The Effects of Socioeconomic on School-Aged Childrens Literacy Skills - Coursework Example

Effects of Socioeconomic on School-Aged Children’s Literacy Skills Introduction Socio-economic status has been studied extensively as a factor that impacts substantially on the literacy skills, academic achievement and overall success of students (Lee and Burkam, 2002). There are numerous studies that have documented the direct impact of parental income and social status on the child’s academic achievement. Moreover, educational achievement is found to impact on the overall earning capacity of the individuals and hence has direct correlated with their future socio-economic status (Li and Ranieri, 2012). Thus, it can be correctly stated that the relationship between socio economic status and literacy is complex and often works in a vicious cycle where the socio-economic status of the family is found to negatively affect the literacy skills of their children, and the low literacy skills leading to low academic achievement lead to a future of low socio-economic status. While there are several governmental and non-governmental interventions and actions (like the Project HeadStart, Title 1, Reading Recovery Program and the Comprehensive School reform Program) undertaken to break the above correlates, there is a need to further explore the complex mediating factors that make the socio-economic status such a prominent influencer on children’s literacy skills. This paper presents the thesis that factors like income, health, education levels of the parents are the mediating factors that prevent children from low socio-economic families from attaining their full potential in literacy skills. Socio-Economic Status and Literacy Skills – A Review of Studies There have been several studies that have explored the impact of socio-economic status on school aged children’s literacy skills. A prominent study by (Knitzer, 2007), found that in the United States, pre-schoolers from the highest socio-economic families have average cognitive scores that are 60% higher than those from the lowest socio-economic families. The researchers also found vast differences in the average speech and vocabulary scores of children in the 3rd grade, with an average 3rd grader from a high income family knowing around 12000 words and an average child from the low socio-economic family, knowing only about 4000 words (Knitzer, 2007). This study based its findings on a nationwide survey of young children and established correlations of literacy skills with the socio-economic status of their families. Other empirical studies too have corroborated the findings from Knitzer (2007). For example, in a research conducted on the high school grades of students from low socio-economic status and high socio-economic status, Palardy (2008) found that there was a 4.3 grade level difference between the two groups. Research has found that there is a direct and substantial impact of the socio-economic status on both the language skill and the mathematical and analytical skill development of children (Lee and Burkam, 2002). For example, research by Aikens & Barbarin (2008) has found that there is a marked slow-down in the development of language acquisition, lack of letter recognition and lower phonological awareness among pre-schoolers from low socio-economic families as compared to those from high socio-economic children. Aikens & Barbarin (2008) also found that the socio-economically disadvantaged group also suffered from a larger number of reading problems. Another research by Coley (2002) found that the socio-economically disadvantaged children face difficulties on problem solving including addition, subtraction and analytical and reasoning problems. The above researches therefore provide substantial empirical evidence to support the thesis that socio-economic status has a substantial impact on the development of literacy skills in the early stages of schooling. Next, this paper turns to explore the underlying factors that make the socio-economic factor a predictor of the literacy skills and academic achievement of children. The reasons cited by the researcher for these differences vary from the inability of the low socio-economic families to provide an environment that is conducive to the development of literacy skills. Other researchers have further elaborated on the specific aspects of the ‘conducive environment’ and the factors that differentiate between a home environment that can lead to better literacy skills and one that slows down the development. Availability of Knowledge Content during Early Years One factor that has been repeatedly identified in educational studies is the knowledge deficiency of the children from low socio-economic status families. This implies that the children from low socio-economic families are not exposed to knowledge content that an average pre-schoolers of the same age from a high socio-economic family may have. The knowledge content forms the basis of cognitive development as well as leads to expressive and receptive communication skills (Mulliis et al, 2004b). The lack of content knowledge for children from low socio-status stems from several factors including, lack of content knowledge available to their parents, lack of interaction with parents who may be working both hours, and from lack of exposure to novel events, new information through travel or meeting diverse people (Lee & Burkam, 2002). Parenting Style According to Evans (2004) children from low socio-economic status families have parents who use an authoritarian style of parenting are not overly responsive to the information needs of their children. This makes the home environment restrictive and curbs the curiosity of the children which further inhibits their cognitive and academic achievement. Also, it is observed that parents in the low socio-economic groups are less involved with the school activities of their children, which means that the children have no home support for becoming competitive in their classrooms. Similarly, other researchers like Mullis et al (2004) have found that parental involvement with their children’s literacy development efforts, especially the parents’ focus on reading with their children, is closely related with better reading skills and academic achievements. Health and Healthcare during Early Years Another factor that has been found to impact the literacy skills is related to the health of the child. In the case of high social-status families, the children have access to healthy food, healthcare and are monitored consistently for their developmental milestones. In the case of the lower socio-income families, there percentage expenditure on healthy food and healthcare is much less than their high income counterparts (Palardy, 2008), indicating that the children in the low socio-economic status families may not be having access to essential nutrients, or may be left undiagnosed for health issues that can negatively impact their cognitive development (Noble, Norman and Farah, 2005). Also, the low socio-income families are also associated with a larger family size (Li and Ranieri, 2012), and hence there may be a larger number of children to be looked after, and the parents may not be able to commit adequate resources or time for a personalized attention to each child. Characteristics of the Neighbourhood and Literacy Skills Another variable closely associated with the socio-economic status is the place of residence and the neighbourhood. As the selection of the neighbourhood is largely dependent on the income and the social status of the family, families from lower socio-economic status tend to be located in neighbourhoods that are poor or disadvantaged (Currie, 2009). A disadvantaged neighbourhood is found to be associated with an information-poor