Psychological Development and Education ›› 2011, Vol. 27 ›› Issue (5): 475-483.

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Cognitive Development of 4-5 years old:The Positive Impact of Appropriate Kindergarten Enrollment Age

ZHANG Jia-hui1, XIN Tao1, CHEN Xue-feng2   

  1. 1. Institute of Developmental Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875;
    2. Beijing Field Office, United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, Beijing 100600
  • Online:2011-09-15 Published:2011-09-15

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Abstract: The current study addresses the impact of kindergarten enrollment age on children's cognitive development.Data were drawn from a large-scale project and included a national representative sample of 1,391 children who had scores for cognitive scores at the age of 4,and 964 of them were followed into the next year.The method of multilevel regressions was realized using MLwiN.Different multilevel models were employed to estimate the impact of enrollment age as well as interactions between enrollment age and home learning environment. Evidence was found in the data for quadratic effects of enrollment age in predicting cognitive scores.The results also demonstrated the moderating effect of home learning environment.Implications may include the better location of preschool education resources and cautions of the different needs of children from different backgrounds.

Key words: Kindergarten education, enrollment age, cognitive development, home learning environment

CLC Number: 

  • B844.1
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