The discovery that children from low-income households hear fewer than a third of the words heard by children from higher-income families has long-term ramifications. When these findings are extended over a child's first four years of life, they indicate a 30 million word difference. Although this may not seem like a large number, it is when you consider that the average adult knows about 20,000 words, so this would be like learning something new every week of your life.
This figure was arrived at by calculating how much information is in the average book and then assuming that kids are missing out on that many books. The word gap has been narrowed since then, but it's still present today.
There are two ways people try to close the word gap. The first is through reading programs. These programs provide incentives for parents to read with their children, most often in the form of tickets or points that can be used towards toys or other prizes. The goal is to get kids interested in reading before they start school so they continue into adulthood. Programs like this have been shown to be effective in closing the word gap.
The other way people try to close the word gap is by funding research projects. Scientists will give children access to language learning materials (such as dictionaries or storybooks) and then observe how much they know after trying them out.
A research study undertaken by psychologists Betty Hart and Todd Risley is referred to as the "30 million word gap." Their research found that by the age of four, children from lower-income homes hear 30 million fewer words than children from higher-income families. The reason for this difference is that parents who do not read to their children do so out of convenience or because they believe it is unnecessary due to their young child's ability to learn through other means.
Children from more educated families are likely being read to because of the many benefits that come with learning to read early on in life, such as developing language skills, increasing attention and motivation toward reading, and providing a foundation for future learning experiences.
Additionally, researchers have suggested that if parents choose not to read to their children, then they should make up for it by reading a book every night themselves. Otherwise, they are sending a message to their child that reading is not important.
Finally, reading to your child can also help develop relationships between you and your child. If you stop visiting your child's room after they go to sleep, they will never know how much you care about them when they are awake but too busy playing with their toys to notice you standing outside their door.
So, reading to your child is significantly important for their cognitive development and can have many other benefits as well.
The word gap argument calls for impoverished parents and instructors of poor children to speak more words to newborns and early children in order for them to succeed academically. Children benefit from complex, dynamic learning that is linked to family, community, and language. They also need to hear words that they will later come to associate with important ideas and concepts.
Speech therapists who work with children who lack speech due to medical conditions such as cerebral palsy use this argument to justify providing these children with alternative means of communicating their needs and desires. For example, a therapist might encourage a child's parent to attach symbols to objects in the child's environment to indicate how the child would like those objects treated (e.g., use scissors instead of fingers to pick up toys).
This argument has been used by educators throughout history to promote the education of girls and boys who have not yet learned to talk. They have suggested that if girls can't say anything negative about a teacher or instructor, then he or she must be doing something right.
Some scholars have criticized this argument on two counts: first, because it assumes that only children will benefit from spoken words; second, because it ignores the role that emotions play in learning.
However, some researchers have proposed modifications to this argument that take into account new findings from cognitive science and neurobiology.
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