ABSTRACT
Many children will walk into school on their first day of kindergarten prepared for the kindergarten math curriculum. Unfortunately, however, many others will not. For those children, catching up may be exceptionally difficult if they are not first given a chance to develop the prerequisite skills they lack. This chapter discusses the importance of assessing and guaranteeing a child’s readiness for math learning in school. It argues for screening at kindergarten entry, provides some research findings on five-year-olds’ math skills, and reviews screening issues and options. It calls attention to four areas of vulnerability that are likely to put children at risk for math difficulty: poverty, inattention, and deficits in language and spatial skills. In addition, the chapter offers assessment questions to determine where children may have gaps in their numeracy knowledge and spatial skills, along with references back to chapters in the book where those skills are discussed and intervention activities to help close those gaps are described. Finally, it recommends regularly monitoring progress throughout the kindergarten year to ensure that children are prepared for the first-grade math curriculum.
