Low income word gap: Is quantity all that matters?
The language gap between children from poverty and children not from poverty has been well documented. Hart and Risley (1995) showed us that children from high socioeconomic (SES) homes were exposed to 45 million words by the time they reached school, while children from middle SES homes were exposed to 26 million words. Children from low SES homes were exposed to only 13 million words. An even more startling conclusion was shared by Bracey (2006): toddlers from higher SES situations used more words in conversations with their parents than low SES mothers used in conversations with their children. These KIDS (even before beginning formal education) used more words in conversation than low SES MOTHERS did. As an educator at a title one school, that is sobering and frightening. It then reasons that the low SES children will likely have smaller vocabularies and fall behind their peers in school.
I ran across a transcript from a PBS podcast about an interesting intervention done with low SES parents to address the low-income word gap. Over fifty toddlers in the Providence, Rhode Island area were outfitted with an electronic word counter. The toddlers wear something like a vest for about 18 hours once a month. It records and counts the words these children hear. When the scientists shared results from one young girl, the data indicated that she heard 5,000 words in a day (that number should be around 16,000.) Information was also shared that showed that the young girl watched hours and hours of television during the day. The advice given to the father of this young girl was to limit her TV time and to triple the number of words he speaks to her.
A valid point about this research was brought up by the journalist conducting the interviews--these devices only count the number of words. The devices do nothing to indicate the quality of the words used. I immediately made a connection to my own FitBit Zip, which is, essentially, a fancy, digital pedometer. It just counts my steps. My goal each day is to walk 10,000 steps. Most days I hit that goal. But my FitBit has no idea whether I reach that goal by leisurely walking up and down the halls of my school without breaking a sweat or if I reach that goal by running over four miles during a 100-degree day in North Texas (and sweating profusely!) Certainly quality of steps (or words) is just as important, if not more important, than the quantity of steps (or words.)
I’m a firm believer that knowledge is power, and just knowing how many steps I’ve taken or not taken helps me to monitor and adjust my activity level. Perhaps this word counter is one small “step” in the right direction toward addressing and closing this low-income word gap.
You can hear the PBS podcast at this link: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/coaching-parents-toddler-talk-address-low-income-word-gap/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=pbsofficial&utm_campaign=newshour
This post was written for The Literacy Triad by Jill Culmo, Ed.D.
