Before a Child's First Birthday

In 2001, Child Trends, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research center that studies the development of children began a long-term study which took a look at infants from multiple socioeconomic and demographic characteristics.  Their primary research question?  When does poverty begin to impact a child's development? When does the achievement gap first manifest.

Past studies have shown the adverse effects of poverty and other risk-factors on pre-school aged children and those transitioning into kindergarden, but the Child Trends study (which I learned about through Spotlight on Poverty - a great website and newsletter) focused predominently on children in their first year.  Here's what it found:

• Developmental disparities between poor and wealthier children can appear before a child even reaches his or her first birthday.
• Infants in lower-income families are less likely than infants in higher-income families to be
  in excellent or very good health at both 9 and 24 months.
• In cognitive tests, infants from lower-income families score almost one-fifth below the mean of their higher-income peers.  At 24 months that gap increases to 50% lower.
• Behavioral tests follow a similar trend, with infants from lower-income families displaying more behavioral challenges than their counterparts in higher-income families.

The study finds that income and maternal education are major factors affecting these outcomes among children under 1 year of age.

I'm not as informed on this research as others may be, but all of this seems to support the perspective that children are born learning, and that we need to invest in healthy child development as early as possible, begining with ensuring a healthy and informed pregnancy for the mother. And because these children are often living through multiple risk-factors, they require a multi-faceted response.  One which takes into account family financial stability and basic needs.

I'm curious about what others think about this study and what it means for parents, caregivers and communities.  If you have some thoughts, leave them in the comment box below.