'Class divide at age three'
Children from disadvantaged families are an average of ten months behind those from the middle classes in terms of cognitive development at the age of three, according to a new study.
Children from disadvantaged families are an average of ten months behind those from the middle classes in terms of cognitive development at the age of three, according to a new study.
The research follows up the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) and notes how 16,000 children are developing at the age of three between 2003 and 2005. The initial MCS, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, interviewed the families of 19,000 children aged nine months around the UK in 2000.
The vocabulary levels of the children of graduate parents were ten months ahead of three-year-olds with the least educated parents. In a standard test to examine basic school readiness, involving their understanding of colours, letters, numbers, shapes and sizes, the difference in developments between backgrounds was up to 12 months. Ethnicity was also a dividing factor, with Bangladeshi and Pakistani children scoring low in both tests.
Co-author Professor Heather Joshi from the Centre of Longitudinal Studies at London University's Institute of Education, who is also the director of the MCS, said, 'It is fairly striking. Ten months is about as big a difference as you could possibly observe at this age of life.'
She added, 'Time has passed and gaps have opened up. We wouldn't expect the children to be at the same level of development anyway, but here we have a situation where the variety lines up with the social indicators of society. It would be nice to think that variations between three-year-old children aren't linked to their family backgrounds.'
The results of the third survey of the MCS, interviewing the children at five years old, will be published in August. Then, said Kirstine Hansen, research director of the MCS, 'we will be able to see whether the attainment gap is getting wider or closer as the children approach school. If the gap is closing, this data is less of a concern.'
