Blog 4: Educational development: One in four children 'at risk'

In the article Educational development: One in four children 'at risk' the author, Hannah Richardson discusses how the amount of risk factors that children as exposed to will either strengthen or decline their level of education.  Some of these risk factors included financial stress, depression, drug and alcohol abuse, and low skills.  In the Millennium Cohort Studies, Dr Ricardo Sabates and Professor Shirley Dex helped to examine 18,000 families to see how many children were exposed to these risks.  About 28% of families with children were being exposed to two or more risk factors.  Widening these results to all of the UK would suggest that 192,000 children have been growing up in at-risk households for ten years.  These risk factors can certainly affect a child's development.  A longitudinal study shows that children who have grown up in a household containing two or more risk factors are seen to have lesser behavioural development and vocabulary skills by ages three and five.  Although accumulated risk factors do affect education, if a child is exposed to just one, development tends to rarely be affected.  The government wants to reach out to families and intends on helping 120,000 of England's most troubled families by 2015. 

This current event is very important to people all around the world.  It's significance is held in the fact that many families are exposed and are exposing their children to risk factors every day, everywhere.  Children who are different from mainstream society-- language, religion, race/ethnicity, etc. are found to face more struggles when it comes to schooling.  From a sociological perspective, most all attributes of being at risk are intertwined with social class.  Children who have more privilege receive more attention to their education.  But before their education comes their home life and having this affected by risk factors before school age can make for a more difficult time when enrolled in school.  Government should take steps to educated families about the factors that they could be exposing their children to and how these can affect their future.  

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-16906435