sperry, sperry and miller discussed some of the consequences of the original hart and risley (2003) article. the 30-million-word gap has received widespread media attention. in 2013 bloomberg philanthropies mayors challenge awarded providence rhode island its grand prize to "providence talks"—a project proposed to teach poor parents how to speak to their children with the aid of the lenadevice. the clinton foundations "too small to fail" initiative which hosted the white house word gap event in 2014, resulted in the us department of health and human services funding remedial efforts to address the word gap.