Free Season Of Birth And Later Outcomes On Children Research Paper Sample

The University of Alabama at Birmingham

ECE 748
TP 2
The Season of Birth refers to the time of year or season when a person was born. The Season of birth may affect children’s mental health, educational achievement, and intellectual ability. There are two main theories in season of birth which may explain the relationship between season of birth, intelligence ability and school performance. The first theory explained that the association was a result of school entry policies that started with a single annual cut-off date. That means the younger student were less able than the older students to grasp certain information, and teachers incorrectly treated them as slow learners. The second theory explained that the association to the school entry policy had different terms throughout the year for children to start. There were also differences in the attendance of younger and older children at primary schools. Thus, the children born in summer leave school earlier than children born in winter (Lawlor, Clark, Ronalds, & Leon, 2006). In the past, the researchers explained this relationship between children born in different times of the year, their later outcomes to the school entry law and their exposure to seasonal diseases and foods. Nevertheless, the new researchers such as Buckles & Hungerman (2008) present a different explanation for the association between season of birth and later outcomes. They found that children born in the winter showed significantly different characteristics and most of them were unmarried teenaged women, with no degree or college education. The recent research found a link between the season of birth, mental health, effect on education, and child cognitive development.
The recent research found an association between season of birth and mental health. In Martin, Foels, Clanton, & Moon (2004) study, they explored 28 school districts in the State of Georgia. They found that there was a relation between season of birth and rate of diagnosis of specific learning disabilities. In addition, and they found that a higher rate of summer-born children were diagnosed with specific learning disabilities (SLD). Similarly, Donfrancesco et al. (2010) found an explanation for the strong association between developmental dyslexia (DD) and season of birth by association to gender difference and with earlier age school entry. On the other hand, in (Landau, Cicchetti, Klin, & Volkmar 1999) study, they examined the seasonality hypothesis on 904 cases (620 diagnosis of autism and 284 diagnoses with mental retardation). They found that there is no significant seasonal component of increased autism or mental retardation in March or August births.
The recent research found association between season of birth and effect on education. Verachtert, De Fraine, Onghena, & Ghesquiere (2010), found that there is a significant difference between children born in different seasons of birth. The younger children, who were born in the last months of the year “were more often subject to grade retention than older children” (p. 301). However, the results showed that this gap in mathematical achievements differed narrowly during the first two years of early years schooling. Nevertheless, Bell & Daniels (1990) found that there was difference in performance between summer-born children and autumn-born children in the Assessment of Performance Unit (APU) conducted in Science performance of 11, 13 and 15 year old students. The results showed that the effect was strong in younger age groups and still noticeable with older age groups. The results also showed that birthdates affected the younger student’s performance, and their learning difficulties were caused by the educational system. Moreover, the researchers found that teacher’s expectations reinforced the poor performance of the youngest students therefore proving the theory of the birthdate effects. Likewise, in Martin, Foels, Clanton, & Moon (2004) study they explored 28 school districts in the State of Georgia. They found that there was a relation between season of birth and child achievement scores in mathematics, reading, and science. The children born in summer had lower scores in the standardized achievement testing than children born in the fall. The researchers suggest changing the cutoff date of school entry to decrease the risk of school failure.
The recent research found association between season of birth and child cognitive development. In the study by Lawlor, Clark, Ronalds, &Leon (2006), they explored the reasons of relations between child intelligence, school performance and season of birth. They found that children born in autumn or early winter showed lower scores at the age of 9 in reading ability and at the age of 11 in arithmetic ability and children born in spring or later in winter had higher scores in these areas. However, in Mascie-Taylor (1980) study the results showed that there was "no significant difference in mean IQs, but in the working class group, summer born females scored significantly higher than winter born females in Visual-spatial IQ” (p. 152). Moreover, the researcher found that mean personality scores for summer born females associated with season of birth, were significantly more extravert.
In conclusion, the various study results showed that there were associations between season of birth and children’s later outcomes in different ways such as mental health, educational achievement, and intellectual ability. Moreover, the studies showed clearly that there were later outcomes associated with children born in different times of the year. There were however different explanations for this relationship. Some studies explained this relationship as the school laws and other studies to the mothers’ characteristics. For this reason, the policy makers should change the school entry policies and the curriculum to match children’s developmental level. Teachers should also change their expectations from requiring more from the youngest students and avoid labeling them as slow learners.

References

Bell, J. F., & Daniels, S. (1990). Are summer-born children disadvantaged? The birthdate
effect in Education. Oxford Review Of Education, 16(1), 67-80.
Donfrancesco, R., Iozzino, R., Caruso, B., Ferrante, L., Mugnaini, D., Talamo, A., &
Masi, G. (2010). Is season of birth related to developmental dyslexia? Annals Of Dyslexia, 60(2), 175-182.
Kasey S. Buckles & Daniel M. Hungerman, 2013. Season of birth and later outcomes:
Old questions, new answers, The Review of Economics and Statistics, 95(3). doi: 10.3386/w14573. Retrieved from http://www.nber.org/papers/w14573.pdf
Landau, E. C., Cicchetti, D. V., Klin, A., & Volkmar, F. R. (1999). Season of birth in
autism: A fiction revisited. Journal Of Autism And Developmental Disorders, 29(5), 385-93.
Lawlor, D. A., Clark, H., Ronalds, G., & Leon, D. A. (2006). Season of birth and
childhood intelligence: Findings from the Aberdeen children of the 1950s cohort study. British Journal Of Educational Psychology, 76(3), 481-499.
Martin, R. P., Foels, P., Clanton, G., & Moon, K. (2004). Season of birth is related to
child retention rates, achievement, and rate of diagnosis of specific LD. Journal Of Learning Disabilities, 37(4), 307-317.
Mascie-Taylor, C. N. (1980). Season of Birth, IQ Components, and Personality
Traits. Journal Of Genetic Psychology, 137(1), 151-52
Verachtert, P., De Fraine, B., Onghena, P., & Ghesquiere, P. (2010). Season of birth and