Poverty can affect learning abilities
Alissa Skelton
Issue date: 3/10/08 Section: News
Hallam Hurt, a neonatologist in Philadelphia, started researching the effects of poverty on child brain development in 1989. He recruited pregnant women who were poor and women who used cocaine. He wanted to examine the effect of poverty and drugs on a fetus.
Officials in the field say the results were uncanny. The mean IQ of 6-year-old children exposed to cocaine in the utero was 79, a value that is below average. The children who had never been exposed to any drugs, but were in poverty, had the same IQ as the children exposed to cocaine.
Julia Torquati, an associate professor of child, youth and family studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, said the study is provocative.
"Certainly cocaine is toxic, but it is true philologically stressors can be toxic in the sense of blunting development," she said. "Clearly you would not want a child to experience either of those, but it is interesting the way they come about the evidence in comparing the kids that are exposed to cocaine were at equal disadvantage to those who weren't exposed but were in poverty."
The study investigated the aspects of poverty affecting children's brain development in the area of cognitive skills, such as language and memory.
Marcia Corr, a representative from the Nebraska Department of Education, said limited resources and lack of affection from parents can significantly affect a child's brain development.
"It's not the poverty per se but the conditions that often accompany poverty," Corr said. "Brain development is definitely influenced by stressors and the amount of stimulation."
Resources and opportunities to explore the environment are important for learning and constructing knowledge, Torquati said. Since impoverished children may not have these advantages at home, school is a good place to introduce opportunities and resources.
"Teachers can be nurturing in the sense that developing those relationships can be a stabilizing influence for kids and can help them to regulate their emotion, because having a relationship with a caring teacher or parent or other adult is one way that kids can stabilize their own emotions," Torquati said.
Corr said teachers and families should get to know each other to help the child-learning process.
Poverty can also affect a child's memory.
"If children are at a constant state of distress, then it is going to interfere with their ability for memory," Torquati said.
Even with educators helping children in the classroom, Corr doesn't think the playing field is equal between students in poverty and financially stable students. She said it is a challenge to level the playing field when so much of the problem needs to be addressed within the home.
But educators are not giving up.
"Typically, in poverty homes there are not a lot of books, and it is really important for children to see that modeling in the home," she said. "It's important for a child to sit on his parent's lap and listen to stories, and that models to children that reading is a normal, natural part of life."
Torquati said it is hard to say if the playing field will ever be equal.
"Certainly children are capable of learning, but the more concepts you have to begin with, the more concepts you can build on," she said. "So while it is possible to level the playing field, it is certainly going to be more difficult than if children had a good start."
Corr said encouragement and welcoming environments are the best educators can offer.
"Children need to feel like they are competent learners to keep them excited and following their interests," Corr said. "Each experience a child has, a child takes something away and what we do today really impacts children's futures."
alissaskelton@dailynebraskan.com
Officials in the field say the results were uncanny. The mean IQ of 6-year-old children exposed to cocaine in the utero was 79, a value that is below average. The children who had never been exposed to any drugs, but were in poverty, had the same IQ as the children exposed to cocaine.
Julia Torquati, an associate professor of child, youth and family studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, said the study is provocative.
"Certainly cocaine is toxic, but it is true philologically stressors can be toxic in the sense of blunting development," she said. "Clearly you would not want a child to experience either of those, but it is interesting the way they come about the evidence in comparing the kids that are exposed to cocaine were at equal disadvantage to those who weren't exposed but were in poverty."
The study investigated the aspects of poverty affecting children's brain development in the area of cognitive skills, such as language and memory.
Marcia Corr, a representative from the Nebraska Department of Education, said limited resources and lack of affection from parents can significantly affect a child's brain development.
"It's not the poverty per se but the conditions that often accompany poverty," Corr said. "Brain development is definitely influenced by stressors and the amount of stimulation."
Resources and opportunities to explore the environment are important for learning and constructing knowledge, Torquati said. Since impoverished children may not have these advantages at home, school is a good place to introduce opportunities and resources.
"Teachers can be nurturing in the sense that developing those relationships can be a stabilizing influence for kids and can help them to regulate their emotion, because having a relationship with a caring teacher or parent or other adult is one way that kids can stabilize their own emotions," Torquati said.
Corr said teachers and families should get to know each other to help the child-learning process.
Poverty can also affect a child's memory.
"If children are at a constant state of distress, then it is going to interfere with their ability for memory," Torquati said.
Even with educators helping children in the classroom, Corr doesn't think the playing field is equal between students in poverty and financially stable students. She said it is a challenge to level the playing field when so much of the problem needs to be addressed within the home.
But educators are not giving up.
"Typically, in poverty homes there are not a lot of books, and it is really important for children to see that modeling in the home," she said. "It's important for a child to sit on his parent's lap and listen to stories, and that models to children that reading is a normal, natural part of life."
Torquati said it is hard to say if the playing field will ever be equal.
"Certainly children are capable of learning, but the more concepts you have to begin with, the more concepts you can build on," she said. "So while it is possible to level the playing field, it is certainly going to be more difficult than if children had a good start."
Corr said encouragement and welcoming environments are the best educators can offer.
"Children need to feel like they are competent learners to keep them excited and following their interests," Corr said. "Each experience a child has, a child takes something away and what we do today really impacts children's futures."
alissaskelton@dailynebraskan.com
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 3
Andrew Lacy
posted 3/12/08 @ 7:40 PM CST
Headline: Poverty can affect learning abilities
Story: "It's not the poverty per se but the conditions that often accompany poverty"
That's a helluva job you guys are doing there. (Continued…)
Will
posted 3/12/08 @ 10:38 PM CST
Within the context of the article, the sentences you highlighted make perfect sense to me, Andrew. Just saying.
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