Why Poor Children Are More Likely To Become Poor Readers

In “Sponsors of Literacy,” Deborah Brandt explains how all of us are the beneficiaries-individuals, institutions, events, and ideas that make it possible for us to gain literacy or allow our access to literacy. Brandt’s main claim is that a person’s access to literacy is largely dependent on socioeconomic factors. Supporting that main claim, she introduces three sub claims: the first being that there exists a stratification of opportunity; those with wealth and social status; and those who are rich are more likely to be the beneficiaries of literacy development. On the other hand, those of a lower socioeconomic status, those who are ethnically or racially non-white, are less likely to receive the advantages of literacy development. Another

The second study I used focused more on the significance of the timing a duration of poverty for a child from birth until third grade and the effect held on the child’s development and was titled “Duration and Developmental Timing of Poverty and Children's Cognitive and Social Development from Birth Through Third Grade”. Allhusen et al. examined the effects of different amounts of poverty by comparing children from families that were never poor, poor during the child’s infancy, poor after infancy, and always poor. In this study, poverty is defined as living 200% below the federal poverty threshold (Allhusen et al, 2005). Children in poverty scored lower on cognitive and pre- academic tests, lower competence, and exhibited a higher level of behavior problems (Allhusen et al, 2005).

literacy instruction. Cummins (2011) highlights research evidence that suggests that schools can significantly reduce the negative academic effects that abound in socioeconomically disadvantaged contexts (Kozal, 1992, 2006) by ensuring that students have access to a rich print-environment and become actively engaged with literacy. Cummins’ (2011) work implies that policies designed to ensure that low-income and ELL

Early childhood. During the 1990s, the nation was inundated with reports on the importance of the early years on children's brain development and later cognitive achievement. While some of the reports may have overstated the issue and understated the importance of a child's later years on development, evidence suggests that the early years may be a critical period of development in which family poverty has particularly strong effects on young children. As seen in Table 1, poverty occurring early in a child's life (age two to four) is associated with large effects on indices of child school readiness and cognitive outcomes.

It is widely known that poverty has many negative effects on the development of children who grow up in impoverished homes. One of the most influential outcomes of a person’s life is their intellectual development, which takes place primarily within the first years of life. Not only can childhood poverty result in less enjoyable childhoods, but adversely affects the cognitive and behavioral development; yet more specifically, children’s intellectual development (Duncan 406). In fact, the economic conditions that a child is subjected to during early and middle childhood is very crucial for forming ability, achievement, and intellectual development (Duncan 408). Poverty has

To start, little is actually known about the importance and effect of timing of poverty on children’s psychological development. Economic deprivation during different phases and time frames of childhood can also alter the outcome of the child. Studies that have been done about children's early cognitive and physical development suggest that family income in the first five years of life has the most

One of the most obvious and frequently researched consequences of child poverty is low academic achievement. Duncan et al. (1994) concluded that family income and poverty level remain the most powerful determining factors of the cognitive development of children even after many other factors such as family structure and parental education are considered. The same study also found that there was a positive correlation between family income

As of 2015, 14.5 million children are living in poverty. What is poverty you ask? Poverty defined by Webster’s Dictionary is the state of being extremely poor. In my opinion, poverty is much more than not having enough money to supply basic needs. Poverty is lack of shelter, lack of food in most cases, being sick and not able to see a doctor. Having very little to no resources in order to acquire the proper education, poverty is one of the major problems among society today. Affecting all ages at any place and time, it is not selective, but very common. However, the impact is worse when exposed to a child in their early developmental stage. The effects of poverty can be devastating. Preventing young children’s desire to thrive while overall negatively affecting their development. This paper exposes the various impacts of poverty in early childhood development.

