Published on May 1, 2015, by Tony Harbron
The Telegraph is reporting a new study that suggests a relationship between attentiveness of children in primary schools and the likelihood of achieving good grades…
…Researches analysed the behaviour and exam results of more than 11,000 children who took part in Bristol’s Children of the 90s study…For every point rise in a child’s fidgeting levels at age seven, researchers found a two to three point drop in GCSE scores.They also found a 7 per cent increase in the likelihood of them not achieving at least five C grades in their exams…Lead researcher Kapil Sayal, professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at Nottingham University’s School of Medicine, said: “Teachers and parents should be aware of the long-term academic impact of behaviours such as inattention and distractibility.“The impact applies across the whole spectrum of scores at the population level and is not just confined to those scoring above a cut-off or at the extreme end.”
See the results of the study in the Journal Of The American Academy Of Child And Adolescent Psychiatry at: Childhood Behavior Problems and Academic Outcomes in Adolescence: Longitudinal Population-Based Study
Ok, this is fascinating but what is it really telling us?
Surely the inattentiveness is the first place is a symptom and not something you can just eliminate when identified and thereby remove the long-term impact?
Perhaps just having awareness of these results can help teachers realise the need to intervene with an inattentive child and that might help?