| By Annemarie - Oct 25, 2009 1:57:20 PM ET |
There's a great study that was released this week by the University of California, Berkley and covered by the New York Times, Hispanic Immigrants' Children Fall Behind Peer Early, Study Finds.
What researchers discovered is that while Hispanic children are born healthy and on par with other American children, by age 2 they fall behind - and stay behind academically. What makes this so? Poverty is, of course, a factor. Another is that Hispanic mothers tend to have less formal schooling.
In United Way's experience working with this targeted population, we would offer a couple of other reasons: 1) many Hispanic moms are very doting to their children and are quick to anticipate their children's needs before they are able to verbalize them; and 2) many tend to do everything for their children, hindering their problem solving opportunities, which are so important to brain development.
How do we close the gap? By giving Hispanic families of young children, birth to age 5, the knowledge, resources and support they need to support their childrens' learning and development. United Way's Early Learning Communities program is run by community-based organizations and embedded in neighborhoods, making it accessible and culturally appropriate to parents and caregivers.
Our Hispanic participants have been very enthusiastic about all that they are learning and we're confident that we are closing the gap in linguistic and cognitive development for Hispanic children.
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