Significant learning gaps between disadvantaged and advantaged five-year-olds are evident in both their cognitive and social-emotional skill development.1 Children from low SES families face, on average, an 8-20 month learning gap behind more advantaged children (Figure 1.1). Most pronounced is the learning gap in social-emotional skills. These skills enable children to operate well in groups, get along with other children, regulate their emotional responses and sustain attention. Social-emotional skills are key in enabling children to adjust to and succeed in a school environment ( (Hammer, Melhuish and Howard, 2018[1]); (Schoon et al., 2015[2])).
In emergent literacy a learning gap of 12 months exists between disadvantaged and advantaged five-year-olds.
The learning gaps disadvantaged children face in critical cognitive skills are also significant. Emergent literacy2 is one of the best predictors of later student achievement ( (Duncan et al., 2007[3])Yet at five years-of-age, there is a learning gap of 12 months between disadvantaged and advantaged children. This learning gap represents a year of development that disadvantaged children will need to close quickly if they are to have a chance of doing as well in school as advantaged children. Most disadvantaged children will not achieve the accelerated rate of development necessary to do so ( (Sammons et al., 2015[4]) (Heckman, 2011[5])).