Mind the Gap: exploring changes in cognitive ability in the pre-school years
This local AQMeN Edinburgh seminar will be presented by Paul Bradshaw of ScotCen. Paul works on a wide range of studies involving quantitative and qualitative methods and across a number of policy areas.
His principal role is associated with the management and development of the Growing Up in Scotland study, a large scale, longitudinal cohort study.
Drawing on his background in crime and justice research, Paul also currently leads a number of mixed method evaluations in the criminal justice field each assessing the implementation of key reforms to justice procedures in Scotland.
Paul will present findings from analysis of data from the Growing Up in Scotland study (GUS), a longitudinal birth and child cohort study, which explored change in cognitive ability between the ages of 3 and 5 for approximately 4000 Scottish children. The analysis examined the extent to which early gaps in ability by children’s socio-economic circumstances remain, reduce or increase during this period. It identifies those children who see a relative improvement (or otherwise) in their ability - beyond that which would be expected by their increase in age - and identifies the factors associated with better improvement in cognitive ability between the ages of 3 and 5. Evidence from GUS goes beyond existing analysis of other British data by investigating which factors, beyond indicators of socio-economic status, impact on changes in cognitive development between the ages of 3 and 5. As well as data on vocabulary acquisition, the GUS analysis examines changes in development associated with problem-solving ability.
Venue
University of Edinburgh, Main Library, Room 1.09, 30 George Square, Edinburgh, EH8 9LJ.
