Readiness Skills

Readiness skills are defined as skills and factors that contribute to a child’s success upon school entry. These skills reflect the individual development of children with intellectual and developmental disabilities (ID/DD) in the following domains: health and physical development; social and emotional development; cognition, knowledge, and approaches to learning; and communication and language skills. This entry first describes the larger context of school readiness for children with ID/DD, and then describes specific skills and factors contributing to children’s success upon entry to school. Finally, specific interventions used to enhance readiness skills in children with ID/DD are described, as well as a framework for intervention delivery.