The early learning community spends a lot of time on quality in preschool and pre-kindergarten, but new research suggests cognitive gaps between poor and middle class children show up in the first year of life, and that income and a mother’s education are the two biggest factors.

By nine months of age kids from lower income families scored lower on cognitive tests and were less likely to be in excellent or very good health than kids above the threshold for working poverty – 200 percent of the federal poverty line. These disparities grew by the time children were two years old.

Meaningful differences are being detected as early as 9 and 24 months; this speaks to the need to intervene early in children’s lives to address the gaps in development. In particular, research suggests that interventions should be high-quality, comprehensive and continuous for children ages 0 to 3 as well as ages 3 to 5. – “Disparities in Early Learning and Development: Lessons from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study.”

The report offers plenty of recommendations, such as parent education, but with a few twists. For example, it suggests helping mom and dad finish high school or get a higher degree as part of an intervention.

Why? The report found income and a mother’s education are the biggest factors, trumping race and ethnicity. In fact, babies of mothers who didn’t hold a high school degree scored worse on a behavior index than those moms who finished college, the report, which was funded by the Council of Chief State School Officers, said.

Racial and ethnic gaps in school readiness and later achievement have been a focus for many researchers. However, an examination of the distribution of sociodemographic risk factors noted in this report indicate that low income and low maternal education are the more common risk factors for young children.

Since many lower-income parents rely on in-home care, researchers also recommend more efforts to improve curriculum and professional development in those settings.

There is a lot more work to do, the authors stressed, since there is little research about gaps occurring among infants. They also warned against drawing causal links between risk factors and outcomes.