How Socioeconomic Status Affects Cognitive Development of Children

“There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.” ( Mandela . N , 1995). There are many factors affecting child development, and currently there is an ongoing debate comparing the effect of genetic traits and societies impact . Even though hereditary traits affect development, society has a greater effect on child development. This is because learning environment, socialization, and interaction with family and friends can impact a child in a number of ways that affect how they develop.Children 's medical services describes child development as :

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

Children in families with lower incomes at or below the poverty line have been connected with poor cognitive and social development in early childhood. The studies that I chose to use evaluate the cognitive and social development during early childhood using various surveys, evaluations, and observations completed by or with the children, parents, and teachers. Development of any kind is dependent on the interplay of nature and nurture, or genetics and environment. These studies draw from a child’s environment during the earliest years of development, specifically birth, pre-school, and early elementary school. The studies propose living in an impoverished environment as opposed to an environment above the poverty line imposes certain

Childhood poverty is interrelated with brain development and external variables more specifically brain volume and the caregiver and stressful life events. According to “The Effects of Poverty on Childhood Brain Development” a research article by Joan Luby, MD and several affiliates of Washington University, “poverty negatively impacts brain development” (Luby, 2013). A second popular press article in U.S. News & World Report, “Early Childhood Poverty Damages Brain Development, Study Finds” by Allie Bidwell, who is the education reporter at U.S. News, summarizes the research study by Joan Luby and her colleagues and incorporates census data, previous research studies, and the opinion of Charles Nelson of the Boston Children’s Hospital and

There are also socio-economic trends that will influence a child 's development. Researchers have suggested that the more poor a family is, because of income, then this will affect their development because the more wealthier a family is then it has been proven that they can provide a more safer environment for their child. Also the more wealthier the family is then the higher up education the child will receive, for example attending a private school and also home school tuition where the child is able to learn more and receive more advance tuition. They have also suggested the a more low-income family will have poor nutrition which can also lead to a poor child development because health is a huge factor. Call, N (2011). The Thinking Child: Brain-based Learning for the Early Years Foundation Stage

The extent of nature and nurture on the development of the human brain has long been studied by neuroscientists and cognitive psychologists. Up to what degree does each variable play in each function of the brain? A group of psychologists recently conducted the largest correlational study looking for the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) of a family and its effects on the brain morphology and behavior of the children raised in them. Socioeconomic disparities have been shown to have profound effect on the cognitive development of a child, but this study went beyond the behavioral effects to the anatomical effects of one’s SES. Similar studies have looked at the anatomical differences among various race/ethnic groups but no study has been done linking socioeconomic status-parental education and family income specifically. This was the first attempt to separate these two variable and look at their correlation with cognitive development.

With this in mind, all children in all socioeconomic classes, between three and five years of age, qualify as the target group for this project. However, it is important to clarify the delineation of the socioeconomic status (SES) stratification within the target group. For example, children within the higher socioeconomic status category have copious amounts of resources and benefit from social and cultural capital, which provides plentiful opportunities and a greater level of access to both public and private education

Socioeconomic status (SES) has an enormous impact on language development. As said by Erika Hoff, author of Language Development, “there is abundant evidence that” (102) there is a gap in language development when comparing children in high SES homes to children in low SES homes. An arguably more important topic is why the gap in language development exists. There are many potential reasons, but the main reason why the language gap exists is that parents in low SES homes don’t talk to their children to same way or the same amount as parents in high SES homes.

In the article “Money Can Buy You a Bigger Brain” it is argued whether children, teens and adolescents with families of a higher income are more intelligent than those who come from a lower income family. Children of upper class economic backgrounds are more likely to have higher IQ’s, attentiveness, spatial awareness and a greater capability of transferring acquired information, including memories, from short-term to long-term. With the objective to defend these claims a recent study was found, “The areas of the brain noticeably larger across more advantaged children are key to academic success, as well as memory retention, reasoning, and language skills, making their impact on potential prosperity vital. The finding chimes with a 2013 study,

When it comes to cognitive capacity, it isn’t solely based on genes because of nonresistant variables like prenatal drug use, poor nutrition, environmental toxins, and other harmful external factors. These variables listed are more prevalent in low-income households. With households, where you live predetermines your destiny when it comes to an education. This is the reason why there is an unproportioned amount of poor kids in certain schools and rich kids with others. In his article, Joseph Burke states that, “…poverty greatly decreases the student’s learning ability, and public schools and teachers must become more creative at finding ways to mitigate the negative effects of poverty in the classroom.” This is not only true, but makes the

The environment that a child is exposed to is very influential, as a high-quality living environment has been positively linked to cognitive development (Guo & Harris, 2000). Therefore those children living in poverty are at a further disadvantage due to their low-quality living environment.

(SES) with cognitive ability during childhood. Such studies have presented strong correlations between the two variables, however little research has been done on the effects of SES with specific areas of the brain. The current study will specifically explore the hippocampal region using a variety of measures to asses the variation of size and activity, to further investigate the effects of material hardship on the developing brains of

Research has already shown that children in families of higher socioeconomic status perform better on certain cognitive measures. Studies have also found that in children of higher socioeconomic status, key brain areas tend to be larger in volume, more developed, or both. Studies such as these have beared certain limitations: they do not sufficiently distinguish socioeconomic status from racial background, and few of them have treated family income

Cognitive development is the development of thought processes, including remembering, problem solving, and decision-making, from childhood through adolescence to adulthood. Historically, the cognitive development of children has been studied in a variety of ways. The oldest is through intelligence tests. An example of this is the Stanford Binet Intelligence Quotient test. IQ scoring is based on the concept of mental age, according to which the scores of a child of average intelligence match his or her age. IQ tests are widely used in the United States, but they have been criticized for defining intelligence too narrowly. In contrast to the emphasis placed on a child¡¦s natural abilities by

The aim of this project is to investigate the frequency of both social and intellectual activities within young adults (university students) and to determine which has more influence on their cognitive functioning skills such as attention, perception, memory, problem solving and reasoning. There has been a lot of research into the decline in cognitive abilities as we get older and how our lifestyle affects these abilities. However, there is a lack of research considering the lifestyle effects in younger adults. A lot of research has shown that more intellectual and social engagement is associated with better cognitive performance, but there are few investigating which is more important out of the two. By determining which is more important, young adults can make the effort to participate in these activities throughout their lifetime in the hope of increasing their mental functions across midlife, and perhaps avoiding or reducing cognitive declines as they get older. In terms of measuring the participant’s cognitive abilities, computer-based cognitive tests will be used to assess their memory, reasoning, planning and concentration. A self-reported questionnaire will also be administered to measure their social and intellectual engagement. This research is very important as it could provide a better well-being and quality of life for young adults. The knowledge of these associations also helps promote more successful and healthy cognitive ageing.