Understanding Socioeconomic Differences in Parents’ Speech to Children

Rowe, Meredith L.

doi:10.1111/cdep.12271

Cited by 167 publications

(118 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…Within-group variability is not inconsistent with between-group differences. Much data suggest that the language exposure gap across income levels is alive and well (e.g., Hoff, 2003;Huttenlocher et al, 2010;Rowe, 2017)and that there is a corresponding gap in children's language skills. For example, the recent development and validation of a new language screener for children from 3 through 5 (Quick Interactive Language Screener; Golinkoff, de Villiers, Hirsh-Pasek, Iglesias, & Wilson, 2017) led the authors to test more than 250 children from lower income versus higher income homes.…”

Section: Is There a 30-million Gap In Language Exposurementioning

confidence: 99%

Language Matters: Denying the Existence of the 30‐Million‐Word Gap Has Serious Consequences

et al. 2018

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Sperry, Sperry, and Miller (2018) aim to debunk what is called the 30-million-word gap by claiming that children from lower income households hear more speech than Hart and Risley () reported. We address why the 30-million-word gap should not be abandoned, and the importance of retaining focus on the vital ingredient to language learning-quality speech directed to children rather than overheard speech, the focus of Sperry et al.'s argument. Three issues are addressed: Whether there is a language gap; the characteristics of speech that promote language development; and the importance of language in school achievement. There are serious risks to claims that low-income children, on average, hear sufficient, high-quality language relative to peers from higher income homes.

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Section: Is There a 30-million Gap In Language Exposurementioning

confidence: 99%

Language Matters: Denying the Existence of the 30‐Million‐Word Gap Has Serious Consequences

et al. 2018

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“…The approach taken by HR and valorized by Golinkoff et al (2018) and others (cf. Hoff, 2013;Rowe, 2018) prioritizes middle-class meanings and practices. In study after study, children and families from low-income, working-class, and minority communities do less well than their more privileged counterparts because the measures that are used derive from mainstream understandings.…”

Section: Areas Of Agreement and Disagreementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Language Does Matter: But There is More to Language Than Vocabulary and Directed Speech

Sperry

Miller

2018

Child Development

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In response to Golinkoff, Hoff, Rowe, Tamis-LeMonda, and Hirsh-Pasek's (2018) commentary, we clarify our goals, outline points of agreement and disagreement between our respective positions, and address the inadvertently harmful consequences of the word gap claim. We maintain that our study constitutes a serious empirical challenge to the word gap. Our findings do not support Hart and Risley's claim under their definition of the verbal environment; when more expansive definitions were applied, the word gap disappeared. The word gap argument focuses attention on supposed deficiencies of low-income and minority families, risks defining their children out of the educational game at the very outset of their schooling, and compromises efforts to restructure curricula that recognize the verbal strengths of all learners.

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“…It is currently unknown whether these social variables are malleable in parents of typically developing infants, and whether altering these variables results in enhancements in children's language development. Given the wealth of literature on the effects of SES on language learning and processing (for review, see Rowe, ), our goal was also to assess the potential effects of SES on altering parental language input, and in turn, child outcomes. Families across a range of SES backgrounds were recruited into the study, and SES was used as a covariate in statistical analyses.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Parent coaching at 6 and 10 months improves language outcomes at 14 months: A randomized controlled trial

Ramírez

Lytle

Fish

et al. 2018

Developmental Science

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Previous studies reveal an association between particular features of parental language input and advances in children's language learning. However, it is not known whether parent coaching aimed to enhance specific input components would (a) successfully increase these components in parents' language input and (b) result in concurrent increases in children's language development. The present randomized controlled trial assigned families of typically developing 6‐month‐old infants to Intervention (parent coaching) and Control (no coaching) groups. Families were equivalent on socioeconomic status, infants' gender, and infants' age. Parent coaching took place when infants were 6 and 10 months of age, and included quantitative and qualitative linguistic feedback on the amount of child‐directed speech, back‐and‐forth interactions, and parentese speech style. These variables were derived from each family's first‐person LENA recordings at home. Input variables and infant language were measured at 6, 10, and 14 months. Parent coaching significantly enhanced language input as measured by two social interaction variables: percentage of speech directed to the child and percentage of parentese speech. These two variables were correlated, and were both related to growth in infant babbling between 6 and 14 months. Intervention infants showed greater growth in babbling than Control infants. Furthermore, at 14 months, Intervention infants produced significantly more words than Control infants, as indicated by LENA recordings and parent report via the MacArthur‐Bates Communicative Developmental Inventory. Together, these results indicate that parent coaching can enrich specific aspects of parental language input, and can immediately and positively impact child language outcomes. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at: https://youtu.be/7wqR28gPiwo

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Understanding Socioeconomic Differences in Parents’ Speech to Children

Cited by 167 publications

References 44 publications

Language Matters: Denying the Existence of the 30‐Million‐Word Gap Has Serious Consequences

Language Matters: Denying the Existence of the 30‐Million‐Word Gap Has Serious Consequences

Language Does Matter: But There is More to Language Than Vocabulary and Directed Speech

Parent coaching at 6 and 10 months improves language outcomes at 14 months: A randomized controlled trial

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