Basic Information
Since 1975, the Foundation for Child Development has tracked children’s overall quality of life with 28 well-being indicators, including infant mortality, preschool enrollment and children’s health insurance coverage. Even though the economy is likely to recover in the next few years, most children in poverty or those that are homeless will not recover completely. The children that are in severe poverty today could be haunted by the devastating effects of the recession for years to come. They face increased risks of engaging in violent crime, illegal drug use, of experiencing chronic health problems such as obesity, and have a higher susceptibility to asthma, anemia and other health problems. In addition, research shows that children raised in poverty are more likely to experience negative educational and cognitive outcomes, which is often a result of less mental stimulation and increased stress in their living situations. Some research even shows that the brains of poor children may be unable to process information in the same way as the brains of kids in higher-income families. For example, higher-income families may have more access to books or have more time available to give their child necessary brain stimulation. Families in severe poverty situations or those that are homeless may not stimulate their child's brain activity due to lack of parenting.
Poverty on the Brain
(Saloner, 2011)
Research by psychologists and other scientists has highlighted the difference between poor and well-off children’s performance on almost every measure of cognitive development, including working memory, impulse regulation and language skills. “These kids have no neural damage, no prenatal exposure to drugs and alcohol,” says cognitive psychologist Mark Kishiyama, PhD, one of the study’s authors, who now works at the VA hospital in Martinez, Calif. “Yet the prefrontal cortex is not functioning as efficiently as it should be. This difference may manifest itself in problem-solving and school performance.”
In a 2008 study in Neuropsychology (Vol. 22, No. 3), D’Angiulli monitored the brain activity of 28 children from grades six to nine while they listened to a random series of four tones. Researchers asked the children to press a button every time they heard two of those tones. The results of the study showed that the brains of the children from lower-socioeconomic backgrounds used more energy when listening to the “other tones” than those from higher-income homes.
A 2009 study in Developmental Science (Vol. 12, No. 4), conducted by Helen Neville, PhD, 32 children listened to two stories simultaneously, one in each ear, and were asked to filter out one. All of the children remembered the story, but the children from disadvantaged homes had more trouble shutting out the distracting stimuli of the other story. Their brains, researchers say, have to work harder to perform the same task, a difficulty that could make it tougher for them to focus on teacher instructions or class assignments if there are other distractions in the room.
In addition, only 36 percent of low-income parents read to their kindergarten-age children every day, compared with 62 percent of upper-income parents, according to a 2002 study by researchers at the nonprofit Educational Testing Service. Reading to children at an early age helps to stimulate the child's mental activity and reading may help them thrive in school and lower their health risks, despite their home life. But, if these cognitive and social performance hardships are left unaddressed, they will persist throughout a child’s development.
In a 2008 study in Neuropsychology (Vol. 22, No. 3), D’Angiulli monitored the brain activity of 28 children from grades six to nine while they listened to a random series of four tones. Researchers asked the children to press a button every time they heard two of those tones. The results of the study showed that the brains of the children from lower-socioeconomic backgrounds used more energy when listening to the “other tones” than those from higher-income homes.
A 2009 study in Developmental Science (Vol. 12, No. 4), conducted by Helen Neville, PhD, 32 children listened to two stories simultaneously, one in each ear, and were asked to filter out one. All of the children remembered the story, but the children from disadvantaged homes had more trouble shutting out the distracting stimuli of the other story. Their brains, researchers say, have to work harder to perform the same task, a difficulty that could make it tougher for them to focus on teacher instructions or class assignments if there are other distractions in the room.
In addition, only 36 percent of low-income parents read to their kindergarten-age children every day, compared with 62 percent of upper-income parents, according to a 2002 study by researchers at the nonprofit Educational Testing Service. Reading to children at an early age helps to stimulate the child's mental activity and reading may help them thrive in school and lower their health risks, despite their home life. But, if these cognitive and social performance hardships are left unaddressed, they will persist throughout a child’s development.
Possibilities for a Promising Future
The brain may be vulnerable to the environmental effects of poverty, but it is equally susceptible to the positive effects of rich, balanced learning environments and caring relationships, many psychologists say. While there’s no solution to change the challenges faced by disadvantaged children, evidence-based educational interventions can help poor children achieve cognitive and academic success, research suggests.
One successful program is the Tools of the Mind curriculum, developed by Metropolitan State College at Denver educational psychologists Deborah Leong, PhD, and Elena Bodrova, PhD. This is a yearlong program, based on the work of Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky, and it helps children build their ability to control their behavior and resist impulses, which are skills that psychologists say are critical for success in school and life. The Tools program is different from other early education programs because it encourages children to use executive functioning, while other programs sometimes assume that young children cannot use those skills. Also, educators in other programs may expect the children to exercise self-control, but do not support them enough in doing so, leading to failure and criticism.
In Parents and Children Making Connections–Highlighting Attention, another successful program, parents and their preschoolers attend eight weekly, two-hour evening or weekend attention-training classes. The children learn to be more aware of their bodies, attention and emotions, as well as how to focus on one thing at a time. Programs that include extensive parent training may result in larger gains for children than programs that primarily focus on children. The intervention’s initial success also points to the importance of the home environment and the parent-child relationship to children’s cognitive development. (Novotney, 2010)
One successful program is the Tools of the Mind curriculum, developed by Metropolitan State College at Denver educational psychologists Deborah Leong, PhD, and Elena Bodrova, PhD. This is a yearlong program, based on the work of Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky, and it helps children build their ability to control their behavior and resist impulses, which are skills that psychologists say are critical for success in school and life. The Tools program is different from other early education programs because it encourages children to use executive functioning, while other programs sometimes assume that young children cannot use those skills. Also, educators in other programs may expect the children to exercise self-control, but do not support them enough in doing so, leading to failure and criticism.
In Parents and Children Making Connections–Highlighting Attention, another successful program, parents and their preschoolers attend eight weekly, two-hour evening or weekend attention-training classes. The children learn to be more aware of their bodies, attention and emotions, as well as how to focus on one thing at a time. Programs that include extensive parent training may result in larger gains for children than programs that primarily focus on children. The intervention’s initial success also points to the importance of the home environment and the parent-child relationship to children’s cognitive development. (Novotney, 2010)