A brand new study by Ohio State University has found kids who start pre-school with a bigger vocabulary and good self-control, have a better chance of doing well in class.

Now, you’re probably thinking that this is all pretty obvious.

And, yeah, this is definitely one of those studies that is less surprising than it just confirms stuff that we already know.

But it’s pretty important stuff.

The research found that a child’s ability to interact with teachers and classmates when they first get into a school environment  is greatly affected by the number of words they know.

And kids that start school who already know how to behave themselves, and can stop themselves from getting distracted easily, will do a lot better in the classroom.

But that’s only half the story.

The flipside of all this is also just as obvious, and was confirmed by the research, too.

Kids who have poor vocabularies when they start school struggle to communicate with teachers and fellow students, and when combined with lower self-control, they are at higher risk of negative behaviours in class.

And once that starts to happen… well… it’s very hard to get an education back on track.

So, what’s going on here?

Well, there’s a couple of things to consider.

The first is the reality that some kids have learning difficulties, and this research shows how that can impact their performance in class.

Identifying it early is the best way to help those children, who in the past, sometimes slipped through the cracks because they were just pigeonholed as naughty kids.

But the other thing to consider here is what happens BEFORE kids get to school for the first time.

This new study goes a long way to explaining why kids who grow up in challenging home environments continue the cycle of disadvantage.

Those kids are more likely to arrive at school with poor vocabularies and exhibiting lower levels of self control, and so right from the get-go their chances of succeeding in the classroom are reduced.

So how long does it take before these kids tune out in the class altogether, because they can’t understand why everything is so much harder for them?

Of course, all of this is nothing new to teachers.

They can quickly spot the kids who’ll struggle based on what learning and behavioural tools they’ve developed in their home environment.

The problem these days is parents are increasingly outsourcing those responsibilities to teachers and child care centres, and blaming educators when it doesn’t happen.

So if you take anything away from this new research, it’s that parents have a huge role to play in preparing their kids for school.

And if they don’t… well… it’s the kids who pay the price.