Analysis of relationship between working memory and school readiness in early childhood

The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between working memory and school readiness. Study was conducted in two steps; Working Memory Rating Scale's adaptation, and examining the relationship between working memory and school readiness. For the first step of the study which is the adaptation step 905 children were choosen from 12 schools; 10 elementary schools, 1 preschool, and 1 middle school's kindergarten which are dependent to Ministry of National Education in Çankaya district of Ankara. These children are attending kindergarten, grade 1 and grade 2 of elementary schools. For the second step of the study which is examining the relationship between working memory and school readiness 142 children are choosen who are attending kindergarten and choosen from 5 preschool dependent to Ministry of National Education in Çankaya district of Ankara. For data collection "Working Memory Rating Scale" has been used which was developed by Alloway, Gathercole, & Kirkwood (2008) for 5-8 years old children and "Bracken School Readiness Assessment Third Edition" which was developed by Bracken (2007) for 3-7 years old children. The collected data has been analyzed using SPSS Version 16.0 Statistical Package. In the firt step factor analysis and Cronbach's Alpha reliability coefficients, and in the second step correlation coefficient analyses are used. The results of this study show that there is a significant correlation between working memory and school readiness. Inaddition it appears that working memory has significant correlation with; letters, sizes/comparisons, shapes, and numbers subtests whereas has not with colors subtest.