Hispanic Immigrants’ Children Fall Behind Peers Early, Study Finds

More help should be given to immigrant parents to begin reading to their babies. They are healthy but are behind their peers when they start school and many never catch up. Language is part of the problem and so is poverty. - - Donna Poisl

By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr.

HOUSTON — The children of Hispanic immigrants tend to be born healthy and start life on an intellectual par with other American children, but by the age of 2 they begin to lag in linguistic and cognitive skills, a new study by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, shows.

The study highlights a paradox that has bedeviled educators and Hispanic families for some time. By and large, mothers from Latin American countries take care of their health during their pregnancies and give birth to robust children, but those children fall behind their peers in mental development by the time they reach grade school, and the gap tends to widen as they get older.
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