Early home learning environment predicts children’s 5th grade academic skills

Researchers from New York University studied more than 2,200 families enrolled in the Early Head Start Research Evaluation Project. They followed children from birth through 5th grade to determine the impact of early home-learning environments on later academic success. All of the children in the study came from low-income, ethnically diverse families. The researchers found that children whose parents engaged them in meaningful conversations and provided them with books and toys designed to increase learning were much more likely to develop early cognitive skills that led to later academic success. Children with a father in the home, adult parents versus teenage parents, and more-educated parents tended to have better environments for early learning.These findings were true across all ethnic/racial groups studied.