Numerous studies carried out by researchers have revealed that the age of a child when they enter school plays a major role in their academic success and more particularly in the development of their cognitive abilities. Older and therefore more mature, a child born at the beginning of the year, for example, will perform better than a student born at the end of the year.
It is often said that first names have an impact on a child’s personality, but also have repercussions on their adult life, but apparently this is not the only data to take into account! If we wonder what factors to take into account as well as the best education to give a child every chance to succeed at school, researchers have tried to answer this question.
If a study has already determined this surprising reason which makes children perform better in their schooling, researchers from the University of Toronto, Florida and Northwestern tried to identify if academic success is correlated to the month of birth of a child. Published in the National Bureau of Economic Research in 2017, this study called “ School leaving age and cognitive development» demonstrated that children perform differently depending on their month of birth.
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A month of birth which depends on his entry into school
To collect as much data as possible, the researchers analyzed the academic results as well as the cognitive abilities of nearly 1.2 million children between 6 and 15 years old following ordinary schooling. Although they were initially divided based on their month of birth, it was quickly revealed that there was a notable difference between the children based on their birthdays.
According to the results of the study, it was revealed that children born during the month of August were the ones who suffered the most academic difficulties. A phenomenon which is explained by the fact that being born in August, these children find themselves the youngest in their class in the United States. Indeed, in the country it is possible to send your child to nursery school only when he or she reaches the age of five. So if he celebrates this age only in September, he will not start school until the following year and will therefore be older than the other students in his class. A logic which is confirmed by the results of the study which showed that those born in September perform best at school while benefiting from greater self-confidence and greater cognitive abilities.
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A different system in France
In France, the situation is somewhat different. Indeed, a child who turns 3 after starting school in September, but before December 31 of that same year can still start school. He therefore finds himself in class with children who have reached the age of 3 between January and September. It is therefore the little ones born in December who are therefore the youngest in the class in France while those born in January are simply the oldest.
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Data confirmed by a survey by the International Program for Student Assessment (Pisa) in 2020 carried out on 15-year-old students. This revealed that those who were the youngest when they entered the schooling system had more difficulties at school and were more likely to repeat a grade in primary school. A childhood psychologist, Lucie Rose, speaks on the subject in theFigaro Student: “If you take a child who is 10 months apart from others in his class in CP, this can represent a big difference in terms of cognitive development or even learning to read. The deleterious impact can be at the level of self-confidence“. A difference which tends to diminish over time after its phase of “development“.
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