Preparing the ground: early learning opportunities can make the difference
Sabine Meinck & Agnes Stancel-Piątak
For decades, educational researchers have found that children from disadvantaged families often lack access to stimulating learning activities.[1][2] Back in 1995, a famous study called “The early catastrophe. The 30 million words gap” by Hart & Risley[3] uncovered a large gap in language exposure of toddlers between high and low-income families. At the same time, a stimulating learning environment at home or in childcare settings is important for child development and later schooling outcomes.
Capturing information on early learning opportunities
TIMSS and PIRLS[4], two large-scale educational assessments of IEA[5], include an “Early Learning Survey[6][7]”. Parents of fourth-grade students are asked how often[1] they engaged with their children in early learning activities such as reading books, telling stories, counting things, or playing with construction toys, before they entered school.
This survey has inspired us to examine whether the importance of early learning opportunities for later schooling outcomes hold in different countries and cultures around the world. Our analysis included data from more than 30 education systems that participated in TIMSS 2011, TIMSS 2015 and PIRLS 2011. The results were published in a policy brief of IEA’s Compass: Briefs in Education series.[8]
High-educated parents engage more frequently into activities stimulating early learning
The analysis shows that highly educated parents engaged more often in learning activities with their children during early childhood than parents with lower levels of education. This finding holds across all countries.
Early learning activities are related to higher school performance
Our analysis also shows that students who – according to their parents – were more frequently engaged in early learning activities achieve higher scoresin the reading, mathematics, and science tests. The positive association between the frequency of early learning activities and achievement holds irrespectively of the education level of parents.
Children of highly-educated parents more frequently attend pre-primary education, and for a longer period of time
Moreover, compared to children with parents with lower levels of education, those with highly-educated parents attended pre-primary education for a longer period of time (Figure 1). For example, 82% of children with at least one parent holding a university degree attended institutionalized pre-primary education for 2 years or longer, while only 69% of other children did.
Why this matters and what we can learn from it
How frequently parents engage in early learning activities is related to students’ performance in primary school around the world. Further, children who attend pre-primary education also have higher levels of achievement later in school.[9][10][11][12]
It therefore seems that early learning opportunities at home or pre-school can help mitigate the learning gaps between socially disadvantaged and advantaged children. Therefore, we recommend efforts be made to increase participation in early childhood education programs, especially for disadvantaged children. Further, awareness should be raised amongst parents and caregivers regarding the lifelong impact of early learning, and opportunities should be offered to learn how to be more responsive to children’s needs.
[1] Response options: often, sometimes, never or almost never
Best blog.
Sabine and Agnes, this information is great and eye-opening. I truly believe that learning starts at home and from birth. Children need to be stimulated, especially in their early years of life as they have a biological need and desire to learn.
As a teacher, I can easily identify students who have not been encouraged and supported at home and who have not been exposed to any sort of education games before starting school. These students clearly have a delay in their learning, and it causes unnecessary issues for the child.
Unfortunately, not all parents have the time or finances to support their child, therefore it is so important to have safe places within the community that can support these families. My first teaching position was at a disadvantaged school in a rural area in South Africa. There were no daycare facilities or pre-primary education facilities available in the community and young children were often left alone at home or with older siblings. During my time there, I stayed at school after hours to provide a safe space for students and young children from the community. This truly made a difference in the community and I became a trusted member of the community. This not only helped overwhelmed parents and students, but also helped me build relationships with students, parents and other community members.