sperry, sperry, and miller (2018) replicated hart and risley's study and found that the number of word gaps varied within the same backgrounds of socio-economic status. a longitudinal study observed families with their children in their homes and the researchers spoke to the participants as if they were a family friend. they used similar social classes as hr for comparison. middle class, working class, lower class, poor "welfare" group. during the visit, three analyses were made and transcribed for research. the first was how many words the primary caregiver spoke to the child. the second was that the words spoken by all caregivers to the child showed social class alone did not determine either the composition of households or consequently the amount of a speech a child heard. lastly, all ambient speech, like language addressed to other individuals but overheard by language learning children was considered. in the poor community sample when you took into consideration the ambient speech, or the words that primary caregivers said to extended family, the number of words a child hears increased by 54%, in the working class by 210%. this study was the first attempt to replicate hart and risley and their findings did not support the previous claims. given the variation within communities was greater than when simply comparing socioeconomic statuses.