Many parents worry about whether they are doing enough to prepare their child for school. The findings of a recent doctoral dissertation offer some reassurance: at least for 5-year-old children, language and math skills do not appear to depend directly on how often parents engage in educational activities at home. Instead, parents' attitudes toward their children and close cooperation with preschool teachers seem to play a much more important role.

The research, conducted by Anne-Mai Meesak and defended as a doctoral dissertation at Tallinn University, was based on data from more than 500 5-year-old children and over 300 parents. The aim was to identify the factors that predict children's early academic skills and to examine how their development is related both to children's own abilities and to their home environment.

As part of the study, Meesak assessed children's attention, perception, working memory, reasoning, learning skills, language skills and math skills. At the same time, parents answered questions about their expectations, beliefs, cooperation with preschools and activities at home.

One of the study's most notable findings was that the frequency of developmental activities at home did not predict children's language or math skills. This does not mean that reading, playing or learning together is unimportant. However, when children's cognitive abilities, learning skills and parents' beliefs and behavior were examined simultaneously, the frequency of such activities had no distinct effect on academic outcomes.

According to Meesak, this likely reflects the strength of Estonia's early childhood education system.

"Estonia's early childhood education system is quite unique. We have a national curriculum, highly qualified teachers and a systematic approach to child development. Perhaps the results show that a large part of supporting children's academic skills already takes place in preschool," she explained.

In many countries, more formal education begins much earlier and children's development depends more heavily on their home environment. In Estonia, however, preschools support children's development relatively evenly across socioeconomic groups, which may reduce the impact of differences at home.

The study also revealed an unexpected and somewhat concerning connection. Parents who felt their child was falling behind cognitively were less likely to provide additional support at home than parents who saw no developmental concerns. At first glance, the finding seems paradoxical. One might expect children who need more support to receive more attention.

"Children who could actually benefit the most from support at home may be receiving less of it," Meesak noted.

She emphasized that her study did not explain the reasons behind the phenomenon, though several possible explanations exist.

"One could speculate that if a child has difficulty concentrating during shared activities and the parent recognizes this, both may become frustrated and start avoiding those activities altogether," she said.

Parents' beliefs may also influence their behavior more than they realize. If a parent believes a child struggles or is unable to cope with certain tasks, that may reduce the parent's willingness to engage the child in more challenging activities. For this reason, Meesak believes it is important to help parents better understand their children's strengths and developmental needs.

While the frequency of activities at home was not directly linked to children's academic outcomes, one factor stood out clearly in the study: parents' active involvement in preschool activities. Participation in preschool events, volunteering and other forms of cooperation with teachers were all found to be important.

"This can mean taking part in family days, helping teachers or contributing to preschool activities in other ways. Such involvement helps parents better understand what is being done in preschool," Meesak explained.

According to Meesak, this type of engagement helps create better communication between home and preschool. Parents gain a clearer understanding of what children do in preschool, while teachers learn more about a child's home environment. This mutual understanding may be one reason why cooperation supports children's development more effectively than educational activities conducted solely at home.

One of the most innovative aspects of the dissertation focused on children's learning skills. Previous studies have often concentrated primarily on cognitive processes such as memory and reasoning. Meesak also included learning skills in her analysis, including children's interest in learning, self-confidence and perceived competence.

The study found that children's academic skills were strongly predicted by their own cognitive processes and learning skills.

"If a child has better learning skills, they generally also perform better in mathematics and language," the dissertation author said.

This suggests that success in language and mathematics depends not only on acquiring knowledge, but also on a child's attitude toward learning, level of motivation and sense of capability. According to Meesak, early childhood education could place even greater emphasis on developing these broader skills.

Small children's skills surprisingly even across Estonia

The study also offered a positive assessment of Estonia's early childhood education system's ability to provide children with comparable developmental opportunities. Among 5-year-olds, there were no major differences in skills between boys and girls or between children attending Estonian- and Russian-language preschools. Girls did demonstrate somewhat stronger language skills, but such differences are common in international research.

Particularly noteworthy was the fact that the results of children attending Estonian- and Russian-language preschools were very similar. Since the study was conducted before Estonia's transition to Estonian-language education, Meesak considers this an encouraging sign.

"The results showed that, in terms of early skills, there was no difference whether a child attended an Estonian- or Russian-language preschool," she said.

This suggests that the quality of early childhood education was comparable in both systems and provides a favorable starting point for implementing the reform.

"It would have been concerning if we had found very large differences. My results instead indicated that, in this respect, we were ready for the transition to Estonian-language education," Meesak said.

The study used LAHE, a digital child development assessment tool that enables children's skills to be evaluated systematically and on a scientific basis. According to Meesak, Estonia now faces a new challenge. While assessment tools have so far been developed primarily for children whose first language is Estonian or Russian, the number of children growing up with other home languages is increasing.

As a result, there is a need to develop assessment tools suitable for children learning Estonian as a second language. Such solutions would help teachers obtain more accurate feedback on the development of all children and would also make it possible to continue research in a rapidly changing educational environment.

What does the study teach parents?

According to Meesak, parents should not feel pressured to turn their homes into a second classroom. What matters is spending time with children, talking with them, playing together and being present in their lives. Equally important is cooperating with teachers and taking an interest in how children are doing in preschool.

When children experience difficulties, that should not lead parents to withdraw. On the contrary, those are the moments when children need adult attention and support the most. The study's central message is that children's development is shaped not by individual learning activities, but by a holistic environment in which the home and preschool work toward a shared goal.

"It is definitely worthwhile to communicate with teachers, find out where there are opportunities to do things together and discuss the child's development. Parents should not worry that they need to start preparing their child for school at a very early age because our preschool system is already taking care of that part," Anne-Mai Meesak said.

On June 3, Anne-Mai Meesak defended her doctoral dissertation at Tallinn University's School of Educational Sciences. The dissertation is titled "The Underlying Relations between Children's Early Academic Skills, Parental Beliefs, and Behaviours."

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