Researchers discovered a child’s attention problems in kindergarten can signal problems later in school and life, according to a study released this week.
Using data that spanned decades, the authors examined three types of challenges - children who act out or "externalize," students who struggle with depression, anxiety or other “internalizing” and kids with attention problems, according to the University of California Davis School of Medicine study.
Inattentiveness "was the only behavior that consistently predicted lower scores on reading and math achievement tests administered more than a decade later," according to a research summary.
"In our study, a child's inability to pay attention when they start school had the strongest negative effect on how they performed at the end of high school - regardless of their IQ (intelligence quotient)," Joshua Breslau, assistant professor of internal medicine at UC Davis School of Medicine and lead author of the study, said in the summary.
It is an important finding because it could help teachers and parents notice and deal with the problem, which can be tied to Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, poor nutrition or lack of sleep, instead of waiting to see if the child outgrows the behavior, researchers said.
"The study adds to a growing body of evidence that suggests that attention problems can inhibit learning and that early onset psychiatric disorders are in part to blame for later failure in high school," the resarch summary said.
Researchers said more study is needed, but they urged policymakers to act.
"Providing school-based mental health professionals should be a priority for education policy makers, because classroom interventions, counseling and — in some cases — treatment for psychiatric disorders, could mitigate these attention problems," co-author Elizabeth Miller, a UC Davis assistant professor of pediatrics, said in the summary.
The research was published in the June issue of Pediatrics, though you have to pay to read it.
Further free reading: