This DfE report, published by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER), identifies the most significant factors affecting the development of five-year-old children across England.
It shows that five-year-old children in England achieved similar development to their peers in Estonia – the highest-performing OECD country in the PISA study at age 15 – and greater development than children in the USA.
IELS measured development in emergent literacy, emergent numeracy, self-regulation and social-emotional development. In England, a teacher-assessed module on physical development was added. Contextual information on the children, including background characteristics, their home learning environment and experience of early childhood education and care was also collected through parent and teacher questionnaires. In total a nationally representative sample of 2,517 children from 191 schools took part in England.
The analysis shows us where there are development gaps, and identifies which groups of children may need additional support.
Key Findings:
- Low birthweight was associated with lower physical and cognitive development, but not social and emotional development
- Children whose parents had reported them as having low birthweight had statistically significantly lower levels of emergent literacy, emergent numeracy, working memory and physical development at age 5 compared to their peers. The largest development gap was found in physical development – equivalent to approximately nine months, while these children were also three months’ behind in emergent literacy, and four months’ behind in emergent numeracy and working memory.
- However, low birthweight was not significantly related to development in any of the social-emotional measures in IELS such as trust or emotion identification.
- Children’s physical development is significantly related to deprivation and gender. Children who were eligible for free school meals were on average eight months’ behind their more affluent peers for physical development. Five-year-old girls were on average nine months’ ahead of boys.
- Children’s development across different outcomes at five-years-old is highly interrelated. Five-year-old children with greater development in early literacy (including listening comprehension, phonological awareness and vocabulary) are more likely to have similarly strong development in early numeracy. There were also strong correlations between high development in mental flexibility and working memory, while physical development was strongly correlated with prosocial behaviour and Trust. The fact that there were significant relationships between children’s development in different areas suggests that a whole range of different areas of learning are important for children’s development.
- Children with English as an additional language can be at risk in certain aspects of their development. Children with English as an additional language were approximately eight months’ behind their peers for emergent literacy and three months’ behind their peers for emergent numeracy. In addition, they were approximately three months’ behind their peers in mental flexibility, working memory and emotion attribution. However, they showed similar development to their peers in inhibition, non-disruptive behaviour and physical development.
- Persistence is associated with early development. Children whose teachers rated them as ‘often or always’ persistent at the age of five were more than 12 months’ ahead of their peers rated as ‘rarely or never’ persistent for physical development. These children were also approximately 11 months’ ahead of their peers in emergent literacy, and 8 months’ ahead in emergent numeracy.
- There are a range of simple activities parents can do to aid their children’s development. The research showed that children who drew or painted at home three or four times a week showed some evidence of better physical development than those that did not, equivalent to five months’ difference. Physical development covers gross motor skills, such as the ability to run and jump, as well as fine motor skills, such as using scissors to cut around a shape or putting on a coat without help. IELS also provides evidence of other simple activities parents can do to aid their children’s development at age 5, including reading to them every day, making sure they have access to children’s books at home, having regular conversations about their feelings, and being involved with their school.