1. Growing Up in Scotland: Messages from research Presentation to Fife Early Years Seminar Joining the Dots in Fife 11 th November 2011 Lesley Kelly GUS Dissemination Officer Centre for Research on Families and Relationships University of Edinburgh

2. What is the Growing Up in Scotland study? GUS: The A to Z of the Early Years Accidents and injuries Attachment Behaviou r Child health Diet Childcare Education Family Lone parents Mental health Neighbourhood Obesit y Parental support Parenting styles Resilience Social networks Zoo visits! Physical activity

3. What age are the children taking part? 10 m. 2y2y 3y3y 4y4y 5y5y 6y6y 7y7y 8y8y Child Cohort 2005 XXxx Birth Cohort 2005 xxxxxxx New Birth Cohort 2011 x???

4. Sources of information School records Health records Cognitive assessments Main carer GUS5 Health records Child height & weight Main carer GUS6 Child height & weight Cognitive assessments Health records Main carer GUS4 Health records Main carer GUS3 Health records Partner Main carer GUS2 Main carer Health records GUS1

5. Research questions Does the gap in cognitive ability between children with different social backgrounds change between ages 3 and 5? Which factors help or hinder relative improvement in cognitive ability between the ages of 3 and 5? Changes in child cognitive ability in the pre-school years Do the factors which influence improvements in cognitive ability during the pre-school period impact differently on children whose parents have different levels of educational qualifications?

6. 2 simple exercises to measure knowledge of vocabulary and problem solving skill taken from the British Ability Scales Second Edition (BASII) Vocabulary (language development) – picture recognition Problem solving (non-verbal reasoning) – picture similarities Measuring cognitive development

7. Sensitive periods in brain development Vision 0 1237654 High Low Years Habitual ways of responding Language Emotional control Conceptualization Peer social skills Number Hearing Source: Council for Early Child Development “Pre-school” yearsSchool years

8. Vocabulary ability at ages 3 and 5 by social background Highest income group Lowest income group Highest SEC Lowest SEC Degree qualified No qualifications 0 = population average Age 3 Age 5

9. Problem solving ability at ages 3 and 5 by social background Highest income group Lowest income group Highest SEC Lowest SEC Degree qualified No qualifications 0 = population average Age 3 Age 5

10. Factors which help or hinder improvement in cognitive ability What factors could impact on relative improvement? Demographic (e.g. gender, ethnicity) Family composition (e.g. lone parent/couple, no. of siblings) Parenting styles (e.g. attachment, discipline, home learning) Experience of childcare and pre-school (e.g. pre-school type) Child health and development (e.g. general health, birth weight) Parenting support (e.g. service use, ante-natal classes) Maternal physical and mental health (e.g. smoking, general health) Economic and material circumstances (e.g. area deprivation)

11. Factors significantly associated with change in cognitive ability (after controlling for parental education) Cognitive ability Knowledge of vocabularyProblem solving Level of rule-setting in household at age 5 Level of infant-maternal attachment at 10 mths Language & communicative development at 22 mths Attendance at ante-natal classes Child was breastfed Frequency of home-learning activities at 2-3 years Type of pre-school attended Whether child had started primary school Child was breastfed Area deprivation

12. Factors associated with a relative improvement in ability for children from lower educational backgrounds Cognitive ability Knowledge of vocabularyProblem solving Level of infant-maternal attachment at 10 mths Language & communicative development at 22 mths Child was breastfed Frequency of home-learning activities at 2-3 years

13. Summary of findings The gaps in cognitive ability by social background which exist at age 3 persist at age 5 A range of factors which exist in children’s lives affect their cognitive development over and above the effect of parental education Changes in vocabulary ability are more related to aspects of the child’s home environment and the choices and behaviours of parents. Change in problem solving ability appear to be influenced more by external factors such as pre-school education – though home environment and parenting factors were also important What is important for children whose parents have fewer educational qualifications? Good early infant-maternal attachment, better early language ability, being breastfed as a baby, and having a rich home-learning environment.

14. Implications for services Universal policies to improve school readiness will not benefit all children equally. Important to support positive development from the very earliest stages of a child’s life - good early infant-maternal attachment and better early language development both had continuing positive effects on cognitive development. Pre-school and early primary school experiences can influence development but parenting and the home environment also play a key role. Strategies to improve school readiness amongst disadvantaged children will require an approach that provides high quality pre- school education AND seeks to influence the home environment – e.g. a mixed (centre and home-based), two generation (child and parents) approach

15. GUS is funded by the Scottish Government and is carried out by the Scottish Centre for Social Research (ScotCen) in collaboration with the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships (CRFR) at the University of Edinburgh and the MRC Social & Public Health Sciences Unit in Glasgow. For more information about GUS and to download research findings, please visit: www.growingupinscotland.org.uk Or contact: Lesley Kelly, GUS Dissemination Officer CRFR, University of Edinburgh lesley.kelly@ed.ac.uk