We must spot learning problems earlier, says thinktank

Huge scope to end under-achievement and improve mental health of nation
Child reading
Teachers need training in how to spot problems. Photograph: Corbis

Spotting and treating learning difficulties early is vital for children's mental wellbeing, a government report has found.

Children's wellbeing is a key issue for the government and the schools minister, Baroness Delyth Morgan, recently outlined plans to measure schools on their efforts to promote it.

The report from Foresight, the government thinktank on the future, said learning difficulties were a problem that affected up to 10% of children.

"Yet too often they remain unidentified, or are treated only when advanced. The result can be under-achievement in school and disengagement by the child, sometimes leading to a long-term cycle of anti-social behaviour, exclusion and even criminality," it said.

"Improvements in early detection combined with focused interventions could prevent problems developing and create broad and lasting benefits for the child and society."

The report found that dyslexia and dyscalculia (maths learning problems) can both substantially reduce lifetime earnings and GCSE achievement, with dyscalculia potentially as common as dyslexia but frequently undetected.

"Developmental dyslexia affects the literacy skills of between 4% to 8% of children. It can reduce lifetime earnings by £81,000, and reduce the probability of achieving five or more GCSEs (A*-C) by 3 to 12 percentage points," the report found.

For dyscalculia, which affects 4% to 7% of children, the financial impact is £114,000 and reduces pupils' chances of getting good GCSE results by 7 to 20 percentage points.

"Teachers and frontline childcare professionals should be given scientifically accredited training in fields relating to how children learn and develop, and also learning difficulties. The training would capitalise on the new scientific understandings in these fields," the report said.

"It would empower the professionals to better address the needs of individual children, and to improve learning and development trajectories.

"For example, there is a need to foster wider recognition that most learning difficulties in children such as dyslexia and dyscalculia are genetically transmitted."

The report - a combination of 100 other reports and the work of 400 international experts - also considered wellbeing at work, where absenteeism costs businesses around £750m each year.

Sponsored by the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills, it found that early intervention is crucial in developing and maintaining mental capital and mental wellbeing - whether spotting and treating learning difficulties in children and young people or developing biomarkers to diagnose dementia earlier in older people.

The report defines mental capital as a person's cognitive and emotional resources - how good they are at learning plus their social skills and resilience to stress.

Mental wellbeing changes daily and is linked to personal and social fulfilment.

A small increase in levels of wellbeing can produce a large decrease in mental-health problems across people of all ages, it suggests.

It found there is substantial scope for improving the huge problem of mental ill-health, which costs up to £77bn in England alone.

Prof John Beddington, the government's chief scientific adviser and director of the Foresight programme, said: "This report gives us new insights, based on cutting-edge science, into the challenges ahead and how they might be addressed.


"Investing to identify and tackle learning difficulties early on and improving the take-up of education and learning will result in people getting better jobs," he said.

John Denham, the universities secretary, said: "Future prosperity and social justice in the UK will be strengthened by drawing on the mental capital and talents of its citizens and I am pleased this report recognises that the government is already on the right track in many areas.

"My own department is investing more in skills and training than ever before to ensure our all of our people, young and old, can make the most of their talents and abilities, increasing their prosperity and improving their life chances."