I'm convinced—now what?
Some suggestions for what you can do while I continue to research and write about constrained and unconstrained skills.
Note: Unconstrained Kids unpacks, translates, and integrates academic research and data about constrained and unconstrained skills for people that run, fund, and assist organizations that teach and serve kids. Like everything on this Substack, this post is a work-in-progress. I will make updates as needed. Citations are included at the end. Questions, comments, and suggestions are welcome.
Last updated: March 15, 2025
What I’m doing now
This Substack is part of a larger project. I am working to bring a powerful 20-year-old insight from academia into the mainstream. The current focus here is WHAT constrained and unconstrained skills are and WHY they matter. I am in the throes of research and writing a book on HOW to improve them. My focus (the “dependent variable”) is improvement of PreK-12 reading and math achievement. I am particularly concerned about closing gaps in slow-growing unconstrained skills.
This requires thoughtful approaches to building and repairing skills. I am focused on the nature and nurture of skills, how kids learn to read and think mathematically, and how ecological systems support or inhibit skill development. This includes careful attention to the challenge of “skill transfer,” i.e. the generalization of skills from one context to another. We need to understand what works, for whom, and under what conditions. I intentionally use the term “kids” so that people and organizations outside of the schoolhouse (where “students” learn) know that I am talking to you, too. My goal is to help people who run, fund, and assist organizations that teach and serve kids.
I have a full-time day job; research and writing will be a slow process. But you don’t have to wait to start paying attention to unconstrained skills for the kids that you teach or serve. Academic researchers strongly encourage you to do so.
What you can do now
Constrained skills are largely developed in the classroom. Unconstrained skills are built in formal and informal learning environments: the schoolhouse, at home, and in the community. My advice is to look at how you can put more focus on unconstrained skills wherever you serve kids. But this does not mean sacrificing support for constrained skills. Kids need both.
One potential place to start is your data. Examine patterns of constrained reading and math skills. (You can’t do this with composite scores that combine constrained and unconstrained skills!) Point-in-time data can give you snapshots of relative levels of skill proficiency. Longitudinal data can show you trajectories of skill growth over time. Compare the patterns in your data to the data I’ve collected so far.
Ask questions about how your school or program is organized to build unconstrained reading, math, and nonacademic skills. And don’t forget knowledge building; it is the ultimate unconstrained skill. And don’t let anyone convince you that you can’t measure unconstrained skills. Anything can be measured.
Schools
Schools have a crucial role to play. They have the resources, materials, and people to build kids’ constrained and unconstrained skills. Schools make critical decisions about how to spend time and money on curriculum, assessments, and interventions. Researchers have long advocated for educators to give more attention to unconstrained skills starting as early as Pre-K.
As important as schools are, they can’t build unconstrained skills alone. Snow and Matthews (2016) succinctly describe the challenge:
“Literacy skills are, ultimately, the product of everything a child has learned about language and about content expressed through language. The accumulated advantages that accrue to children who’ve been exposed to rich language and content from birth can’t easily be matched in a few hours a day of instruction, however well-designed and implemented.”
The research on effective schools by researchers and writers such as Tony Bryk and Karin Chenoweth show that schools never “beat the odds” on their own. They always have help. This is especially true for schools serving our most vulnerable children. We need to help schools build “exoskeletons” of additional support.
Home and community
Kids spend 80% or more of their waking hours outside of school. Children from higher socioeconomic families routinely receive active support at home. They participate in enrichment activities outside of school. They get extra academic tutoring when they need it. There are many families on the other end of the socioeconomic ladder who also make sure their kids get similar opportunities. This often happens with great sacrifice and determination. But too many kids from less advantaged households don’t receive a fair chance to fully develop their skills.
Although schools and families are critical, I believe that community organizations and institutions are especially well-suited to help kids build unconstrained skills. Think libraries, museums, zoos, aquaria, science centers, Scouts, 4-H, YMCAs, Boys and Girls Clubs, and the like. Mentoring programs could also play an important role in helping children build unconstrained skills.
Unconstrained skills are key leverage points for change
In his new book, Reset, Dan Heath suggests that the solution to solving tough problems is to realign (“restack”) existing resources behind strategically selected leverage points. Unconstrained skills is such a leverage point for education. This aligns with the recommendation of Bailey et al. (2017) to focus interventions on “trifecta skills”—skills that (1) are malleable, (2) fundamental for later success, and (3) would not have developed anyway in the absence of intervention. I believe many of the unconstrained skills identified by academic researchers meet these criteria. The challenge is finding strategies to repair unconstrained skills that are effective, pragmatic, and scalable for PreK-12 kids.
Studies dating to the 1980s repeatedly demonstrate that dialogic reading builds children’s vocabulary, language, and comprehension skills. The Home Literacy Model and the Home Numeracy Model document how activities at home contribute to classroom gains in reading and math (Sénéchal & LeFevre, 2002; Sénéchal, 2006; LeFevre et al., 2009; Skwarchuk et al. 2014). Research by McCormick et al. (2020) suggests home activities supporting unconstrained skills can positively support classroom reading and math achievement. Although the term “unconstrained skills” might be new, encouraging families to talk, read, sing, and play with their kids is not.
Share this Substack with others whom you think should read it. I would love to hear your thoughts about how to put more focus on unconstrained skills in the schoolhouse, at home, and in community organizations. Let me know if there are studies, programs, or interventions you think I should know about. I’m open to comments, suggestions, or alternative viewpoints. In the meantime, I’ll keep reading, thinking, and writing.
But wait, there’s more
If you’d like to learn more about constrained and unconstrained skills, check out these other topics:
Constrained and unconstrained skills drive achievement in reading and math
A working list of constrained and unconstrained skills that support reading and math
An annotated summary of the major research papers behind constrained skill theory
Works cited
Bailey, D., Duncan, G. J., Odgers, C. L., & Yu, W. (2017). Persistence and fadeout in the impacts of child and adolescent interventions. Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, 10(1), 7-39.
LeFevre, J. A., Skwarchuk, S. L., Smith-Chant, B. L., Fast, L., Kamawar, D., & Bisanz, J. (2009). Home numeracy experiences and children’s math performance in the early school years. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, 41(2), 55.
McCormick, M. P., Weissman, A. K., Weiland, C., Hsueh, J., Sachs, J., & Snow, C. (2020). Time well spent: Home learning activities and gains in children’s academic skills in the prekindergarten year. Developmental Psychology, 56(4), 710.
Sénéchal, M. (2006). Testing the home literacy model: Parent involvement in kindergarten is differentially related to grade 4 reading comprehension, fluency, spelling, and reading for pleasure. Scientific Studies of Reading, 10(1), 59-87.
Sénéchal, M., & LeFevre, J. A. (2002). Parental involvement in the development of children’s reading skill: A five‐year longitudinal study. Child Development, 73(2), 445-460.
Skwarchuk, S. L., Sowinski, C., & LeFevre, J. A. (2014). Formal and informal home learning activities in relation to children’s early numeracy and literacy skills: The development of a home numeracy model. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 121, 63-84.
Snow, C. E., & Matthews, T. J. (2016). Reading and language in the early grades. The Future of Children, 57-74.