Warning on behaviour

26th February 2010, 12:00am

One in 10 five-year-olds are struggling to make friends and behave well, a report from Demos has found. Behaviour such as being unable to control your temper, tolerate frustration or empathise can have stronger links with how children do at school than IQ. And the research by Sonia Sodha and Julia Margo aimed to find the earliest possible point of intervening in a bid to prevent teenagers dropping out of education at 16. They call for a universal light-touch screening programme to pick up “nursery Neets” before they start school.