School Readiness of Latinx Children: Building on the Strengths of the Home Learning Environment

Abstract

This chapter reviews research on school readiness skills displayed by children growing up in Latinx immigrant families in the United States. We focus on basic academic knowledge, social-emotional skills, approaches to learning, and language skills as particularly important school readiness skills and describe parents’ related beliefs and practices about the importance of these skills and how they are acquired. To build upon children and families’ strengths to educate children, we must first understand children’s school readiness skills and parents’ beliefs about these skills. Our review shows that Latinx parents emphasize the importance of children doing well in school and being prepared for school. They provide their children with relevant tools and experiences. Their children display strong social and behavioral skills and approaches to learning when they start formal schooling. However, facilitating children’s English language development is more complex. Issues center around beliefs about the value of Spanish and English and how to foster English development necessary for school when the family does not speak English at home. More research is needed to distinguish among different subgroups of Latinx and among families with different histories of bilingualism, and to disentangle race/ethnicity/culture from income.