Why Boosting Poor Children’s Vocabulary Is Important for Public Health
thealtantic.com | EMILY DERUY | 7 September 2015
Abstract: Research suggests that poor children hear about 600 words per hour, while affluent children hear 2,000. By age 4, a poor child has a listening vocabulary of about 3,000 words, while a wealthier child wields a 20,000-word listening vocabulary. So it’s no surprise that poor children tend to enter kindergarten already behind their wealthier peers. But it’s not just the poverty that holds them back—it’s the lack of words. In fact, the single-best predictor of a child’s academic success is not parental education or socioeconomic status, but rather the quality and quantity of the words that a baby hears during his or her first three years.
Those early years are critical. By age three, 85 percent of neural connections are formed, meaning it’s difficult for a child who has heard few words to catch up to his peers once he enters the school system.
Research suggests that poor children hear about 600 words per hour, while affluent children hear 2,000.
While the word gap might sound like an education problem, the health consequences can be dire—and the benefits of eliminating it can be immense. Public-health officials in Georgia recognize this.
