Toddlers' vocabulary at age TWO can predict success in later life

They found children with better academic and behavioural functioning when they started kindergarten often had better educational and societal opportunities as they grew up, reports the Daily Mail.

They said children entering kindergarten with higher reading and math achievements are more likely to go
to college, own homes, be married, and live in higher-income neighbourhoods as adults.

The study points to very early roots of differences in school readiness, with growth in vocabulary playing a particularly important role.

It found that children with larger oral vocabularies by age 2 arrived at kindergarten better prepared academically and behaviourally than their peers.

The study was conducted by researchers at the Pennsylvania State University, the University of California, Irvine, and Columbia University, who analysed nationally representative data for 8,650 children in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort, and appears in the journal Child Development.

Two-year-olds' vocabularies were measured via a parent survey, and their academic achievement in kindergarten was gauged via individually administered measures of reading and math.

Kindergarten teachers independently rated the children's behavioural self-regulation and frequency of acting out or anxious behaviour.

Researchers took into account a wide range of background characteristics (such as sociodemographics) and experiences (such as parenting quality) to more fully isolate the role of vocabulary growth.