Links between Early Childhood Development and School Completion: Comments on Vitaro, Smith, and Hymel and Ford

aplaces the onus on the negative impact that behaviour (aggressiveness) and self-control problems have on children’s school experience, due to the close association between such problems and difficulties such as language disorders and attention deficit. He also mentions the influence of children’s family and socioeconomic environment in this regard. The author then provides a brief overview of preschool interventions that have helped children better adjust to school. He reminds readers that duration and intensity are important characteristics of effective interventions. Vitaro supports the statements of Hymel and Ford by stressing the importance of promoting the early development of social and emotional skills. Anne Smith summarizes what we know about the impact and effectiveness of preschool education programs ( Early Childhood Education). She also mentions the importance of intervention dosage (intensity and duration), and goes on to specify that not all preschool education programs offer the same quality of services. She draws attention to studies showing that the quality of those educational environments has as much to do with