A paper by ISOTIS researchers Ted Melhuish and Jacqueline Barnes (University of Oxford), together with other colleagues, was accepted into the Exceptionality Education International journal.

The paper focuses a study of the long-term influence of early childhood education and care (ECEC) on the risk for developing special educational needs (SEN).

The results of this longitudinal study following over 3000 children up to the end of school found that, after controlling for demographic and parenting factors, that attendance an early education centre reduced the risk of the child developing special educational needs across the whole of the school career.

This effect was amplified where the quality of provision in the early education centre was higher. Overall attendance at high quality early education reduced the risk of SEN across the school career by 60% compared to children without early education experience before entering formal schooling.