Children from disadvantaged families are an average of ten months behind those from the middle classes in terms of cognitive development at the age of three, according to a new study.
The research follows up the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) and notes how 16,000 children are developing at the age of three between 2003 and 2005. The initial MCS, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, interviewed the families of 19,000 children aged nine months around the UK in 2000.
The vocabulary levels of the children of graduate parents were ten months ahead of three-year-olds with the least educated parents. In a standard test to examine basic school readiness, involving their understanding of colours, letters, numbers, shapes and sizes, the difference in developments between backgrounds was up to 12 months. Ethnicity was also a dividing factor, with Bangladeshi and Pakistani children scoring low in both tests.
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