Reexamining the Verbal Environments of Children From Different Socioeconomic Backgrounds

SUMMARY: In a longitudinal follow up study of Hart and Risley 2003, researchers observed caregiver-child language interactions among 42 families of varying socioeconomic status (SES).  Unlike the 2003 publication, which suggested that children from low SES backgrounds are exposed to 30 million less words by age 3 than their high SES peers, the team failed to replicate a disparity between SES groups.  Sperry, Sperry, and Miller suggest a prescriptive definition of a child’s “verbal environment”, as employed in the Hart and Risley study, may bias results by discounting dialects or modes of communication that stray from that of Standard American English.

SIGNIFICANCE: Hart & Risley’s initial study prompted great concern in the fields of child development and beyond.  In the years following its publication, it has provided basis for multiple early intervention programs, including the Clinton Foundation’s Too Small to Fail Initiative.  A failed replication of the influential paradigm calls for a reexamination of the original data and the action it implicates.

Source:  
https://onlinelibrary-wiley-com.colorado.idm.oclc.org/doi/full/10.1111/cdev.13072