Conceptualizing a Public Health Prevention Intervention for Bridging the 30 Million Word Gap

Clin Child Fam Psychol Rev (2017) 20:324

DOI 10.1007/s10567-017-0223-8

http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1007/s10567-017-0223-8&domain=pdf

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Web End = Conceptualizing a Public Health Prevention Intervention for Bridging the 30 Million Word Gap

Charles R. Greenwood1 Judith J. Carta1 Dale Walker1 Jomella Watson-Thompson2

Jill Gilkerson3 Anne L. Larson4 Alana Schnitz1

Published online: 1 February 2017 Springer Science+Business Media New York 2017

Abstract Early childhood experience is a social determinant of childrens health and well-being. The well-being of young children is founded on their relationships and interactions with parents and family members in the home, caregivers, and teachers in early education, and friends and families in the greater community. Unfortunately, the early language experience of infants and toddlers from low-income families is typically vastly different than children from middle- and higher-income families. Hart and Risley (Meaningful differences in the everyday experience of young American children. Brookes, Baltimore, 1995) described a 30 Million Word Gap experienced by age four for children from poor families compared to economically advantaged families as measured by the number of words delivered by adults in the home to their children. This discrepancy between groups is associated with a decit in vocabulary growth over time (Hart and Risley in Meaningful differences in the everyday experience of young American children. Brookes, Baltimore, 1995; in The social world of children learning to talk. Brookes, Baltimore, MD, 1999; in Am Educ (Spring), 19. http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic1317532.files/09-10/Hart-Risley-2003.pdf

Web End =http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb. http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic1317532.files/09-10/Hart-Risley-2003.pdf

Web End =topic1317532.les/09-10/Hart-Risley-2003.pdf , 2003), and readiness when they enter preschool and kindergarten

compared to their more advantaged classmates. The purpose of this paper is to conceptualize a population-level public health prevention approach to research addressing the harmful impacts of the Word Gap. The approach includes use of evidence-based practices to improve childrens language environments to foster their early language and literacy learning in early childhood. After a brief review of the Word Gap, we discuss four aspects: a conceptual framework, a community leadership team as driver of the local intervention, evidence-based language interventions for reducing the gap and promoting child language, and the measurements needed. Implications are discussed.

Keywords Word Gap Vocabulary Language

environment Multicomponent prevention intervention

Infants/toddlers

Early childhood experience is a social determinant of childrens health and well-being (Irwin et al. 2007). We know that the most rapid...