According to ABC News, children from low-income families usually enter kindergarten already facing a large gap in literary and mathematical skills when compared to their middle and upper-income classmates. The Urban Institute published a report in 2007 stating that lack of early childhood care and education, particularly for low-income children, play a major role in producing the academic gap. The Annie E. Casey Foundation laid out a number of recommendations in 2010 that can help you, as a low-income parent, encourage early childhood development in your child.
Theories
The Urban Institute reports that low-income children are much more likely to face frequent changes in early care and education arrangements, both at home with family members and at care centers. According to the Urban Institute, children need caring and stable relationship with adults to ensure healthy childhood development. If you can reduce frequent environment changes, you can help your child's development, according to the Urban Institute. The Annie E. Casey Foundation points out that learning to read efficiently by the third grade is critical for your child's academic achievement, and early childhood care and education can help to ensure her early literacy.
Early Care and Education
The Urban Institute's study found that children in both low-income and upper-income families regularly attend early childhood care and education programs, but that the quality of these programs differs dramatically. Often low-income children need to be placed with family members for early childhood care. The Urban Institute reports that home-based early childhood care is prone to prolonged exposure to television and missed learning opportunities. The Institute also reports that many center-based early childhood care and education programs available to low-income families are not of high enough quality to gain the early benefits and close the academic gap between high-income and low-income children. You can't always control the type of programs that your center-based child care can provide, but if you place your child with family caregivers, you can encourage your caregivers to interact positively with your child rather than simply setting him in front of the TV.
Considerations
According to the Annie E. Casey Foundation, there are a number of steps you can take as the parent of a low-income child to help stimulate early childhood development and close the academic gap. This primarily entails having you and your caregivers acting as co-producers in creating good outcomes for your child. To do this, the foundation recommends that you read and engage your child in reading from an early age at least three times a week, cultivate an environment that encourages and rewards learning, ensure that your child shows up to school on a regular basis, develop goals with your child and then help her reach those goals, and seek after-school programs such as literacy or mathematics programs that encourage academic success.
Time Frame
Both the Urban Institute and the Annie E. Casey foundation state that an academic gap exists between low-income and higher-income children beginning in the early elementary years. High-quality early childhood care and education that takes place before the age of 6 can further your child's academic success throughout childhood and into young adulthood, according to the Urban Institute. The Annie E. Casey Foundation recommends beginning to read to and converse with your child from birth.
Expert Insight
A study conducted by the Harvard Family Research Project in 2007 found that the relationship between family educational involvement and low-income children's development during elementary school is manifold. The study showed that an increase in parent involvement in school activities such as the PTA, attending open houses and parent-teacher conferences and volunteering in the classroom improved literacy rates in low-income children. Your getting involved in just one or two of these school activities can make a meaningful difference in the literacy rate of your low-income child, according to the Harvard Family Research Project.
References
- ABC News: Educare: Education, Childcare for Low Income Families
- The Urban Institute and Child Trends: Early Care and Education for Children in Low-Income Families
- Annie E. Casey Foundation: Why Reading by the End of Third Grade Matters
- Harvard Family Research Project: Family Involvement in School and Low-Income Children's Literacy Performance