environment, lack of a learning community, lack of professional development, lack of good and well-funded schools and lack of parental involvement with their children development (Muijis et al., 2009). Day care facilities and other municipal services and facilities may also be non-existent or of low quality, which again impacts on the childhood development (Evans, 2004). Moreover, families residing in the lower socio-economic status neighbourhoods face additional challenges like threat of physical injury or intimidation and bullying from local gangs. The absence of an information rich environment and non-existence of a community that is focused on learning or cherishes academic achievement, are therefore found to have an adverse impact on the cognitive development of the children from such neighbourhoods (Muijis et al., 2009). Home Literacy Environment and Literary Skills Some researchers have also focused on the impact of the home literacy environment on the cognitive development of the children. While some of the researches on home literacy environment may not take into account the socio-economic status directly, there is substantial evidence from other researchers that relates a high socio-economic status with a high home literacy environment. For example, an early empirical research by Payne, Whitehurst and Angell (2004) found that in homes where there was a focus on learning – for example, through the mother spending time with the children reading story and picture books, visits to library or watching educational programs – the children were able to score high on standard academic language skills tests. The home learning environment is also found to be wanting for low socio-economic families as the children in other researches like that of Evans (2004). According to Evans (2004), children in low income families are prone to spend a larger time watching the television and have less meaningful and learning oriented interaction with their parents on a daily basis.  Access to Internet Some research is also focused on the impact of digital divide on the literacy skills and cognitive development of children. Digital divide is a term used predominantly to denote the lack of access to the Internet and information technology to regions that are socio-economically backward, like the rural regions. A research conducted among Chinese students across the rural and urban schools found that the lack of access to the Internet and lack of Internet usage supportive environment is directly correlated with academic performance (Li and Ranieri, 2012). These results are also replicated in several studies conducted in the OECD countries (OECD, 2002). Poverty and Learning Skill The above discussion has highlighted the numerous typical situations and conditions that are associated with low socio-economic status. In addition to the above issues (like the neighbourhood characteristics, home literacy environment …) there are also more direct and blatant impacts of low income on the child’s development and cognitive growth. For example, it is found that low income households are more congested owing to larger families living under the same roof, which leads to an overall low quality of life. Further, low income families may not have access to safe drinking water and may be living in neighbourhoods where the quality of air is low. These environmental factors adversely impact on the health of children and may lead to slow cognitive development due to illness (Evans, 2004). Conclusions The research had put forward the thesis that socio-economic status impacts on the school aged children’s literacy skills. There are several researchers that have discussed the issue and have established specific correlates of socio-economic status and language development and development of analytical and logical reasoning skills (for example, Knitzer, 2007; Palardy, 2008; Aikens & Barbarin, 2008; Coley, 2002). In addition, this paper also presented the thesis that the relationship between socio-economic status and childhood literacy skills is mediated as a result of several additional factors closely related with the socio-economic status. The paper presented evidence on the impact of factors (which are found to be closely associated with socio-economic status) like the availability of knowledge content; parenting style; health and availability of healthcare during early childhood; characteristics of the neighbourhood; Home Literacy Environment; Access to the Internet; and Poverty. It is found that these factors have a direct relationship with the development of literacy skills of children, and these may form the set of inter-related and complex mechanisms through which the socio-economic status impacts on the development of literacy skills in school age children. As such, the paper has provided evidence using empirical and non-empirical studies that support and prove the thesis that, socio-economic status has an impact on the literacy skills of school-aged children, and that this impact is mediated through several factors that are closely associated with the socio-economic status of families. . References Aiken, N. L. and Barbarin, O. A.(2008). Socioeconomic differences in reading trajectories: The contribution of family, neighbourhood and school contexts. Journal of Educational Psychology, 100 (2): pp. 235-251 Coley, R.J. (2002). An uneven start: Indicators of inequality in school readiness. Princeton: Educational Testing Service. Currie, J. (2009). Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise: Socioeconomic Status, Poor Health in Childhood, and Human Capital Development. Journal of Economic Literature, 47(1): pp. 87-122(36) Early, D. M., Iruka, I. U., Ritchie, S., Barbarin, O. A. and Winn, D. C. (2010). How do pre-kindergarteners spend their time? Gender, ethnicity and income as predictors of experience in pre-kindegarten classrooms. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 25 : pp. 177-193 Evans, G. W. (2004). The Environment of Childhood Poverty. American Psychologist, 59(2): pp: 77-92. Knitzer, J. and Klein, G. (2007). Promoting effective learning: What every policymaker and educator should know. National Center for Children in Poverty. Columbia: Columbia University. Lee, V. E. & Burkam, D. T. (2002). Inequality at the starting gate: Social background differences in achievement as children begin school. Washington, DC: Economic Policy Institute. Li, Y. and Ranieri, M. (2012). Educational and social correlates of the digital divide for rural and urban children: A study on primary school students in a provincial city of China. Computers & Education, 60(1):pp. 197–209 Muijis, D., Harris, A., Chapman, C., Stoll, L., and Russ, J. (2009). Improving schools in Socio-economically disadvantage Areas- A review of research evidence. School effectiveness and School Improvement, 15(2): pp.149-175 Mullis, R.L., Mullis, A.K., Cornille, T.A., Ritchson, A.D. & Sullender, M.S. (2004). Early literacy outcomes and parent involvement. Tallahassee, Fl: Florida State University. Noble, K. G., Norman, M. F., and Farah, M. J. (2005). Neurocognitive correlates of socioeconomic status in kindergarten children. Developmental Science, 8(1): pp. 74–87, OECD (2002). Reading for change: Performance and engagement across countries. Results from PISA 2000. New York: Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. Palardy, G. J. (2008). Differential school effects among low, middle, and high social class composition schools: multiple group latent growth curve analysis. School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 19: pp. 21-49. Payne, A. C., Whitehurst, G. J. and Angell, A. L. (2004). The role of home literacy environment in the development of language ability in preschool children from low-income families. 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