Earliest Trends

This past week the New York Times covered a study that has uncovered paradoxical trends in the birth outcomes and cognitive scores of babies born to Hispanic immigrant mothers.

Looking at national data, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley found that Hispanic immigrant mothers had more positive prenatal practices than native Hispanic and white mothers (e.g. significantly less reported substance use) and that their babies were born as healthy as white babies. In addition, babies born to these mothers had comparable cognitive scores for the first 15 months. However by the age of 2 cognitive scores had fallen, a decline that continued leaving a "significant gap even at age 3".

The authors speculate that differences in literacy practices and verbal interaction may contribute to this decline. With outcomes starting remarkably positive for the children of immigrant mothers, there is great potential for early intervention to sustain these outcomes.