Academic Performance Predictions

Many parents may be surprised to learn that there are ways of predicting which children may have difficulty with school performance. An Australian research study in 2017 followed 1,910 children from infancy through age 7 to evaluate a child’s likelihood of academic difficulty based on identified risk factors and language skills at the integral timelines of 2 and 4 years of age.

Researchers found that a child’s language skills at 4 years of age were significantly predictive of language capacity by age 7. Children’s language skills as early as age 2 were also predictive of later outcomes, but by age 4, their ability to provide a more accurate prediction of later academic skills was stronger. Risk factors of academic difficulty included family history of academic challenges as well as socioeconomic factors.

Findings from this study supported that children with lower-than-average language skills at age 7 were significantly more likely to experience literacy difficulty (impacting both reading and writing), behavior and emotional challenges, and reduced classroom participation. By age 7, performance gaps continue to grow and the role that language plays in classroom instruction continues to expand. The takeaways from this study support that early language skills truly matter and that monitoring of language in a child’s early development helps identify when additional support would be helpful before they even begin school.