The Impact of Kindergarten Enrollment on Selected Life Skills for First Grade students.

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Objectives :The aim of this study is to identify the differences in life skills for children across its dimensions: (self-care, communication, empathy, acceptance of others, conflict resolution, decision-making, and teamwork) between children enrolled in kindergarten and those who were not, in addition to exploring gender differences in these skills. Methodology: The study used descriptive comparative analysis to verify the hypotheses, the study sample consisted of (60) boys and girls in the first-grade of primary school, including (27) boys and (33) girls. Among them, (30) children had attended kindergarten for a period ranging from one to two years, while (30) children had no prior kindergarten experience note that all of them at first-grade of primary school. The following tools were used in the research: a Life Skills Observation Checklist for Children (by the researcher) and a Socio-Economic Status Scale (by the researcher).Results: showed that there were statistically significant differences between the average scores of children on the total score of the life skills scale in favor of children enrolled in kindergarten in the skills of (empathy, conflict resolution, decision-making, and teamwork). In contrast, no significant differences were found in the skills of (self-care, communication, and acceptance of differences) based on kindergarten enrollment. Moreover, no significant gender differences between males and females were observed across all dimensions of life skills, Conclusion: Recommendations emerged from the study, the most important of which are: the necessity of expanding the establishment of kindergartens and making kindergarten education mandatory as a part of basic education.