A new cross-national study reports that higher temperatures are associated with slower progress in young children's early learning. Children exposed to average maximum temperatures above 86 °F (30 °C) were less likely to reach basic literacy and numeracy milestones than peers in cooler conditions, with the greatest impacts observed among children in economically disadvantaged households.
Researchers have identified an association between elevated temperatures and delays in early childhood development, based on data from multiple countries. The study, published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and summarized by New York University, analyzed information from 19,607 children aged three and four in Gambia, Georgia, Madagascar, Malawi, Palestine, and Sierra Leone. These countries were selected because they offer detailed records on child development, household living conditions, and climate data, allowing researchers to estimate the heat exposure each child experienced.
To assess development, the team used the Early Childhood Development Index (ECDI), which tracks milestones in four domains: literacy and numeracy (reading and number-related skills), social-emotional development, approaches to learning, and physical development. The researchers combined ECDI data with 2017–2020 information from the Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS), which include indicators on education, health, nutrition, and sanitation, and linked these with climate records showing average monthly temperatures.
According to the study, children who experienced average maximum temperatures above 86 °F (30 °C) were 5 to 6.7 percent less likely to meet basic literacy and numeracy benchmarks than children exposed to temperatures below 78.8 °F (26 °C) during the same season and in the same region. The associations were strongest for children in economically disadvantaged households, homes with limited access to clean water, and densely populated urban areas.
“While heat exposure has been linked to negative physical and mental health outcomes across the life course, this study provides a new insight that excessive heat negatively impacts young children's development across diverse countries,” said lead author Jorge Cuartas, an assistant professor of applied psychology at NYU Steinhardt, in a statement released by New York University.
Cuartas underscored the broader implications for policy and practice: “Because early development lays the foundation for lifelong learning, physical and mental health, and overall well-being, these findings should alert researchers, policymakers, and practitioners to the urgent need to protect children's development in a warming world.”
The research was co-authored by Lenin H. Balza and Nicolás Gómez-Parra of the Interamerican Development Bank and Andrés Camacho of the University of Chicago. The authors call for additional research to identify the mechanisms driving these effects and to investigate protective factors and policy interventions that could help build resilience as climate change intensifies.
