Students who have not made the transition from learning-to-read to reading-to-learn are unable to handle the demands for understanding increasingly complex subject-matter content (Morris, Bloodgood and Perney, 2003). Longitudinal studies that have followed students through to the school-leaving age have identified a number of demographic and school-related factors related to completion (Barrington and Hendricks, 1989, Crane, 1991, Ensminger and Slusarcick, 1992, Fagan and ftibon, 1990, Gilbert et al., Literacy skills, grade repetition, attendance, engagement and positive behaviours are among the most important determinants, and nearly all studies emphasise the role of family socio-economic status and parental engagement. Recent advances in neurobiology, molecular biology and genomics have provided compelling evidence that children's early experiences interact with their genetic disposition in ways that affect brain development as well as other neurological and biological systems associated with healthy child development (Boyce, Sokolowski and Robinson, 2012).