- 'It can 'cause major developmental harm, and at worst a shortened lifespan', claims expert
By Richard Hartley-parkinson
Published: | Updated:
Children should not have to start school until they are six to prevent early 'adultification', an academic has claimed.
Going against conventional wisdom that their intellect should be fed and stimulated early on, education expert Dr Richard House says that over-emphasis on the three Rs - reading, writing and arithmetic - can actually cause long-term damage.
The senior lecturer at Roehampton's University for Therapeutic Education added that rather than starting school at the current standard age of four or five, those with 'runaway intellect' would do better if they were slowed down.
Schoolchildren would be allowed to develop more naturally if they started at six years old academic Dr Richard House says
He said that only children from deprived backgrounds should enter formal education at the younger age because they would 'benefit from such early interventions'.
Calling on the Government to look again at the school starting age, he will outline findings of an empirical study on the topic to the Westminster Education Forum later today.
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Dr House told the Daily Telegraph: 'The conventional wisdom is that naturally intelligent children should have their intellect fed and stimulated at a young age, so they are not held back.
'Yet these new empirical findings strongly suggest that exactly the opposite may well be the case, and that young children's runaway intellect actually needs to be slowed down in the early years if they are not to risk growing up in an intellectually unbalanced way, with possible life-long negative health effects.'
LEGAL SCHOOL STARTING AGES ACROSS EUROPE
FOUR: Northern Ireland
FIVE: England, Malta, Netherlands, Scotland, Wales
SIX: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Republic of Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey
SEVEN: Bulgaria, Estonia,Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Sweden
He added: 'The evidence is now quite overwhelming that such an early introduction to institutional learning is not only quite unnecessary for the vast majority of children, but can actually cause major developmental harm, and at worst a shortened lifespan.'
An 80-year study in the U.S. found that children who started later and developed naturally benefited from being slowed down.
Dr House said that bright children put into education too early could even suffer life-long negative health effects if they grew up in an 'intellectually unbalanced way'.
A similar study was carried out in 2009 when Professor Greg Brooks at Sheffield University also said that formal schooling should be started two years later.
Another study found that England's starting age is among the lowest in Europe. Legally pupils must start at five but the vast majority now begin at four which has, in the past, been branded a relic of the Victorian age.
In 2009 Professor Brooks told the previous government that some children 'do not get' reading if forced to start at four.
Children would have reached a level of maturity that would enable them to grasp reading more easily if they began at six, he told MPs.
'The evidence is now quite overwhelming that such an early introduction to institutional learning is not only quite unnecessary for the vast majority of children, but can actually cause major developmental harm, and at worst a shortened lifespan.'
Dr Richard House
'We induct children into formal school too young in this country,' Professor Brooks told the Commons science and technology select committee.
Twenty out of 34 European countries have a starting age of six, while a further eight wait until seven. In the U.S., children start between four and six.
A spokesman for the Department for Education said: 'It is vital that all children get a thorough grounding in the basics from an early age – the three Rs form the bedrock of education.
'There is a wealth of international evidence which shows how much each additional month of education benefits a child’s development and achievement by age 11.
'The new early years foundation stage, starting this September, focuses on getting all children ready for education at age five and increasing their attainment.'
