Developmental Disabilities and the Concept of School Readiness

This paper reviews the concept of school readiness as it applies to children with disabilities. It is argued that children with disabilities are of two primary types: normative and non-normative. The majority of children in special education are in the non-normative category, whose definition is based on failures in children's early encounters with the educational system. Classification of such children as "not-ready for school" is a function of bureaucratic definition, teacher variability, and the child's ethnicity and social class. The authors have taken the position that children in both disability categories should be considered appropriate for regular general education and that the readiness concept which appears to be most appropriate for children with labeled special needs is actually not appropriate for any child.