Not always having enough to eat can impair reading and math development in children

By Susan S. Lang

When young school-age children do not always have enough to eat, their academic development -- especially reading -- suffers, according to a new longitudinal Cornell University study.

The research provides the strongest evidence to date that food insecurity has specific developmental consequences for children. Food insecurity is defined as households having limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate or safe foods.

"We found that reading development, in particular, is affected in girls, though the mathematical skills of food-insecure children entering kindergarten also tend to develop significantly more slowly than other children's," said Edward Frongillo, associate professor of nutritional sciences at Cornell. The study also found that girls' social skills suffer when families that have been food secure become food insecure while the child is in the early primary grades.