Qualities for academic success
The cognitive hypothesis is the belief that success depends primarily on cognitive skills—verbal, nonverbal, processing speed and working memory and the ability to recognise letters and sounds, to calculate, and detect patterns—and the best way to develop these skills is to practice them as much as possible, beginning as early as possible.
Paul Tough in his New York Times best seller How Children Succeed comments that the cognitive hypothesis was first penned in 1994 from a published report sounding an alarm about the cognitive development of children in the United States. From this paper, and the studies that followed, policy makers and philanthropists focused their attention on cognitive training and intervention for early childhood. One study from two psychologists, Betty Hart and Todd R. Risley, concluded that children raised by professional parents had heard three times as many words than their welfare counterparts, by the time they were age three. Therefore it was naturally concluded that fewer books in a home meant smaller vocabulary for the child, and more maths sheets from a tutor meant better mathematics scores.
For certain skills, the cognitive hypothesis of start earlier and practice more is valid. The more books you read the better at reading you will become. The more tennis balls you hit, the better at tennis you'll become. Of course this stands to reason, just think about the much written about 10,000 hour rule. However, economists, educators, psychologists, and neuroscientists are producing evidence challenging the assumptions behind the cognitive hypothesis, and raising questions about qualities or characteristics essential for academic success.
Qualities for academic success
Literacy, numeracy, problem solving, and reading comprehension attainment are important skills for potential academic success. However, research suggests it is the development of character traits or qualities such as persistence, self-control, curiosity, conscientiousness, grit, and self-confidence that are key to developing not only a resilient mindset, ability to bounce back from setbacks, but also support academic success. To understand how these qualities are developed in children and how they succeed, it is also important to know what thwarts success.
Hindrances to success
The Adverse Childhood Experiences study by Felitti and Anda (2006) was profoundly insightful with respect to how adverse childhood experiences (ACE) correlate with adult outcomes. Researchers found the more adverse a child's experiences the more negative adult outcomes. Higher childhood ACE scores resulted in adults being twice as likely to smoke, seven times more likely to be an alcoholic, and seven times more likely to have sex under the age of 15. Not surprisingly the result of self destructive behaviours increased the risk of diseases such as cancer, heart and liver disease, emphysema and lung disorders two fold. Even the risk of suicide was higher.
Traumatic childhood events produce feelings of low self-esteem or worthlessness. These feelings can lead to addictions, depression, and even suicide. According to current research, the key channel through which early adversity causes damage to the developing brain and body is stress.
The Stress Cycle
When children perceive an environmental threat, even just thinking about it, the stress cycle kicks in. The part of the brain most affected by early childhood stress is the prefrontal cortex which is critical for self-regulation. Children who grow up in stressful environments generally find it harder to concentrate, to sit still and follow directions, and hold information in mind to use—working memory. They have more difficulty rebounding from disappointment and doing well in school.
The stress cycle impacts heart rate and increases levels of adrenaline. When there is persistent stress, cortisol is released and remains in the blood system for longer. The process of managing stress creates wear and tear on the body. Adverse childhood experiences increase the stress response, alters the biochemical status of the child's brain and body, and causes long lasting psychological, cognitive, emotional, social, and behavioural concerns and difficulties.
Parenting for success
Research suggests there is an anecdote to early stress; parents or caregivers. Nurture and care fosters resilience. The effects of good parenting does not only impact a child's emotional and psychological wellbeing but also a child's biochemistry. Subsequently, when we are talking about the essential qualities for academic success, the route for the development of these qualities in the child is through parenting and care-giving.
John Bowlby (1969) and Mary Ainsworth's (1973) ground breaking research in attachment theory (https://www.simplypsychology.org/mary-ainsworth.html) along with Meany's (2000) research looking at how infant rats are affected through the licking and grooming from their mother, clearly show that the more responsive a species is to their young the better the offspring thrives (https://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/epigenetics/rats/).
To support the research around the positive impact of responsive parenting even further, Gary Evans research (2000) found the higher the environmental risk score (which measured a range of factors from ambient noise in a child's home to family friction) the higher the stress load (measure of blood pressure, stress hormone in urine, and body mass index). However what buffered the stress load and resulting score was a responsive parent—or in this study, a responsive mother.
Evans observed that when a mother was particularly responsive and sensitive to her child's emotional state during a simple game of Jenga, this counter balanced the child's negative experiences by providing a positive effect of calming the central nervous system, hence lowering stress levels. Regular good parenting such as reading to your child at nighttime, helping them with their homework, solving a friendship problem, or playing a game and being helpful and attentive during the interaction can make a profound difference for a child's future prospects.
Responsive and attentive parenting
The attachment between a parent or caregiver and their child has profound consequences for buffering stress and adverse childhood experiences and is the core of where responsiveness and good parenting lies.
Strouf and Egeland conducted a longitudinal study summarised in their book, The Development of the Person (2005). This study looked at the long–lasting effects of early parental relationships on child development. Teachers in the study rated children in kindergarten with secure attachment to their parent as more attentive and engaged and rarely acted out in class. These same students at age 10 were reported to be more self confident, curious, and better able to deal with setbacks. When in high school it was found that early parental relationships and secure attachment became a reliable predictor of who would graduate—more than IQ or achievement.
When a parent is nurturing and responsiveness to their child's needs and cues they help build self-confidence, resilience, grit, self-control, and curiosity in their young.
Less pressure, more nurture
For decades the cognitive hypothesis —the belief that success depends primarily on cognitive skills and the best way to develop these skills is to practice them as much as possible, beginning as early as possible—hung over the minds of parents and educators as the reasoning for cramming in as much as educationally possible into little developing minds. Research has shifted this paradigm to a more realistic, calmer, nurturing, and intuitive way of raising children. Despite the environment, adversity, or the IQ a child was born with, positive, responsive parenting can buffer negative events and circumstances and produce the qualities of self-confidence, resilience, grit, self-control, and curiosity, for academic success.
Tough, P. (2013). How Children Succeed. Houghton Miffin Harcourt: New York, NY
Evans, G.W. (2007). Cumulative Risk, Maternal Responsiveness, and Allostatic Load Among Young Adolescents. Developmental Psychology 43(2).