This is from Neuroanthropology, a collaborative blog from Australia. Read from the scientific community how researchers have found concrete links between the income – achievement gaps that appear in academic environments. Yes, social disadvantage results in neurological disadvantage. As noted by Lehrer even back in 2006, “The social implications of this research are staggering. If boring environments, stressful noises, and the primate’s particular slot in the dominance hierarchy all shape the architecture of the brain—and Gould’s team has shown that they do—then the playing field isn’t level. Poverty and stress aren’t just an idea: they are an anatomy. Some brains never even have a chance.”
Read about this. It matters how one is designing learning games or software for disadvantaged groups. The authors review what really matters in this discovery of a concrete link between poverty and achievement in Poverty and the Brain: Becoming Critical, April 10 2009.