A baby at the Bristol University Baby Lab University of Bristol
Why do some children struggle when starting school whilst others flourish? A new University of Bristol-led research project will investigate how a child's brain develops, allowing them to learn new things, and how new experiences might shape brain changes during the first 5 years of their life. This is the first time changes in the brain and children's developing skills have been studied in a lab-based setting across early childhood in the same group of children.
Thanks to Wellcome funding of nearly £4.5 million the BLOCCS study (Bristol Longitudinal study Of Childhood Cognition from infancy to School) hopes to understand the most important cognitive skills children develop in their early years. These skills include language, concentration, the ability to quickly understand and react to new information, and being able to change behaviour in everyday life. The study is in collaboration with Cardiff University, Radboud University Medical Centre and the Donders Institute in The Netherlands.
The project will recruit 300 children from Bristol's Children of the 90s study (also known as the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children), who will be assessed across 7 time points between 6 months and 5 years of age (at 6 months, 12 months,
18 months, 2 years, 3 years, 4 years and 5 years). MRI scans will also be carried out at 6 months, 3 years, and 5 years.
During the first 5 years of the child's life, the researchers will look at how the brain's development and the key cognitive skills prepare children to start school. This is to understand more about why some children struggle in school, academically and/or socially.
The study is led by Dr Karla Holmboe, Associate Professor in Developmental Science in the School of Psychological Science at the University of Bristol, and Director of the Bristol University Baby Lab (BUBL).
She said: "I'm very excited about our study as, for the first time, we will be able to look 'under the hood' into children's brains across the first 5 years of life at the same time as measuring the development of their language, thinking and concentration skills.
"The first 5 years of life is a key time for development – not only do children grow at the fastest rate in their lifetime, but they also develop a vast range of new skills and abilities, setting children up for later success or difficulties. Children who struggle in their early years often continue to struggle throughout their school years and into adulthood.
"We hope our research will identify the factors that lead to difficulties when a child starts school, to better be able to support those children from the earliest possible age."
Rogier Kievit, Professor of Developmental Neuroscience at the Donders Institute/RadboudUMC, and a co-investigator on the study, added: "This unique design will allow us to model not just why children differ from each other, but how they develop over time, and how brain and mind interact."
Mara Cercignani, Professor of Neuroimaging and Head of MRI at Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre, who will lead on MRI data collection and analysis, explained: "This unique set of neuroimaging data will enable us to explore how brain structure and function co-develop with cognitive abilities, providing valuable insights into early brain and cognitive development."
The study's findings will benefit the scientific community and other stakeholders by giving insight into the development of individual differences in core cognitive abilities and brain development at one of the most critical times in the human lifespan.
The data collected on early childhood cognitive and brain development will be made available to other researchers, so further research questions can be addressed by using existing and future Children of the 90s data.
Participating families will be recruited from the original child participants of the Children of the 90s birth cohort. They are now in their 30s, are having children, and have already taken part in many assessments themselves since their own childhood. This will give the research team useful information about the parents and their background, which will help researchers understand more about how their children develop.
Children of the 90s recruited over 14,000 pregnant women from the Bristol area between 1991 and 1992, and has followed the lives of the women, the children and their partners ever since.
