Running head: THE EFFECT OF PEVERTY ON INFANTS AND TODDLERS
The Effects of Poverty on Infants and Toddlers
Cristal Liz Reyes
Sport Medical Sciences Academy
February 25, 2015
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THE EFFECT OF PEVERTY ON INFANTS AND TODDLERS
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The Effects of Poverty on Infants and Toddlers
Poverty has a devastating effect on children, especially infants and toddlers. “Poverty is a
condition in which people lack the resources to obtain basic necessities in order to live and thrive
in society,” (Hand on Hartford, 2). In other word poverty is when a person does not have enough
income to provide for their self or their family when they do not have enough money for food,
clothing, and even shelter at times. In the United States, children are the poorest age group.
Nearly 22 percent of children were poor in 2012, compared to 13.7 percent of people age 18-64
and 9.1 percent of people age 65 and older (Child Poverty America, 2013). One in five children
are considered poor (Child Poverty America, 2013). Infants and toddlers are the most affected
when living in poverty because they are in the age group when their brain are developing the
most. Growing up in poverty is devastating to a child development and will impact their
physical, cognitive, emotional which will in result their education.
Growing up facing the conditions of poverty as a child can causes many health problems.
Children in poverty can have lifelong health problem that can affect their adult life. As an infant
they can start having chronic health problem like high risk of chronic conditions such as: birth
defects, growth problems, malnutrition, asthma, diabetes, hearing, vision, and speech problems.
A child or adult living in poverty has 32% of becoming sick with one of these conditions then a
child or adult that is not poor. (Magnuson and Votruba- Drzal, 2009). This can be compared to
the 22% of children that are not poor. Poverty negatively impacts ability to obtain adequate
healthcare. Children that grow up in poverty conditions have lifelong health problems that can
affect them throughout their life. For example asthma has one of the highest correlations of
health problems for children raised in poverty. “For children under the 6 years old of age 4.2% of
poor verses 3.1% of non-poor children have asthma.” ( Knight. C, 2010). These children have
THE EFFECT OF PEVERTY ON INFANTS AND TODDLERS
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40% fewer doctor visits and more hospital visits because lack of adequate access to preventive
medical care. Many times children are exposed to toxic substance, dust mites, and cockroach
droppings which promote asthma and other diseases.
Many different aspects of poverty effect a child’s mental health development. For
example children in poverty have less access to toys, books and proper daycare and preschool
which effects their mental development. Often parents have so many economic/social problems
that they at times have problems parenting and in turn have negative child-parent relationships.
The brain is developing the fastest around the infant and toddler ages and studies have
shown that the link between economic hardship meaning “poverty” and compromised can affect
the child’s behavior, learning and achievements, when they become older. According to scientist
80% of the brain develops from conception to age 2. (Brown F). Nutrition has a great impact on
this development. Children from poor homes often don’t have the means to feed their children
adequately. Therefore many children’s have brain development is affected. According to the
Washington University School of medicine, poverty is associated with smaller brain volumes
and emotional processing, and memory issues.
Poverty has a direct impact on children’s education and schooling opportunities. Children
that live within poverty that attend school have very bad attendance. 87% of children that attend
school only 77% of those children attend school regularly (Rumberger R., 2013). In addition, to
attendance problems children living in families with low income “poverty” move at least once a
year. The parents have problems finding apartments they can afford and there for more quite
often many children are also homelessly. According to studies it is hard to find safe and
affordable housing for a long period of time and many children move 5-6 times during their
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school years (Rumberger R., 2013). Making it harder for the child. A child loses 3-6 mounts of
education every time they move schools, (Rumberger R., 2013) one way of teach and 23% of
homeless children repeat grades, and 13% are placed in special education classes. (National
coalitional of homeless, 2007). Many more end up dropping out of school. In families that were
in the bottom of the 20% of the income bracket were five times more likely to dropout then a
student from a higher income level. Children that come from poverty continue to fall behind in
school. Many do not obtain enough education to get themselves out of poverty so the cycle
repeats itself.
The effect of poverty on infants and toddlers are remarkable. Children are impacted in so
many way such as health problem that not only can be a problems as a child but can become a
bigger one growing up. As an infant and throughout the toddler age the brain is development the
most. Children living in poverty can start having brain development issues because of the way
they are living and can start being a problem when they start school. This can lead to learning
disabilities. Learning disabilities can help children grow up thinking they are stupid and think “I
CANT DO IT”. This can start becoming a problem with attendance issues that can lead to
dropping out of school completely and the cycle repeats once again. In my capstone project I
would be helping families in such poverty they had to choice a shelter as their home. I would
collect diapers and give them to a shelter for mothers called My Sisters Place and pervade them
with at least 2000 free donated diapers at well help babies and toddlers.
THE EFFECT OF PEVERTY ON INFANTS AND TODDLERS
References
Krutsing A., Policy Associate, Zero to Three, & Zero to Three Policy Center Intern Tarr N.
(2011). Poverty fact sheet: Implications for infant and toddlers. Retrieved from
http://www.zerotothree.org/public-policy/pdf/poverty-fact-sheet-5-10-11-final.pdf
Magnuson K., & Votruba-Drzal E. (2009). Enduring influences of childhood poverty. Focus,
26(2). Retrieved from http://www.irp.wisc.edu/publications/focus/pdfs/foc262f.pdf
DC Diaper Bank. (2012). Why Diaper?. Retrieved from
http://www.dcdiaperbank.org/about/why/
Children’s defense fund. (2013). Child poverty in America 2012 national analysis. Retrieved
from http://www.childrensdefense.org/child-research-data-publications/data/childpoverty-in-america-2012.pdf
Hands on Hartford. (N.A.). Poverty. Retrieved from
http://www.handsonhartford.org/Issues_Poverty
Ratcliffe C., & McKernan S. (2012). Child poverty and its lasting consequence. Retrieved from
http://www.urban.org/uploadedpdf/412659-child-poverty-and-its-lasting-consequencepaper.pdf
National Coalition for the Homeless. (2007). Education of homeless children and youth.
Retrieved from http://www.nationalhomeless.org/publications/facts/education.pdf
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THE EFFECT OF PEVERTY ON INFANTS AND TODDLERS
Jensen E. (2009). Teaching with Poverty in Mind. Chapter 2. How poverty affects behavior and
academic performance. Retrieved from
http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/109074/chapters/How-Poverty-AffectsBehavior-and-Academic-Performance.aspx
Rumberger R. (2013). Amercan Psychlogical Association. Poverty and high school dropouts.
Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/pi/ses/resources/indicator/2013/05/povertydropouts.asp
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