Children’s attentiveness in kindergarten, including their ability to follow rules and work by themselves or with others, predicts how well they would develop the skills needed to succeed at work, according to a study from the University of Montreal.
The study, published online by the Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, is based on teacher observations of 1,000 students in Montreal’s poorest neighborhoods as they moved from kindergarten to 6th grade. Even small improvements in kindergartners’ attention improved the likelihood that they would be productively engaged in school later on, the study found.