FASD: Association found between poor academic achievement and maternal drinking

Education records from the WA Literacy and Numeracy Assessment statewide testing program were compared with maternal alcohol consumption data. Credit: iStock

Researchers from WA and the UK have linked heavy drinking and binge drinking, even occasionally during pregnancy, to children's academic achievement in reading, writing and spelling; and this impact is related to the trimester in which the exposure occurred.

These results lend further support to other international studies which have found prenatal alcohol exposure increases the risk of a range of neurodevelopmental disorders, including Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD).

Lead author Colleen O'Leary, from Curtin's Centre for Population Health Research, says this study is a first.

"This is the first population-based study that utilises linked cohort and state-wide education test data to examine the effect of prenatal alcohol exposure on educational achievement," Dr O'Leary says.

The cohort of 4056 children aged 8-9 years-old were from the Randomly Ascertained Sample of Children born in Australia's Largest State study; a 10 per cent random sample of infants born in WA between 1995 and 1997.

FASD Indications

Information about maternal alcohol consumption was catergorised into dosage and pattern; low (1-2 standard drinks on occasion, less than 7 per week), moderate (3-4 standard drinks on occasion, 7 per week), binge drinking (more than 50g per occasion), and heavy drinking (more than 7 standard drinks per week).

They then matched this data with education records from the WA Literacy and Numeracy Assessment statewide testing program, and also examined absenteeism at these tests.

Resulting learning problems varied depending on the dose, timing, and drinking pattern of the prenatal alcohol exposure.

"Children exposed to heavy prenatal alcohol exposure during the first trimester were over twice as likely as comparison children to not achieve the reading benchmark," Dr O'Leary says.

"Prenatal exposure to occasional binge drinking in late pregnancy [second and/or third trimester] increased the risk of not achieving the benchmark for writing.

"Children of mothers binge drinking occasionally or drinking heavily at any stage during pregnancy were more likely to have been absent for the spelling test."

Dr O'Leary says results are particularly pertinent given the high rate of pregnancies reported to be unplanned – around 50 per cent – and thus associated risk of unintentional prenatal alcohol exposure.

While low or moderate levels of prenatal alcohol exposure was not associated with academic underachievement, Dr O'Leary stresses that other studies have demonstrated adverse offspring effects, even at very low doses.

As such, "we cannot conclusively state that any amount of alcohol is 'safe'."

She recommends exploring the impact of whether supportive family and school systems can improve academic achievement of children exposed prenatally to alcohol.

More information: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23837182

Does Teaching toddlers to pay attention help academic success

The secret to raising an academic child is not to coach toddlers in maths or play them classical music, but to teach them to pay attention, research by child development experts suggests.

Toddlers who are better at concentrating, taking directions and persisting with a game even after hitting difficulties have a 50 per cent greater chance of getting a degree when older, a two-decade long experiment found.

The study (Relations between preschool attention span-persistence ..)  tracked 430 kids from pre-school to 21-years-old, monitoring academic and social development, behavioural skills and behaviour at home and in the classroom.

Parents were asked to watch how long the children would play with one particular toy while at home, while teachers were instructed to give the class a task and then monitor which toddlers gave up and which ones kept persevering until they had completed it.

Results of the study by Oregon State University were published in the online journal Early Childhood Research Quarterly.

The children most likely to go through further education were those who, at an early age, persisted in tasks and paid attention in pre-school sessions, said researchers.

Researchers said these are qualities that both parents and teachers can easily teach youngsters.

Many ambitious parents try to introduce maths or classical music or other academic subjects to their children to give them a headstart in life but they may be better teaching social skills like paying attention, not giving up and how to follow directions, said child development expert Megan McClelland.

She said: "There is a big push now to teach children early academic skills at the pre-school level.

"Our study shows that the biggest predictor of college completion wasn't maths or reading skills, but whether or not they were able to pay attention and finish tasks at age four."

The pre-school research included seeing how long children would play with a single toy or how easily they would give up when they reached difficulties in a task.

Read the full article here

17% of UK Adults have lowered Literacy Rate

One in six adults has lower literacy than the level expected of an 11-year-old, new research shows today.

It finds that only half of children enjoy reading, and that a quarter do not recognise any link between reading and success.

The report, Literacy: State of the Nation is the first coherent, national picture of reading and writing abilities, according to the National Literacy Trust.

It conducted a study of more than 17,000 pupils from 112 schools. Most read e-mails, blogs and websites more frequently than books, the survey suggests. However children who engage in technology are more likely to enjoy writing than their classmates.

Check out NLT's Reading for Life and Fun website

While literacy levels have risen among 11-year-olds in the past decade, they have plateaued in writing. Yet three-quarters of parents said their child often read for pleasure.

The report also analysed reading and writing in the workplace, and found widespread concerns.

Almost seven in ten retail firms and half of manufacturing companies reported problems with literacy among staff.

Check out the NLT's Reading for Younger Children website

Nearly two-thirds of men and three-quarters of women with very low literacy skills had never received a promotion, it found.

Jonathan Douglas, director of the National Literacy Trust, said the findings were “extremely worrying”.

“We believe this should be of great concern to all political parties as reading for pleasure helps to develop strong literacy skills and ultimately, supports academic and future success,” he said.

“The Treasury estimated the cider tax will bring in £30 million. For just a tenth of this money the Government could establish which adults are most in need of literacy support and run a year-long campaign to support children and adults who are struggling with literacy.

“It is estimated that poor literacy costs the economy £2.5bn a year.”