Institutional care: associations between inattention and early reading performance

Area of Science:

• Child Psychology
• Educational Psychology
• Developmental Neuroscience

Background:

• Government reports highlight poor educational outcomes for 'looked after' children.
• Early reading skills are critical for later academic success.
• The role of biosocial factors in the low attainment of these children remains under-researched.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the reading ability of children raised in institutional care versus those in family foster care.
• To explore potential biosocial factors influencing reading attainment in children in public care.
• To compare reading performance between institutionalized children, family-fostered children, and controls.

Main Methods:

• Compared reading ability of 19 institutionalized children with 19 age/sex-matched children in family foster care.
• Matched groups on biological background and assessed reading using cognitive testing.
• Utilized teacher questionnaires, interviews, and systematic observations for both groups and classroom controls.

Main Results:

• Institutionalized children showed more prevalent reading delay and lower scores than family-fostered children.
• IQ variations explained lower scores in the family foster care group compared to controls.
• Inattention, more evident in the institutional group, partially explained reading score differences, particularly during teacher-directed tasks.

Conclusions:

• Early reading performance is linked to 'in care' experiences but not predetermined.
• The type of substitute caregiving significantly influences reading performance.
• Institutional upbringing negatively affects reading directly and indirectly via increased inattention.