students who have not made the transition from learningtoread to readingtolearn are unable to handle the demands for understanding increasingly complex subjectmatter content morris bloodgood and perney longitudinal studies that have followed students through to the schoolleaving age have identified a number of demographic and schoolrelated factors related to completion barrington and hendricks crane ensminger and slusarcick fagan and ftibon 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 socioeconomic status and parental engagement recent advances in neurobiology molecular biology and genomics have provided compelling evidence that childrens 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