Why do Inequalities Emerge in Children's Early Cognitive Development?

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

The problems of social inequality in the UK disproportionately affect young children. Social inequality is associated with a range of childhood outcomes including school readiness, academic attainment and language skills. School readiness, the ability to benefit from early learning experiences, is a vital factor in improving life opportunities and as such, it is becoming an increasing priority for many governments worldwide. Key to improving school readiness is promoting the attentional and self-regulation skills that underpin learning. However, emerging evidence suggests that social inequality has a specific effect on these attention and self-regulation skills, known as 'executive functions.' My recent research has found that children from disadvantaged backgrounds have less well developed executive functions and this may explain why they have poorer school readiness. In order to develop interventions to support children, we urgently need to understand the pathways through which inequalities in executive functions arise. As this link has only been relatively recently documented, little research has been done to examine why these inequalities in early cognitive skills first emerge. The project will focus on two mechanisms which we believe are most likely to explain inequalities in early executive function development: 1) parent-child interactions and 2) child language. Early caregiving behaviours are thought to be a primary influence on how children develop the ability to regulate their behaviour. Parent child interactions that involve parents helping children to solve problems often provide opportunities for enriched parental input. During these kinds of interactions, two important skills are fostered. First, children develop regulation strategies that then become internalised. Second, children develop language skills that help them to set and maintain goals. Both of these are key to supporting the development of executive functions. We will look at how these kinds of parent-child interaction relate to children's development, whilst also considering broader contextual family factors that may influence whether parents can engage in these interactions. We will work with socially diverse families and use newly developed tasks to track the development of children's executive functions at several time points over the early preschool years when these skills are rapidly developing. The project will provide a much-needed evidence base for local government and third sector professionals working to limit the impact of social inequality and for developing evidence-based ways that can support children's development and narrow early inequalities.