Socioeconomic Status And Child Cognitive Development

1332 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Socio economic status and academic achievement

The Variables Contributing to Child Cognitive Development

Socioeconomic status can be defined as “social standing of an individual or group combined with education, income and occupation” (Hedges et al., 1994). Socioeconomic status has a very strong relation to child cognitive skills. Examinations of socioeconomic status over many years show many inequalities between classes in access to resources and privilege, especially when discussing the cognitive development of children. Students of a lower socioeconomic status often face additional challenges compared to their higher socioeconomic counterparts including a less learning resources, difficult learning conditions and poor motivation that negatively affect their academic performance. (Ready, 2010) Disadvantaged children tend to start school with lower cognitive skills than more advantaged children. It has been said that depending on his or her socioeconomic status a child can have either a significant advantage or disadvantage right from the starting gate. (Ready, 2010) Research reports that differences in young children’s achievement scores in literacy and mathematics can be see at any age. (Hedges et al., 1994) Although other variables like prenatal care, parenting skills, and biological factors like genetics and illness are important to address when discussing cognitive development, socioeconomic is more visible in cognitive scores of children than any other factor by far. It will be argued that a variable that can effect the cognitive development of a child is their socioeconomic status.
There is a strong correlation between socioeconomic status and child cognitive development. The research presented in Socioeconomic Disadvantage, School Attendance, and Early Cognitive D...

... middle of paper ...

... care, genetics, and parenting skills, socioeconomics trumps and encompasses these other variables. Genetics and prenatal care and parenting skills can be overcome with some sting effort but socioeconomics, is harder to overcome but not impossible. The effect of lower socioeconomic status on achievement is difficult to ignore. Socioeconomics effect on development is so apparent that it cannot be overlooked as an important variable. Inequalities between children can easily be seen at even very young ages. It is beyond reasonable doubt that low-income children enter school academically behind advantaged peers, and that cognitive difference increases as a child goes through school. (Artiles, 2003) Based on the research found, the argument was supported as it has been seen that cognitive development relies heavily on the socioeconomic status of the child being examined.

Show More
Related

  • Dr. James W. Loewen Summary

    1013 Words  | 3 Pages

    Children who are deemed poor, do not receive nearly as many educational opportunities as children who are deemed rich. Kozol acknowledges that poor children barely have any social skills, which will help them in Kindergarten. In contrast, children who have been in preschool like programs since their toddler years, are more likely to develop social skills and have early-learning skills, like knowing how to hold a crayon. Children in all social classes, in the United States have to take the same standardized tests and are measured on the same grading scale. Kozol questions, “Which of these children will receive the highest scores?”(Kozol 413) Sadly, poor children will not be the ones with the highest score, and they will be held accountable for their test scores, as Kozol points out “There is something deeply hypocritical about a society that holds an eight year old inner city child “accountable” for robbing her of what they gave their own kids six or seven years earlier” (Kozol 413). It is unfair to expect a child to perform on a test equally with other children who started their education earlier. Kozol mentions that some people, who are well-educated, feel that money is not a problem with education inequality, and that other factors such as, “The values of the parents and the kids themselves must have a role in this as well-you know, housing, health conditions,

    Read More

  • The Other Wes Moore Essay

    1447 Words  | 3 Pages

    (Brooks-Gunn et all, 1997) That points out the disadvantage and how the family income influence youngsters overall childhood, since under the poverty condition, they children do not have enough money to support for their necessary needs, they will more likely to have low self-confidence and hard to blend in with their peers. Poverty has impact on children’s achievement in several different ways. Payne (2003) maintained that the poverty could affect children achievement though emotional, mental, financial, and role models (Payne, 2003). Thus, the children from low-income family are more likely to have self-destructive behavior, lack of control emotional response and lack of necessary intellectual, that is really important for the students under the age of 16.

    Read More

  • Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life, by Annette Lareau

    1012 Words  | 3 Pages

    Besides race, the scholar also reveals how childhoods are unequal based on social class. Drawing from the American society, there are several social classes. For each class, there are unique pathways of lives followed and these usually influence both the educational and work outcomes. To ...

    Read More

  • Effects of Poverty on Childhood Development in the U.S.

    1034 Words  | 3 Pages

    It is not difficult to document that poor children suffer a disproportionate share of deprivation, hardship, and bad outcomes. More than 16 million children in the United States – 22% of all children – live in families with incomes below the federal poverty level – $23,550 a year for a family of four. (Truman, 2005) Living in poverty rewires children 's brains and reports show that it produces prolonged effects. Also, growing up in a community with dangerous streets, gangs, confused social expectations, discouraging role models, and few connections to outsiders commanding resources becomes a burden for any child. The concern about the number of children living in poverty arises from our knowledge of the problems children face because of poverty.

    Read More

  • Neighborhood Poverty, Social Capital, and the Cognitive Development of African American Preschoolers

    1496 Words  | 3 Pages

    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 restrictions on cognitive and social development during early childhood.

    Read More

  • When Class Became More Important To A Child's Education Than Race Summary

    506 Words  | 2 Pages

    In her article “When Class Became More Important to a Child’s Education Than Race,” Sarah Garland (2013) argues that money income is more important to a child's education than race. In this article Sarah states that children who have parents with low incomes do not get the same opportunity as children with parents who have higher income.

    Read More

  • Helping Students With a Low Socioeconomic Status

    1529 Words  | 4 Pages

    Lee, V. E., & Burkam, D. T. (2002). Inequality at the starting gate: social background differences in achievement as children begin school. Washington, D.C.: Economic Policy Institute.

