The ability to read and do math signals the future of children

Adults can rely on their ability to do math and reading at the age of 7 to predict their income and career in the future.

Stuart Ritchie and Timothy Bates, two psychologists of the University of Edinburgh in the UK, want to know the relationship between the ability to learn math, reading for income, social status and the work of future students. They analyzed data about about 17,000 people in England, Scotland and Wales. Data were collected continuously since their birth in 1958 to date, Science Daily reported.

Parents should be interested in reading and writing skills
your child's math before the seventh year. (Photo: uwec.edu)

The team found that the ability of children to read and do math at age 7 is an important factor for their lives after 35 years. Most children with good reading and math skills have higher incomes, bigger homes and more promising jobs than those with poor reading and math skills. For example, the income of the two groups may be as much as USD 7,750 at the 42nd age.

The results are still true after the team excludes other factors, such as intelligence index, school time, social class, skills in childhood. The team thinks that genes may be important.

"Gene decides a lot of differences between children. We are doing a study for twins and we hope that the study will help us analyze the effects related to genes and the environment. "The team said.

The study is published in the Association for Psychological Science magazine .