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Study: Children born in summer are 13 months behind peers in math

It comes after a separate study found children with birthdays in the summer are more likely to be unhappy at school, have low self esteem and are less likely to be accepted into top universities.

Children who struggle with numbers are also more likely to be boys, much more likely to qualify for free school meals, to have Special Educational Needs, to speak English as a second language and to come from an ethnic minority background.

But with a short but intense tutoring scheme struggling children can catch up with their peers

After just 3.7 months of support, the children made average gains of 15.7 months.

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Read Outliers: The Story of Success (by Malcolm Gladwell). He explores the impact of month of birth on the rest of one’s life early in the book.

lester on November 24, 2012 at 6:08 PM

So, hear is a question: is there any demographic tilt to when children are conceived? Or is this just another “flip a coin enough times and eventually you will get a run of fives heads in a row”?

Count to 10 on November 24, 2012 at 6:22 PM

We need to spend more money on education.

davidk on November 24, 2012 at 6:24 PM

Aug. 4 is in the summer – see Obama, debt, deficit and all sorts of figures, alas…just ribbing lester.

Schadenfreude on November 24, 2012 at 6:26 PM

Read Outliers: The Story of Success (by Malcolm Gladwell). He explores the impact of month of birth on the rest of one’s life early in the book.

lester on November 24, 2012 at 6:08 PM

\

Don’t bother….I read it. Poorly researched, mostly anecdotal and conclusions are iffy at best.

Mitsouko on November 24, 2012 at 6:34 PM

Children who struggle with numbers are also more likely to be boys, much more likely to qualify for free school meals, to have Special Educational Needs, to speak English as a second language and to come from an ethnic minority background.

I imagine the key here is the special education needs.

Mitsouko on November 24, 2012 at 6:37 PM

This is crap. I was born in summer and I was never behind at all in math, let alone a full two years as the article claims.

Gingotts on November 24, 2012 at 6:43 PM

Children who struggle with numbers are also more likely to be boys, much more likely to qualify for free school meals, to have Special Educational Needs, to speak English as a second language and to come from an ethnic minority background.

…

INITIATIVE FOUND CHILDREN WHO STRUGGLED WITH MATHS WERE:

35 per cent more likely to have been born between May 1 and August 31 (45 per cent compared to 33 per cent)
Twice as likely to be on Free School Meals (39 per cent as compared to 19 per cent national average)
2 and half times as likely to be children with Special Educational Needs (51 per cent as compared to 20 per cent)
35 per cent more likely to be from an Ethnic Minority (37 per cent as compared with 27 per cent)
50 per cent more likely to speak English as an Additional Language (26 per cent as compared to 17 per cent)
Slightly more likely to be boys than girls (53 per cent compared to 47 per cent)

It being England would assuming the ESL students are Muslim be wrong?

davidk on November 24, 2012 at 6:44 PM

Oh yah. Another study that confuses correlation with causation.

Summer birthdays have nothing to do with the math lag. It’s the special education or the second language.

But that’s probably racist or something, so sure… blame it on the birthday.

byepartisan on November 24, 2012 at 6:45 PM

My daughter, born in August (That’s still in the summer, isn’t it? Or did they change that?), graduated High School at the ripe old age of 16. And she was more advanced in math at 9 years old than in any other subject.

So the above study must be true, right?

John Hitchcock on November 24, 2012 at 6:46 PM

But I’m SURE the answer is to provide more government-provided birth control Sept-Dec, to avoid these dangerous summer birthdays.

byepartisan on November 24, 2012 at 6:48 PM

But I’m SURE the answer is to provide more government-provided birth control Sept-Dec, to avoid these dangerous summer birthdays.

byepartisan on November 24, 2012 at 6:48 PM

Actually, the appropriate response is to increase birth control in January through August so that all babies are born in the summer. That way everyone can be behind equally.

philoquin on November 24, 2012 at 6:58 PM

35 per cent more likely to have been born between May 1 and August 31 (45 per cent compared to 33 per cent)

From the comment thread…

In a reception year their can be 12 months between the kids born aug 31. Start school september age 4. Born Sept 1 start school September age 5. How can there not be a gap in ability. All children should start school after the 5th birthday and not before. Problem solved.

