Literacy news
Children can fall behind as early as nine months
17 Feb 2010
The results of the Millennium Cohort Study of nearly 15,000 children state that babies who are slow to develop their motor skills at nine months are significantly more likely to be identified as behind in their cognitive development, and also likely to be less well behaved at age five.
Academics from London University's Institute of Education analysed the progress of 14,853 children, born in 2000 and 2001, from birth to five. The children's cognitive development was assessed at the age of five through a series of vocabulary, spatial reasoning and picture tests, and their results compared with those from separate assessments years earlier.
The results at five were strongly linked to the babies' abilities in tests for gross motor development, such as crawling, and fine motor development, such as holding objects with their fingers, at nine months. The researchers also found that children who are read to every day at three are likely to be flourishing in a wide range of subjects by the age of five.
The correlation between performance at nine months and five years was said to be significant even after the researchers considered the impact of poverty on children's development. Earlier this week, a study by the Sutton Trust (also based on data from the Millennium Cohort Study) charity found that children from the poorest homes are more than a year behind their peers from well-off backgrounds in their acquisition of vocabulary by the time they start school.
The findings will intensify the debate on how far the government should intervene to stop those from disadvantaged backgrounds falling behind before they even reach school.
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The Guardian : http://www.guardian.co.uk
