PERSISTENCE ENABLES CHILDREN TO SOLVE PROBLEMS, REGULATE THEMSELVES, AND LEARN EFFECTIVELY. IT IS AN IMPORTANT DEVELOPMENTAL MILESTONE THAT LAYS THE FOUNDATION FOR LEARNING. CHILDREN WHO CAN PERSIST ARE MORE SUCCESSFUL IN LEARNING, BOTH PRESENTLY AND IN THE FUTURE. PERSISTENT CHILDREN HAVE ALSO BEEN FOUND TO TRANSITION BETTER TO SCHOOL AND HAVE BETTER ACADEMIC SKILLS LATER IN LIFE.

Successful acquisition of knowledge only occurs when children can persist in challenging activities, or engage with tasks and sustain their engagement, long enough for learning to occur.

Persistence is considered an important developmental milestone for young children as they learn to control their impulses to persist on a task when facing difficulty or initial failure, and remain focused until their goals are achieved. Such persistence enhances their self-efficacy as well.

Persistent children acquire developmental skills better than those who give up while facing failures. An influential study suggested that infants displayed ''effectance motivation'', or persistence during play activities, showing their desire to engage with their environment, to investigate matters of concern, and master techniques or skills. Researchers also suggested that infants' persistence would predict later competence in various domains of child development.

Persistence has been considered an important aspect of emotional regulation and executive functioning among young children. Persistence while facing challenges, controlling frustrations, and compliance with caregivers are all part of acquiring emotional self-regulation.

Studies have suggested that persistence in infancy and early childhood predicts longer-term cognitive outcomes, arguably mediated by a suite of temperamental and cognitive factors involved in executive function and "effortful control".

Several investigators who compared different groups of infants reported that infants who expressed higher levels of persistence and exploratory behaviours at 6 to 13 months scored higher on developmental scales, such as the Bayley Scales of Infant Development and the McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities, concurrently and at 30 months of age. Infants who persist when they engage with objects and activities around them may be better positioned to learn from their environments, making them less likely to experience future developmental delay.

Children interested in learning and are willing to persist through challenging tasks are more likely to succeed in school. Research has shown that children vary in their motivational dispositions by the time they reach kindergarten.

Persistence in children has also been found to be related to better academic skills in their later life. A longitudinal study conducted on a sample of over 5,000 Australian children examined the associations between temperament (2-3 years) and cognitive and academic outcomes (6-7 years) when mediation by parenting practices (4-5 years) was held constant. This study found that children who at 2 or 3 years old displayed higher persistence were associated with better literacy and numeracy abilities at six years old.

This impact of persistence and its relationship with later academic abilities was also borne out in a study of 263 children from diverse ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds in two counties in South-eastern USA. In the study, demographic information, child persistence, and early cognitive-linguistic skills were assessed at age three. Additionally, children's academic skills were assessed at kindergarten. Results indicated that preschoolers' persistence was related to their academic skills two years later, over and above demographic factors and early cognitive-linguistic skills.

This suggests that it is beneficial to build persistence in young children as early as possible as the impact carries on into later life.

The same study also found that children who develop persistence in the preschool years are likely to function more effectively during the transition into school. Several component processes are considered to reflect an individual's level of motivation for school, including effort and persistence, use of cognitive strategies, self-regulated learning, coping, and engagement. Of these component processes, persistence in difficult tasks appears to be of particular importance in children's school readiness. This is because successful acquisition of knowledge and skills is possible only when children can persist in challenging activities long enough for learning to occur.

Researchers have suggested that the way infants explore objects or accomplish tasks is a more relevant process for development than the successful solution of problems. Mastery behaviour can be considered to represent the infants' persistence and investigation of problems and objects. Infants who are given opportunities to persist at a task and develop mastery have tended to score higher in later developmental assessments. Significant correlations have been found between mastery behaviour at six months, and Bayley Scales of Infant Development scores at 12 months.

Researchers obtained measures of persistence in task-directed behaviours at 13 months and McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities scores at three years.

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11. Jennings, K. D., Yarrow, L. J., & Martin, P. P. (1981). Mastery motivation and cognitive development: A longitudinal study from infancy to three and one half years. Unpublished manuscript, University of Pittsburgh. (cited in Messer et al, 1986).

The scores revealed that for girls, persistence in task-directed behaviour significantly correlated with later perceptual performance scores on the McCarthy Scales. No significant correlations occurred for boys.

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5. Messer, D. J., McCarthy, M. E., McQuiston, S., MacTurk, R. H., Yarrow, L. J., & Vietze, P. M. (1986). Relation between mastery behaviour in infancy and competence in early childhood. Developmental Psychology, 22, 366–372.