No big surprises here, to be sure, but researchers have documented that poverty has major effects on young children.
The difference in outcome is stark. The study identifies that by the age of three, 26 per cent of children in persistently poor households are exhibiting cognitive delay compared to 6 per cent in non-poor households and 18 per cent have what are regarded as high levels of behavioural problems compared to 4 per cent in non-poor households.
So, by the age of three, too many of these these children are already at a major disadvantage against their better-off peers. And the cycle continues.