SEED: Social InEquality and its Effects on child Development: A study of birth cohorts in the UK, Germany and the Netherlands

About the project

Marked differences in early child development (specifically oral language skills and socio-emotional development) have opened up before compulsory schooling begins. These manifest as social inequalities which, for many, persist through childhood and into work. The SEED project explores the mechanisms by which this happens by drawing on the best data from a range of different countries.

SEED has two principal objectives: 1) To identify the mechanisms through which changing social inequalities impact on children’s oral language and socio-emotional development; 2)To identify the implications that these evolving social disparities have for patterns of performance at school age and beyond into adolescence and adulthood.

Progress

The consortium has continued to make considerable progress towards meeting the objectives. A contribution has been made to research symposia at targeted conferences and to the DIAL Mid-term Conference in Turku in June 2019. Furthermore, the team has been preparing publications for submission and have drawn in members of the SEED team from other countries as appropriate. A thematic workshop on “Education and Social Inequalities” was also organized by the team to strengthen the connections between the project and other projects funded by the DIAL programme. Through a dedicated strategy, the consortium is aiming to influence policy related to the European Commission.