Institute of Education - Early markers of 'blighted' lives

Most children who will go on to experience serious deprivation in adulthood can be identified by the age of ten, a new report suggests. Researchers at the Institute of Education, University of London, believe that 70 to 90 per cent of youngsters heading for "blighted" adulthoods can be identified while still in primary school from what is known about their personal and family circumstances. They have also found that a simple copying test that gauges a child's ability to replicate shapes and simple patterns at the age of five is an accurate predictor of later success in school and early adulthood.