Academic Ability: How Raisins Can Predict A Toddler's Future

First Posted: Nov 19, 2015 11:04 AM EST
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A study from the University of Warwick has revealed that a simple test, using merely a plastic cup and a piece of dried fruit, can predict a toddler's academic ability by the time they are eight years old. With an opaque plastic cup and a raisin, researchers found they could predict how a 20-month-old (one year, eight months) child will perform when they're around third-grade age.

The team of researchers, led by Dieter Wolke, gave toddlers a raisin, placed directly in front of them under a semitransparent plastic cup within their reach. After giving the toddler three training runs to explain the task to them, the researchers asked them to wait to touch and eat the raisin until they were told - 60 seconds after its placed.

"An easy, five-minute raisin game task represents a promising new tool for follow-up assessments to predict attention regulation and learning in preterm and term born children," Wolke, a professor of Psychology at Warwick Medical School, said in a news release. "The results also point to potential innovative avenues to early intervention after preterm birth." 

The findings, published in the Journal of Pediatrics, showed that those who were born very prematurely were the most likely of all the children to take the raisin early, and a follow up study seven years later showed that the children who couldn't wait the full 60 seconds were not performing well in school when compared to the children who did wait.

The follow up study saw the children evaluated at eight age by a team of psychologists and pediatricians. The team used three behavior ratings of attention - from their mothers, the psychologists, and the overall research team. Academic achievement was assessed with standardized tests that measured abilities in math, reading, and spelling and writing.

According to Julia Jaekel, the study's lead author, "this new finding is a key piece in the puzzle of long-term underachievement after preterm birth."

The study's data collecting process began in 1985 as part of the Bavarian Longitudinal Study, and is still ongoing. It examined 558 total children, born between 25 and 41 weeks gestation, broken into two groups: preterm, 25-38 weeks, and full-term, 39-41 weeks. The researchers believe that the study opened a door to realizing and helping to address the cognitive issues faced by many preterm-birthed children.

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