Does the differences in 6, 7, and 8-year-old children’s reading and writing success has to do with diligence rather than intelligence

The study is a follow up to a study that was previously conducted by the authors (Briggs, Ololube, & Kpolovie, 2014) on “Managing Children Learning: Support Based Screening Procedure for Motor, Cognition and Language Communication in Early Childhood Education”. Limited data are available that describe the relative impact of diligence and intelligence in children’s reading and writing skills in sub-Saharan Africa. In today’s world, young children look for attention and engage in positive or negative behavior to attain it. It is important that teachers recognize the diligence and intelligence worth of their students on a consistent basis, as research literature in education is devoting increasing attention to the role of children’s effort in academic performance. This study posits two constructs: diligence and intelligence, which express or reflect individual children’s efforts toward achieving reading and writing success. A Diligence and Intelligence Inventory was developed with assistance from experts to elicit data from 6, 7, and 8-year-old children’s teachers on their pupils’ achievements in reading and writing. Using Cronback analysis and construct validation procedures, the instrument was certified to have internal consistency. The results from 321 schoolchildren revealed a significant statistical difference between diligence and intelligence. The academic and practical implications of this study to educational practice include a greater need to complement the efforts of young children in their pursuit for balanced educational development.