Over the last 20 years, we have learned much about the extent to which early-life deprivation affects the mental health of children and adolescents. This body of evidence comes predominantly from studies of children raised in institutional care. The Bucharest Early Intervention Project (BEIP) is the only randomized controlled trial designed to…

If school closures and social-distancing experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic impeded children's skill development, they may leave a lasting legacy in human capital. To understand the pandemic's effects on school children, this paper combines a review of the emerging international literature with new evidence from German longitudinal time-use…

Hart and Risley's (1995) concept of a "word gap" (aka "language gap") is widely used to describe inferior cognitive development and lower academic achievement as by-products of the language patterns of families from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. In recent decades, this line of deficit research has proliferated and…

Assessment is a crucial component of gifted education. Not only does it facilitate the recognition of the potential and specific needs of gifted students, it also monitors the progress and growth of gifted students, and allows for the evaluation of gifted education programs. In the present review, we synthesize the literature on assessment in…

Background: Early child nutritional deficiencies are prevalent in low- and middle-countries with consequences linked not only to poor survival and growth, but also to poor development outcomes. Children in disadvantaged communities face multiple risks for nutritional deficiencies, yet some children may be less susceptible or may recover more…

This paper aggregates the academic literature reviewing and reporting interventions for out-of-school children (OOSC) around the world to serve as a guide for potential interventions in South Asia and elsewhere. It complements the Global Initiative on Out-of-School Children (OOSCI) South Asia Regional Study (2014). Thus the interventions reviewed…

This paper examines the concept of friendship that is displayed by an 8-year-old homeless immigrant Taiwanese-Chinese child. Through the use of interviews with the child as well as observations, the author attempts to interpret the child's understanding of friendship according to the theories of cognitive, emotional, and moral development of…

In Latin America and the Caribbean, 240 million people, or 50 percent of the population, live in poverty. This report, written in Spanish, summarizes research by the Proyecto Costa Atlantica into the effects of such widespread poverty on the cognitive and social development of children. After an introduction on the general responses of the…

This report was commissioned by the Local Government Association (LGA) to inform the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) and LGA work on "Narrowing the Gap." It focuses on early years' provision and presents findings from a review of the best evidence on narrowing the gap in outcomes across the five Every Child Matters…

Results of studies of the effects of early childhood compensatory education programs indicate long-term benefits but not long-term cognitive gains. These findings may be explained by an interaction of the programs being studied at any early point in social change (rising tide) with a hypothesized intervening variable (cognitive effects). (DB)

Summarizes and evaluates the deficit, difference, and bicultural theories used to interpret the linguistic characteristics of Black and low socioeconomic status children. Also discusses research that has applied these theories and the implications of this research for educational reform. (AOS)

The authors describe issue strategies for the identification and remediation of basic cognitive deficits in disadvantaged young children. (Author/SBH)

This White Paper summarizes findings from an extensive literature review that was conducted to identify the most promising models and approaches for meeting the needs of low-income children, youth, and families during the summer months. Special attention is paid to summer learning programs that serve diverse, urban low-income children and youth.…

Concludes that environmental effects on IQ are relatively modest within the normal range of environments, but circumstances are very substantial. Cognitive development is influenced by direct effect on cognition and indirect effects through alterations in self-concept, aspirations, attitudes to learning and styles of interaction with other people.…

Reviews twelve experimentally-designed longitudinal studies of infant education programs. Suggests that the more intense programs, those that had more hours of contact with children and included parents and children, had more positive intellectual effects on the children, parent behaviors, and family life circumstances. (KH)