to make children ready the approach often taken involves exposing children who are still in ecec to the culture of primary school known as schoolification this can drive ecec settings to adopt practices that are usually more related to primary school such as higher staffpupil ratios longer hours away from home more teacherdirected pedagogies greater attention to academic content and less playtime however research is increasingly highlighting that the more age and childappropriate the pedagogical practices the greater the benefits for children s social and cognitive development this is why some countries especially the nordic countries take a childcentred perspective adapting the cultures of both ecec and school to the needs of the child this implies that it is not just the responsibility of ecec to prepare children for school schools also need to be ready for children