The Effects Of Language Development Of Children

Language Development of children from low income populations continues to be an ongoing barrier for academic progress. What causes these linguistic deficiencies is a question that does not have one solid, proven answer. These linguistic deficiencies are often blamed on parents who, presumably, do not provide their children with sufficiently rich language learning environments. The 1995 groundbreaking work of Betty Hart and Todd Risley studied vocabulary development in families from different socioeconomic backgrounds and their results claim that poor children grow up in linguistically impoverished environments that limit their vocabulary development and ultimately their success in school. Further, the Hart and Risley’s study claims that children from low income environments do not receive the same quality or quantity of language as children in middle and upper income environments. Their findings report that by age 3 low income children have about a 500 word vocabulary while children from mid to upper SES have a vocabulary of over 1000 words. According to Hart and Risley, children from higher SES hear more words spoken by their parents thus they know more words. “by age 3 the children in professional families would have heard more than 30 million words, the children in working –class families 20 million, and the children in welfare families 10 million” (Pathologizing the Lanaguage and Culture of Poor Children p. 363, (Hart and Risley Study p.132)). Hart and Risley also argue that these deficiencies play a significant role in the high school dropout rate and the continuation of the poverty cycle. Ultimately, Hart and Risley stand on the ideas that there is a culture of poverty that limits the academic and vocational success ...

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...ressors on parents such as having food for the family, home security and employment security etc. “Maternal stress has been shown to be transmittable to children and to negatively influence infants and small children.”(p. 13). Mother spouse and mother child relationships are significant in language development. Poor relationships have a higher rate of stress and this has a negative influence on the child’s receptive language which suggest that there is a great number of causes in the home environment that influence language and intellect. An over- crowded home environment is a measure of stress because more the more people in the home the more noise and this decreases the chance for mental quiet. Over-crowded homes also predict less diversity in language and also a parent response that is not warm and encouraging; further there is a lack of routine and rules.