- just my thoughts, in the world, 23/11/2012 16:45

sharrukin on November 24, 2012 at 6:58 PM

My daughter was not only born in summer, she was a month premature, so she was able to start school a few weeks after turning five. She is the happiest, self reported most awesome person, and she has been on the honor roll since she started school. Oh, and she was reading at 11th grade level in 3rd grade and she tests advanced in math.

Aug. 4 is in the summer – see Obama, debt, deficit and all sorts of figures, alas…just ribbing lester.

Schadenfreude on November 24, 2012 at 6:26 PM

Sadly, two of my sisters share a birthday with that moron.

Night Owl on November 24, 2012 at 7:00 PM

Don’t bother….I read it. Poorly researched, mostly anecdotal and conclusions are iffy at best.

Mitsouko on November 24, 2012 at 6:34 PM

If anyone considers tables upon tables of data an consequent pages of analysis “anecdotes” then yes, don’t bother. Read a book about ponies instead.

lester on November 24, 2012 at 7:06 PM

*and

lester on November 24, 2012 at 7:11 PM

Lester, you’re confusing correlation with causation. Doesn’t matter how many tables or pages of analysis… it’s irrelevant.

byepartisan on November 24, 2012 at 7:16 PM

I have found through years of research examining empirical data (watching movies) that a far higher percentage of the top actors and actresses are left-handed; therefore, left-handedness is a sure sign for a proclivity toward hypocritical Socialism and a false sense of one’s worth.

Who’s to say I’m wrong? My data is at least as conclusive and unassailable as lester’s data.

John Hitchcock on November 24, 2012 at 7:18 PM

In Canada the calendar cutoff date for school is January 1st, so it is fall/winter babies who are the young ones when school starts. It would be interesting to see a comparison between our summer babies and their fall/winter babies. There has to be a cutoff date sometime, so whenever it is there will be kids on the young or the old side of the date, hence these issues.

txmomof6 on November 24, 2012 at 7:21 PM

Lester, you’re confusing correlation with causation. Doesn’t matter how many tables or pages of analysis… it’s irrelevant.

byepartisan on November 24, 2012 at 7:16 PM

And when did I claim causation?

He explores the impact of month of birth on the rest of one’s life early in the book.

The entire book is about patterns and how they relate. Some of them have been studied and proven/disproven. Some are well known facts today that mystified people before.

lester on November 24, 2012 at 7:31 PM

That must be why my son, born in August, got the permission of his teachers to work as far ahead of his class in math as he feels capable, which currently puts him one year ahead.

CurtZHP on November 24, 2012 at 8:01 PM

I figure that any child born in the summer would automatically discard any silly word problems asking how many ridiculous hours it would take Jill and Bob to canoe their way to Anytown upstream.

viking01 on November 24, 2012 at 8:21 PM

I was born in August, and I believe it.

Nice now to understand why math came hard, when other subjects came easy. I blamed math teachers. Now I blame August.

Phew. I feel better now.

petefrt on November 24, 2012 at 8:57 PM

I was born in October and because I was 4 when when the school year started in September, the public school would not enroll me. However, I was bored in my preschool classes and rather than see me regress, my parents enrolled me in Catholic school for kindergarten. I was always one of the younger kids in my class (graduated high school at 17 when all of my friends were 18). I did quite well in math up until around the 4th grade; my dad blames it on the “new math” the progressives were trying out at the time. I struggled and never quite caught up, but I never had any trouble with other classes, despite being younger. To the extent my grades suffered in high school, it was entirely my own fault for being lazy and undisciplined. That turned around in college. Bottom line: There are so many variables present in why a kid does or does not do well in school. Some younger kids are better suited to starting school early; some might do well to be held back. We really ought to judge on an individual basis rather than trying to pigeon hole.

NoLeftTurn on November 24, 2012 at 9:46 PM