How does poverty disturb children's brain development?
Low socioeconomic status often links to poorer performance in schools. Kwon (2015) stated that up to 20 percent of the achievement gap between high- and low-income children may be explained be differences in brain development. She also pointed out the following:
Using a sample of 389 healthy children and adolescents from age four to 22, psychologist Seth Pollak and his colleagues at the University of Wisconsin–Madison compared scores on academic achievement tests with tissue volume in select areas of the
brain. Researchers placed subjects in a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine to scan and measure gray matter volume in
the temporal lobes, frontal lobes and hippocampus—brain areas that are critical to cognitive processes required for academic
success and vulnerable to a person’s early environment. Some of the individuals came back for reassessment after 24 months
and returned for follow-ups over a period of up to six years.
According to the study, there are mainly three parts that showed differences:
1. the frontal lobe, which controls attention, inhibition and emotions, and affects complex learning;
2. the temporal lobe, which is important in memory and language comprehension, such as learning the alphabet, identifying words and attaching meaning to words;
3. the hippocampus, which processes spatial and contextual information and has been tied to long-term memory functioning.
Frey (2015) demonstrated that children who grew up in families below the federal poverty line had gray matter volumes 8 to 10 percent below normal development. Another interesting finding is that researchers did not find differences between children from middle and affluent families but those only 50 percent above the poverty line showed gray matter volumes 3 to 4 percent below the norm. In other words, more money does not necessary mean better outcomes but at a certain point a “drop-off” effect of income occurs where a lack of financial resources is detrimental to development. Hair et al. (2015) conducted research to analyse the relationships among children poverty, brain development, and academic achievement. Also, the researchers stated that the gap of brain development between children in poverty and in middle-/upper- classes will not disappear with children's growth.
Using a sample of 389 healthy children and adolescents from age four to 22, psychologist Seth Pollak and his colleagues at the University of Wisconsin–Madison compared scores on academic achievement tests with tissue volume in select areas of the
brain. Researchers placed subjects in a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine to scan and measure gray matter volume in
the temporal lobes, frontal lobes and hippocampus—brain areas that are critical to cognitive processes required for academic
success and vulnerable to a person’s early environment. Some of the individuals came back for reassessment after 24 months
and returned for follow-ups over a period of up to six years.
According to the study, there are mainly three parts that showed differences:
1. the frontal lobe, which controls attention, inhibition and emotions, and affects complex learning;
2. the temporal lobe, which is important in memory and language comprehension, such as learning the alphabet, identifying words and attaching meaning to words;
3. the hippocampus, which processes spatial and contextual information and has been tied to long-term memory functioning.
Frey (2015) demonstrated that children who grew up in families below the federal poverty line had gray matter volumes 8 to 10 percent below normal development. Another interesting finding is that researchers did not find differences between children from middle and affluent families but those only 50 percent above the poverty line showed gray matter volumes 3 to 4 percent below the norm. In other words, more money does not necessary mean better outcomes but at a certain point a “drop-off” effect of income occurs where a lack of financial resources is detrimental to development. Hair et al. (2015) conducted research to analyse the relationships among children poverty, brain development, and academic achievement. Also, the researchers stated that the gap of brain development between children in poverty and in middle-/upper- classes will not disappear with children's growth.