retained group and were not rated by their teachers as being likely to develop a reading problem later in school. Although preliminary, the results offer some insight into different practices recommended for at-risk children.