Sparling – outcomes

The Abecedarian studies have over the years taken IQ as one of the important measures that we did. It’s not that we believe that IQ is such an important variable over other variables, but it’s known to relate very well, very strongly to school success. If you manage to be a little smarter, you’re likely to do a little better, and it’s kind of a measure that predicts how kids are going to do in school and in life, and we have been able to see for example in the very first study and in the study I mentioned for you about the low birth weight babies that the IQs of the children in the experimental control group diverge rather quickly and between 18 months and 24 months, somewhere in that period of time, the two groups become significantly different so that one group has an IQ advantage over the other, and by age three, the difference is quiet large, quiet striking. Now in the groups that we have followed for a long period of time, such as the original Abecedarian group, when we measured IQ at age 21, which is the last time we measured it, we still had a significant difference. By that time, it had been about a 15 point IQ difference, it was only about five points by that time. The groups has kind of merged together, but the difference between five IQ points meant the difference in terms of going to university of a 23 per cent graduation rate for the experimental group and a six per cent graduation rate for the control group. In other words, a four fold increase. 

Now, what’s interesting about this, remember this is a very at risk group. Twenty three per cent University graduation is what Canada has for the general population. It’s what the United States has for the general population. It’s what Australia happens to have for the general…this is a very at risk group, and that’s their graduation rate. It just shows that just because you were disadvantaged; you came from a poor family or poor neighbourhood, you don’t have to do worse than the general population, and I think that’s very good news. It shows that early childhood can have a lasting effect, not a small and temporary effect.