Whether it’s ultraprocessed foods, screens or microplastics, parents are tasked with skirting a bevy of risks to typical childhood development. Now, a new one arises: increasing temperatures.

A study from NYU suggests that children who experienced unusually warm conditions — like an average maximum temperature above 86 °F — were 5 to 6.7% less likely to reach expected literacy and numeracy milestones compared with kids living in cooler environments of 78°F or lower during the same season and region.

Researchers looked at data from more than 19,000 children between the ages of 3 and 4, from countries including Georgia, Madagascar, Gambia and Sierra Leone, among others. The team chose these countries due to the availability of detailed data on child development, household living conditions and climate, which allowed the scientists to approximate the amount of heat each child experienced.

Then, to evaluate how children were developing, scientists applied the Early Childhood Development Index, which tracks milestones across four key areas: reading and basic math skills, social-emotional development, approaches to learning, and physical development. They combined this information with another large-scale survey that included demographic and well-being indicators like education, nutrition and sanitation.

By merging these datasets with climate records that contained average monthly temperatures, researchers were able to look at possible links between early development and heat exposure — and make a point to explore heat’s impact on development in future studies.

Though we understand the parent cleaning up a spill of orange juice and cereal likely has more immediate concerns than rising temperatures…