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UTSA Education Faculty and Students Researching Winter received a grant from the City of San Antonio to assess the kindergarten readiness of children ages 3-5 in local child care facilities. The research study began last fall with over 200 preschool children in 18 child care facilities participating. Over 115 UTSA undergraduates in early childhood classes and graduate counseling students were actively involved in assessing and evaluating the children. The assessments provided a developmental profile for each child in the areas of cognitive, language, motor and social-emotional development. Families of the children were also asked to complete a parent questionnaire to give the investigators insight into the child’s development from the perspective of the family. "This program is beneficial not only to the children and their families, but also to UTSA students," said Winter. "Undergraduate students are gaining firsthand knowledge about conducting research studies which will be invaluable if they continue on to graduate school." Following the pretests, all child care providers received a set of learning materials keyed to the kindergarten readiness checklist. In addition, one group of centers also received training on the use of the materials and strategies for facilitating the language, problem solving, social, motor and literacy skills of children. All students were tested again this spring to chart levels of progress. Winter is analyzing the data now, but hopes to assess whether the training was worth the effort or is it better to equip centers with the right tools. "This project will allow UTSA to create a research infrastructure in San Antonio that focuses on the early education of preschool children," said Winter. "We hope to double the number of children and facilities next year and collect a body of data to determine correlating factors." Send
your comments and items to: UTSAToday@utsa.edu.
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UTSA
is becoming a community resource not only for college students, but
now for preschool children as well. Suzanne Winter, associate professor
of early childhood education at UTSA, and a team of student researchers
are conducting research to help prepare children for success when they
enter elementary school.