Growing Up in Scotland: Messages from research Presentation to Fife Early Years Seminar

1. Growing Up in Scotland: Messages from research Presentation to Fife Early Years Seminar Joining the Dots in Fife 11th November 2011 Lesley Kelly GUS Dissemination Officer Centre for Research on Families and Relationships University of Edinburgh

2. What is the Growing Up in Scotland study? Physical activity Parental support GUS: The A to Z of the Early Years Mental health Family Obesity Diet Accidents and injuries Behaviour Parenting styles Resilience Child health Neighbourhood Childcare Attachment Lone parents Education Zoo visits! Social networks

3. What age are the children taking part?

4. Sources of information GUS1 GUS2 GUS3 GUS4 GUS5 GUS6 Main carer Main carer Main carer Main carer Main carer Main carer Partner Child height & weight Child height & weight Child height & weight Cognitive assessments Cognitive assessments Health records Health records Health records Health records Health records Health records School records School records

5. Changes in child cognitive ability in the pre-school years Research questions • Does the gap in cognitive ability between children with different social backgrounds change between ages 3 and 5? • Which factors help or hinder relative improvement in cognitive ability between the ages of 3 and 5? • Do the factors which influence improvements in cognitive ability during the pre-school period impact differently on children whose parents have different levels of educational qualifications?

6. Measuring cognitive development 2 simple exercises to measure knowledge of vocabulary and problem solving skill taken from the British Ability Scales Second Edition (BASII) • Vocabulary (language development) – picture recognition • Problem solving (non-verbal reasoning) – picture similarities

7. Sensitive periods in brain development “Pre-school” years School years High Number Peer social skills Sensitivity Language Conceptualization Habitual ways of responding Hearing Vision Emotionalcontrol Low 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 Years Source: Council for Early Child Development

8. Vocabulary ability at ages 3 and 5 by social background Highest income group Degree qualified Highest SEC Age 5 Age 3 Age 5 Age 3 Age 5 Age 3 0 = population average Lowest SEC Lowest income group No qualifications

9. Problem solving ability at ages 3 and 5 by social background Highest income group Highest SEC Degree qualified Age 5 Age 3 Age 5 Age 3 Age 5 Age 3 0 = population average No qualifications Lowest income group Lowest SEC

10. Factors which help or hinder improvement in cognitive ability • What factors could impact on relative improvement? • Demographic (e.g. gender, ethnicity) • Family composition (e.g. lone parent/couple, no. of siblings) • Parenting styles (e.g. attachment, discipline, home learning) • Experience of childcare and pre-school (e.g. pre-school type) • Child health and development (e.g. general health, birth weight) • Parenting support (e.g. service use, ante-natal classes) • Maternal physical and mental health (e.g. smoking, general health) • Economic and material circumstances (e.g. area deprivation)

11. Factors significantly associated with change in cognitive ability(after controlling for parental education)

12. Factors associated with a relative improvement in ability for children fromlower educational backgrounds

13. Summary of findings • The gaps in cognitive ability by social background which exist at age 3 persist at age 5 • A range of factors which exist in children’s lives affect their cognitive development over and above the effect of parental education • Changes in vocabulary ability are more related to aspects of the child’s home environment and the choices and behaviours of parents. • Change in problem solving ability appear to be influenced more by external factors such as pre-school education – though home environment and parenting factors were also important • What is important for children whose parents have fewer educational qualifications? • Good early infant-maternal attachment, better early language ability, being breastfed as a baby, and having a rich home-learning environment.

14. Implications for services • Universal policies to improve school readiness will not benefit all children equally. • Important to support positive development from the very earliest stages of a child’s life - good early infant-maternal attachment and better early language development both had continuing positive effects on cognitive development. • Pre-school and early primary school experiences can influence development but parenting and the home environment also play a key role. • Strategies to improve school readiness amongst disadvantaged children will require an approach that provides high quality pre-school education AND seeks to influence the home environment – e.g. a mixed (centre and home-based), two generation (child and parents) approach

15. For more information about GUS and to download research findings, please visit: www.growingupinscotland.org.uk Or contact: Lesley Kelly, GUS Dissemination Officer CRFR, University of Edinburgh lesley.kelly@ed.ac.uk GUS is funded by the Scottish Government and is carried out by the Scottish Centre for Social Research (ScotCen) in collaboration with the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships (CRFR) at the University of Edinburgh and the MRC Social & Public Health Sciences Unit in Glasgow.