Replacing the 'Word Gap' With Nonstigmatizing Approaches to Early Literacy and Language Building
| Autor: | Barbara Beatty, Mical Raz |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2018 |
| Předmět: |
media_common.quotation_subject
Psychological intervention Literacy Dyslexia 03 medical and health sciences 0302 clinical medicine 030225 pediatrics Reading (process) Humans Medicine Child Socioeconomic status Language media_common business.industry 05 social sciences 050301 education Language acquisition Linguistics Language development Reading Socioeconomic Factors Pediatrics Perinatology and Child Health Guardian business 0503 education Word (computer architecture) |
| Zdroj: | Pediatrics. 142 |
| ISSN: | 1098-4275 0031-4005 |
| Popis: | Pediatricians, who are at the frontlines of caring for children growing up in low-income households, are dedicated to promoting language acquisition. Early literacy is incorporated into pediatric care with a number of successful programs, including the well-known program Reach Out and Read, which provides free books to families at children’s well visits.1 Much of the support and scientific backing for these interventions and concerns about lags in language development are couched in terms of closing the “word gap” between children from low-income families and their more privileged counterparts.2 Recent studies, however, have not replicated these word gap findings and show substantial variations in sociolinguistic environments even within socioeconomic strata. This suggests that there is no singular gap. We question the use of the word gap concept and the reliance on an approach in which the deficits, rather than strengths, of low-income and minority families are highlighted. We argue instead for a universal, nonstigmatizing approach to enhancing childhood literacy and propose using a positive framework of language building to replace the concept of a word gap. Numerous language acquisition programs are focused on increasing the number of words spoken to children from low-income families in an attempt to address what is termed the word gap. In an often-cited 1995 study, Hart and Risley3 found that young children from low-income homes were exposed to ∼600 words per hour. This was considerably fewer than the 2100 words per hour heard by children from high-income families. Extrapolating, Hart and Risley3 suggested that by … Address correspondence to Mical Raz, MD, PhD, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, 1310 Blockley Hall, 423 Guardian Dr, Philadelphia, PA 19104. E-mail: mraz{at}ur.rochester.edu |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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