by Katie Bataligin

Language and Cognitive development are the stepping stones for what we understand.  How we develop knowledge of words, numbers, and memory, are all important aspects of how we develop when we are young. Not all situations are comparable though, there is no cookie cutter way in which each child develops. Some kids are at more of a risk than others, and there are many risk factors that play huge parts in how one develops.

Genetics and the environment influence how a child develops and performs in regards to developmental age milestones. Elliott M. Tucker-Drob et al describes how differences in genetic make-up influence over 50% of performance variations on cognitive tests (2013). The Brofenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory suggests that events happening in a child’s environment, such as low-income status, single parent homes, abuse, unemployment, and illnesses can all have a remarkable impact on how a child develops and performs on cognitive ability assessments.

Children in the Vancouver Island West community are one example of how vulnerability in cognitive and language development can impact a child’s life. According to the EDI data from the Wave 7 report, Vancouver Island West scored 24% vulnerability in cognitive and language development, which is more than double the provincial average which is only at 11% vulnerability. Vancouver Island West has also seen very little variability in the vulnerability in cognitive and language development of its population over the last 15 years.

Children who live in the Vancouver Island West community are susceptible to the following vulnerable behaviours. Deficits in reading, writing, recognition of numbers, no concept of time, no word identification, and difficulty remembering things. If no intervention is put in place, then these children can fall further behind from the benchmarks, and have difficulty performing at grade level in reading, math, writing, and risk losing interest of school all together.

One intervention that could be put into place is the use of Fry’s Instant Sight Words. This program introduces children to words that are commonly seen, or high-frequency vocabulary, through games, flashcards, and repetition. The use of this evidence-based intervention can change the level of vulnerability in language and cognition for the children of Vancouver Island West, therefore, allowing them to make gains in this area.

References

Human early learning partnership. Human Early Learning Partnership. (n.d.). Retrieved December 4, 2021, from http://earlylearning.ubc.ca/.

Tucker-Drob, E. M., Briley, D. A., & Harden, K. P. (2013). Genetic and environmental influences on cognition across development and context. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 22(5), 349–355. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721413485087