Thursday, February 19, 2009

The Early Catastrophe

30 million word gap by age 3

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow. I was reading this article keeping in mind all I have learned from my two psychology classes. Believe me I'm NOT an expert! But I came to a conclusion, that this is very accurate and legitimate. If you have the extra time just skim through it (at least look at the graphs). I personally relate it to the war on poverty in the 1960's and why it failed. Very interesting stuff!

Eric Manzo said...

It is crazy how big the word gap is between different classes. That motivates me to teach my children to speak properly once I have children that is.

Jonathan said...

Wow, 30 million words. I don't even think I could count that high. That's really scary. I wonder if "goo goo gaa gaa" count as words...

maryn said...

I first heard about this study a year or two ago in the Early Childhood classes I took. It was amazing. The teacher said we need to talk to our kids, make them apart of all we do with them and read to them a lot. Everyday moments are learning moments for little children. We need to treat them like little people not objects. I am amazed at how many people I see talking on their cell phones and ignoring the little children beside them. That is part of the problem and that is not just with the lower class.

scott said...

its really not all that astonishing. kids learn the most in their young age , and if you have nothing to teach them, then they will learn nothing.

Kirsten said...

I was shocked by all the negativity in lower-class households. And people wonder why dropout and crime rates are higher in these lower class families? I think the 2 negative comments:1 positive comment ratio pretty much explains it all.

LindsyM. said...

That is crazy. I can't believe how big the gap is even at the age of three. I never thought that there would be such a big gap. I knew there had to be some sort of gap just by listing to different parents talk to their children but i never though that it would be that bad.

Dianna said...

That article shows proof of a gap in educated and poorly educated children, 30 million word difference for that matter. Just how many words are in our vocabulary? It really does show the rich have privelages that you are born into...

TeslaRR said...

I don't see how these results can be very accurate. When the parents where being studied (the higher class one's atleast) probably spent more time paying attention to the kids, which amped the average results. There's no way to know that this is exactly the difference in words, it might not even be close.

Barry W. said...

i can safely say that i can speak at least 50 words.. in any given day.. maybe more if i had an energy drink

Dianna said...

I believe in exercise which we are cutting due to lack of funding in elementary and middle school education. I believe the 30 million gap and 30 million step gap would be an interesting correlation to research... If our children start eating Cheetos instead of Doritos our country would be f$&*&^%$#d, they would be sitting at home alone watching violence on TV not doing their homework and sleeping with their head in their ice cream tub. That would surely lose your vocabulary.

Dianna said...

What happened to free after school programs provide by government? This is better than DARE programs in my mind because ADULTS are supervising our children! I for one an a latch key/Camp Dudley kid, though, I was sheltered and this did not help me later in life because you are thrown into a world of good and bad when you are in high school. I think that by switching funding with the programs would help produce better results with our children succeding in life. Not only could the adult be a supervisor, but a mentor and counselor, someone to tell their life experiences to to help our children further their knowledge of right and wrong.

Unknown said...

It is amazing that there could be that big of a word gap between classes. It really makes you think how important it is to talk to kids. I work at KinderCare and i hope that what we are doing with the kids everyday helps fill the word gap for those kids who might not get it at home.

tonya said...

i agree, i agree, i agree. look at parents who are educated and in the "upper" classes and how they talk in between themselves and between their kids, then look at the same thing for parents who have little education and are in the lower class levels. the differences in the kinds of words used and the way they talk to others is immense. most of how you learn to speak happens when your very young, parents vocabularies tend to pass to their children. but then again this isnt always the case...

kayla said...

I think that is crazy. I really didn't think that it was that important to talk to your children that much, well besides the fact that their your children and you should talk to them, but i mean like i didn't realize it made that big of a difference.