Early Childhood Poverty

Introduction In the United States, there is an achievement gap between middle and upper class students and low-income students. Children who are from middle to upper class families are outperforming students living in poverty on standardized tests. Although, all children are learning the same information, but the experiences they endure outside of school has an impact the learning process. Poverty has a direct correlation in the quality of education certain children receive, and then it impacts test scores.

Early childhood education, commonly known as elementary education, is one of the most important. It is placed at a time of immense mental growth. While not seen as a serious time for education, the ages between five and eleven are the times where the brain is absorbing the most. To many children, even more of those on the low income spectrum, this is the first time for actual language acquisition and development. Academic failure is known as not reaching and progressing the same as equal age peers. There are many reasons that this can happen, most sprouting from their poverty status. Poverty is known to be a continuous cycle. Those who come from families who are improvised have a harder time moving above that threshold. Academic failure holds these children back and keep them in the position they were born into. The cycle of poverty also creates stereotypes within communities. Many African Americans and Latinos are found in the cycle.

In conclusion, not all children raised in low income homes or poor neighborhoods will experience some sort of brain or even behavior change, nor will they drop out of school. One thing is certain, poverty gets in deeper to our children’s body, brain and soul a known issue tied to behavior problems due to low

It is to be said in a new research that was done, showing that “low-income kids” aren’t developed fully in certain parts of their brains and behind other kinds in their same age group. The results of this came to be that children that come families with a low income household, happen to have a thinner neocortex, which is a “particular area of the brain” and its role is in memory and the ability to learn (Woodruff.) This is something that should really concern people, because children are our future. How and why is this happening? Well it’s all based from the nutrients, the health care, the education, and the amount of stress they enter counter, that affects children’s lives and this is all caused by Income Inequality. “The brain of a child whose family earns less than $25,000 annually is 6% smaller in surface area than a child whose parents earned more than $150,000, according to the study” (Woodruff.) Which is very surprisingly but sadly it makes sense, since children who grow up in an environment where that have access to things that children from low income environments

Early childhood. During the 1990s, the nation was inundated with reports on the importance of the early years on children's brain development and later cognitive achievement. While some of the reports may have overstated the issue and understated the importance of a child's later years on development, evidence suggests that the early years may be a critical period of development in which family poverty has particularly strong effects on young children. As seen in Table 1, poverty occurring early in a child's life (age two to four) is associated with large effects on indices of child school readiness and cognitive outcomes.

Most people from other countries think about the States as being the land of the “American Dream”. Despite being home of the “American dream”, poverty has become one of Americas most major leading problems. Poverty affects multiple groups of people throughout the United States. Child poverty specifically has grown vastly and has fostered major issues such as educational issues, behavioral problems, and generational poverty. Through the pursuit of knowledge, developing critical thinking skills among youth, creating a relatable educational experience for student, and giving students the tools to brake generational disparities, childhood poverty can be reduced.

Fifty-five percent of boys and sixty-six percent of girls miss out on at least one of the three meals were meant to have a day. Child poverty in the first three years of life is related to substandard nutritional status and poor motor skills; poverty is also associated with childhood obesity- as they get older, poor children are more likely to have chronic health problems, such as asthma and anaemia. (American Psychological Association, 2018).

It has long been known that low socioeconomic status is linked to poorer performance in school, and recent research has linked poverty to smaller brain surface area. The current study bridges these converging lines of evidence by revealing that up to 20 percent of the achievement gap between high- and low-income children may be explained by differences in brain development.

To start, little is actually known about the importance and effect of timing of poverty on children’s psychological development. Economic deprivation during different phases and time frames of childhood can also alter the outcome of the child. Studies that have been done about children's early cognitive and physical development suggest that family income in the first five years of life has the most

Furthermore they believe that this gap in achievement between rich and poor may be caused by growing up poorer or living in poverty. This study was conducted by taking tissue (gray matter) samples from 389 adolescents (children ranging from age 4-12) and analyzing them through MRI(magnetic resonance imaging scans). The exact same analysis was performed on the same test subjects in a follow-up years later. The result remained the same, and it was apparent in the final test outcome, that 8 to 10 percent of the gray matter in the “poorer”

Childhood poverty is a pervasive problem in the United States. Unfortunately, many children are affected by poverty, with young children being the most vulnerable. Some of the causes of poverty include lack of education, family composition, immigration, and unemployment. The government can help in many ways by promoting marriage and free and reduced school lunch programs. Poverty is a social problem because it’s widespread. People do not have the acquired skills needed to succeed in today’s society. Childhood poverty is even more challenging because children cannot help themselves and the solutions must come from social change in order to have a significant impact. To improve poverty, it is important to create enhancements in education

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

A Child cannot choose the life their born into. For some this means a life of poverty and uncertainty. This group is classified as having a low Socioeconomic Status (SES). Children are the once affected the most in this in this category. They are faced with negative caregivers, malnutrition, toxic environment and stress causing their brain structure to change. Such endeavor during early childhood can affect once emotional and cognitive functions. Early intervention can reverse such effect due to the child brain plasticity. This hardship can extend into their young adulthood affecting their

Poverty can be caused in the early stages of childhood, sometimes even as early as kindergarten. “Prekindergarten and kindergarten class sizes above 20 are generally associated with poorer outcomes for children. Even after controlling for factors such as family income that may correlate with large class size” (Pianta pg. 120).

For example, the article it states, “childhood poverty may also lead to brain changes that influence mood and risk of depression” WORKCITE’. Therefore, at times child whose parents are living in poverty sometimes might be working two jobs to make it, so at times the child isn’t getting enough attention to help the child’s brain development.