Spotting and treating learning difficulties early is vital for children's mental well being, a UK government report has found. The report from Foresight, the government think tank on the future, said learning difficulties were a problem that affected up to 10% of children.

"Yet too often they remain unidentified, or are treated only when advanced. The result can be under-achievement in school and disengagement by the child, sometimes leading to a long-term cycle of anti-social behavior, exclusion and even criminality," it said.

"Improvements in early detection combined with focused interventions could prevent problems developing and create broad and lasting benefits for the child and society."

The report found that dyslexia and dyscalculia (math learning problems) can both substantially reduce lifetime earnings and academic achievement, with dyscalculia potentially as common as dyslexia but frequently undetected.

"We need to empower professionals at schools to better address the needs of individual children, and to improve learning and development trajectories.

Parents also need to be vigilant. Know the signs of language and learning issues under 5 years of age, and the signs of reading difficulties 4-7 years of age. Here's one article that we wrote for Parent Guide called Looking for Clues.

Even small gains from interventions at elementary school or earlier will have out-sized benefits over a lifetime, in and out of school, due to the power of compounding.