Leafy suburbs and later literacy

Where you live when you go to nursery school could affect your reading comprehension years later - even if you've moved somewhere completely different in the meantime. Researchers from the University of British Columbia followed 2,648 children from nursery to Year Seven when they took a test called the Foundation Skills Assessment. The researchers compared the children's scores in this test to information about the kind of area they lived in when they were in nursery school (kindergarten) and in Year Seven. The children who lived in an area with higher socioeconomic status when they were in kindergarten had higher reading skills in Year Seven regardless of where they lived when they took the test. The researchers thought this might be because children would have better access to good schools, libraries, after-school programmes and bookshops in better-off areas.

You can find out more about this study at

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100114143330.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29&utm_content=Google+Reader