    Read More

  • Relationship Between Poverty and Special Education Placement

    1264 Words  | 3 Pages

    Children living in poverty experience a different environment compared to their fellow peers who are in a higher socioeconomic class. The environment around them can often be unsafe (Thompson, 2012) due to drug activity, gang violence, unsafe or unsanitary living conditions; as well as experiencing an inadequate or unbalanced diet (Thompson, 2012). These environmental conditions are noted to having an impact on a child resulting in lower cognitive abilities, lower academic performance, and an increase in behavior problems (Engle & Black, 2008) (Morgan, Farkas, Hillemeier, & Maczuga, 2012), all of which are standards a teacher uses to refer students for special education.

    Read More

  • Poverty and Education in America

    1324 Words  | 3 Pages

    The fact that students from lower income families fail to perform as well in school holds no dispute. Growing up with less money has been proven to create a significant disadvantage. Those struggling to pay their bills often are forced to cut back the money spent on food, leaving kids with only the option of cheaper food with poor nutritional value, or sometimes skipping meals. This inhibits the brain from functioning at its best and can leave students more worried about their growling stomachs than their schoolwork (Ladd, Fiske). Low income students face other distractions from their schoolwork including home struggles like in the movie Freedom Writers. A teacher starts a job...

    Read More

  • Classism In Education Analysis

    1080 Words  | 3 Pages

    Children who are poor do not receive nearly as many educational opportunities as children who are rich. Kozol acknowledges that poor children barely have any social skills, which will harm them in Kindergarten. In contrast, children who have been in preschool-like programs since their toddler years are more likely to develop social skills and have early-learning skills, like knowing how to hold a crayon. Children in all social classes in the United States have to take the same standardized tests and are measured on the same grading scale. Kozol questions, “Which of these children will receive the highest scores?”(Kozol 413) Sadly, poor children will not be the ones with the highest score, and they will be held accountable for their test scores, as Kozol points out “There is something deeply hypocritical about a society that holds an eight-year-old inner-city child “accountable” for her performance on a high-stakes standardized exam but does not hold the high officials of our government accountable for robbing her of what they gave their own kids six or seven years earlier” (Kozol 413). It is unfair to expect a child to perform on a test equally with other children who started their education earlier. Kozol mentions that some people, who are well-educated, feel that money is not a problem with education inequality, and that other factors such as, “The values of the

    Read More

  • Effects of Socioeconomic Status on Children

    1373 Words  | 3 Pages

    Everyone knows about the various stereotypes and social stigmas that come with socioeconomic status whether they will choose to admit it or not. Society has come to assume that a child who comes from a family of low socioeconomic status, that they will not do as well as a child who comes from a family of a greater socioeconomic status. Unfortunately these assumptions are so ingrained in our brains that we start to follow the self-fulfilling prophecy. When a child from a noticeably low socioeconomic status walks into a classroom, it is not uncommon for the teacher to automatically assume that the child will not perform well in class, and in turn either grades the child more harshly or does not give the child as much attention as the other children from high socioeconomic status families. Do these children not perform well in class because of the self-fulfilling prophecy or is there something that happens during the critical period that causes the child to fall behind?

    Read More

  • The Effects Of Socioeconomic Status On The Development Of Language Development

    1482 Words  | 3 Pages

    Socioeconomic status (SES) is a major topic of interest within the study of language development in children. It has been indicated as one of the most widely studied constructs in the social sciences (Bradley & Corwyn, 2002). Even with the wide variety of studies involving SES, there has never been a complete consensus on what SES actually represents. Beyond the development of language, SES also affects the overall development of a child. These developmental differences then further lead to differences in language acquisition. When looking at SES, there are many factors to consider. The concept of capital seems to best embody the current meaning psychologists hold of SES, according to Bradley and Corwyn (2002). Capital is favored because of its inclusion of access to financial (material resources), human (nonmaterial resources such as education) and social capital (social connections). The current working definition of SES involves family income, education level, and occupations, which influence the theories and characteristics that children develop (Hill, 2006). The effects of socioeconomic status on children are shown through many factors that affect language development through the child’s overall growth, their cognitive development, as well as their stress management and the parenting styles that they are exposed to.

    Read More

  • How Wealth Affects Education

    1498 Words  | 3 Pages

    There are many different factors that affect education. One such factor is, socioeconomic status. Children who attend school in a wealthier community receive a better education than those students in poor communities. In poor communities, student’s education is not only affected by a lack of resources, but also from teaching methods and philosophies. Urban and poor schools’ students do not receive as equal of an education as their more affluent and suburban counterparts do.

    Read More

  • Socioeconomic Status And Education Essay

    900 Words  | 2 Pages

    Socioeconomic status can be defined in terms of family wealth and assets as well as educational background. For this reason, many comparisons can be made between socioeconomic status and education. Furthermore, academic achievement and the level of education reached by an individual, is determined by socioeconomic status. Research has shown that environmental circumstances and family issues greatly influence a child's future because the impact of the socioeconomic status depends on the level to which an individual becomes successful in life. Research also shows that family conditions can impact a child’s education and their quality of life. For example, being raised in a high-economic culture increases the chances that a child will attend

    Read More

  • Essay On Effects Of Poverty On Child Development

    1236 Words  | 3 Pages

    Children living in poverty have significant effects on their development. Poverty begins to affect children’s cogitative development early on in the child’s life, reasons why it is noticeable at an early age is because they do not have the learning experiences they need before start attending school, causing them to fall behind, plus leaving them to be unsuccessful for the rest of their life. School readiness is the biggest factor in determining whether a child can escape from poverty or whether they will continue to struggle with learning throughout their life. Interventions during the early childhood could prevent some of these effects from occurring or influences their achievement. Interventions have been used by child care centers to improve

    Read More

More about Socioeconomic Status And Child Cognitive Development

Open Document