Research shows that children from low-income families hear an average of 8 million fewer words per year than children from high-income families. This means that by the time these children are 4 years old, they will have heard 30 million less words than children coming from high-income families. This is commonly referred to as the 30 million word gap. Unfortunately, research indicates that this gap may be irreversible by the time a child enters Kindergarten and may also be a large contributing factor to the achievement gap between students from high- and low-income families in the public education system.
There are lots of ways that parents can decrease the word gap and prepare their children for literacy. First though, we want to clarify that the 30 million word gap is NOT a result or symptom of ‘bad parenting.’ Parents from low-income families may have to juggle lots of different priorities such as working two jobs to support the family. Therefore, they may not have resources available to them that would allow them to spend lots of quality time interacting to their children. However, small changes could make a big difference. Finding time in your daily routine to talk to your child and use more words while doing so will help close the gap.
There are many ways the brain begins to prepare a child to read from very early on in childhood. Oral language and vocabulary skills are highly connected to reading comprehension. Hearing more words in early childhood makes it easier for children to identify new words and connect those words to their meaning. As children with a broader vocabulary begin to read they learn more words from books. Therefore, the advantage of a broad vocabulary in early childhood continues to grow as the child ages. Unfortunately, studies show that children from low-income families know half as many words as children from high-income families by age three.
Early intervention is the key to ensuring that every child is given the greatest possible opportunity to succeed in Kindergarten and beyond. This is absolutely a solvable problem, but we have to begin by addressing it very early on in a child’s life. We also have to approach this issue in a comprehensive way. Parents, caregivers and preschools all have a part to play in closing the 30 million word gap.
Pre-k is a priority in Texas for the current legislative session. Preschools help close the gap by building on what children already know and teach in a way that is most-suited to their learning styles and interests. Governor Greg Abbott campaigned on the promise of higher quality Pre-K programs across the state, and that priority is going to be reflected in the upcoming legislative session. Texas enrolls more children in Pre-K than in any other state, so we have a really great opportunity to work with children from low-income families to make sure that they begin Kindergarten on the same trajectory as those from high-income families.
Five practices for building the literacy ‘groundwork’ came out of the same study that identified the 30 million word gap. “Talk, sing, read, write and play” are all practices that serve as the building blocks for literacy. Not only have these five practices been implemented into preschool teaching practices, but can be easily fit into activities between parent and child throughout the day. By not only engaging the children but the parents as well in a fun activity, it encourages parent/child interaction and helps skill-building become an easy, natural thing to do.