The issue of child poverty needs to be emphasized since so many families are in this international turmoil. Recent studies show that children from economically disadvantaged families have lower levels of cognitive functioning, academic achievement, and social development, including health and

Social disadvantage is hard to summarise in one single definition as there are a number of ways to measure it such as level of employment to health and life expectancy. However it is still problematic to solely conclude the existence of social disadvantage from measures such as these as Clegg and Ginsberg (2006:10) note how a family could have a good occupation and economic state, but If they reside in a poor neighbourhood it could have an effect on development. Due to the difficulty defining social disadvantage researchers have tried to distinguish between poverty status and SES (socio-economic status). Within this guideline three measures to determine it are taken into account: Occupation (often paternal), level of parental education (often maternal) and economic deprivation. The level of SES is therefore a useful way to determine the degree of social disadvantage, with low-SES being a useful way to define it. With this definition there has been an increasing level of focus on the issue of children from low-SES backgrounds displaying limited success academically than that of children from more socially advantaged backgrounds. In relation to language, this academic underachievement has been attributed to language skills inadequate for accessing the curriculum (Clegg

Through this week learning resources, I have learned that there are evidences that demonstrate that when a child has limited experiences he or she is more likely to have difficult comprehending what is read. It is why early childhood professionals affirm that oral language is the foundation for literacy development. Everything that children learn about speaking and listening they use for writing and reading and what they learn from writing and reading they use in listening and speaking. In other words, oral language and literacy develop simultaneously. When parents provide rich language and literacy reinforcement at home, children do better in school than those who do not. It is also known for early childhood professionals that for a child with limited experiences is more difficult comprehending what is read. For example, a child who has being exposed to many environments like a farm or like a museum will have more mentally engagement in classrooms activities about things he or she already know that children who have not had experience in those environments. Many researches showed that children that have not have a literacy development or an oral language development years before formal schooling, are less likely to be successful beginning readers, opening an achievement lag that might last through the primary grades. Some of the reasons why parents are not actively involved into their children’s educations are their socioeconomic or legal status. For example, in an immigrant family sometimes both parents have to work and sometimes they have to work two shifts. I have known families where children are the whole day in school and with nannies. Those children do not develop any skills that help them to succeed at the time of attending forming school.

The Department of Education and Training and TISC have produced research that has indicated that children from low socio economic areas on average have far fewer students that enter university. The reason for this is that these parents have no previous experience with higher education and often don’t value this education in the same way parents from affluent areas do, hence the children do not have the role models to follow. Many of these families also do not have the finances to access school of choice and provide resources within the home that may enhance their development. Many of these parents also lack their own educational knowledge that allows them an understanding of how a child’s development processes. A simple example of this may be the fact that these parents may not understand the value of early intervention with developmental processes such as reading (How Kids Develop, 2008) i.e. simply reading to them each night.

There are several strategies that can be employed to assist those who suffer disadvantage. Early interventions, (the earlier the better), are recommended to target deficit skills through reading recovery or acceleration programs (Sparks, 1999:13-16, Cunha & Heckman, 2007:1-5). The most successful projects appear to be those that also target families, either by providing resources or through family literacy projects. Parents can thus become upskilled themselves, becoming better equipped in the process to support their children’s progress. ‘The remediation efforts that appear to be most effective are those that supplement family environments for disadvantaged

The socioeconomic status a child grows up in also affect how well they do on reading comprehension testing and in the United States over three-quarters of LML are classified as living in low socioeconomic homes (Lesaux et, al Heppt et, al). A child from a higher

Socio-economic factors are widely acknowledged as important determinants of poverty. If an individual experiences adverse living conditions in childhood, majority of them will have inadequate income and result in low socio-economic status as adults (Carroll et al, 2011). Children born in poor households have difficulty in accessing the basic needs (e.g. food, clothing, and good living environment) and this can affect their learning ability at school, unable to focus. In other words, they have a higher chance of dropping out of school or lower education attainment, unable to provide appropriate qualifications when they move onto adulthood, seeking for job opportunities. These children are finding day-to-day life tough, they are living in cold, damp houses, do not have warm or rain-proof clothing, their shoes are worn, and many days they go hungry (Children's Commissioner, 2012). Often this has taken place over a long period of time, impacting on their development, behaviour and physical health furthermore limiting their potential as they grow into adults.