Mical Raz|Barbara R. Beatty
Replacing the “Word Gap” With Nonstigmatizing Approaches to Early Literacy and Language Building
University of Rochester|Wellesley College
pediatricians frontlines caring children growing lowincome households dedicated promoting language acquisition early literacy incorporated pediatric care number successful programs including wellknown program reach read provides free books families childrens well visits1 much support scientific backing interventions concerns lags language development couched terms closing word gap children lowincome families privileged counterparts2 recent studies however replicated word gap findings show substantial variations sociolinguistic environments even within socioeconomic strata suggests singular gap question use word gap concept reliance approach deficits rather strengths lowincome minority families highlighted argue instead universal nonstigmatizing approach enhancing childhood literacy propose using positive framework language building replace concept word gapnumerous language acquisition programs focused increasing number words spoken children lowincome families attempt address termed word gap oftencited 1995 study hart risley3 found young children lowincome homes exposed 600 words per hour considerably fewer 2100 words per hour heard children highincome families extrapolating hart risley3 suggested age 4 years children low income heard 30 million fewer words highincome counterparts word gap seen longlasting effects childrens scholastic abilities study quickly became iconic policy rationale universal preschool education earlychildhood intervention programs clearly design weaknesses including small sample families total 42 families different socioeconomic strata way vocabulary measured correlated scholastic advantage instance 1 point criticism words spoken directly child rather words spoken around child termed ambient verbal environment measured4 thus word gap concept highly interpretative derived statistically weak research lacks nuanced attention individual cultural contextsresearchers subsequent rigorous studies also pointed importance early language exposure vocabulary development scholastic achievement even emotional development many scholars language acquisition including hart risley3 note quality language interactions equally important important quantity5 hart risleys3 word gap framework also address skills beyond language acquisition useful productive adult lives music art math science social skills value often reflected wordbased curricula school programs6last fall researchers found evidence reliance concept word gap negatively impacted educators viewed latino latina students serving stigmatize marginalize young duallanguage learners7 recently largescale study sperry et al4 describing