The "word gap" doesn't tell the whole story

Research from MIT shows socioeconomic status doesn't always determine children's language skills. This could help change old thinking about education.
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[@user-vd2jk7dl3p]

I don't trust this study. Their findings were "Any back and forth conversation can help a child's brain grow" But no one was questioning that. The issue is the number of words, and vocabulary that make up the conversations. Children that grow up in a word poor situation DO STRUGGLE. Pretending that this is not the case, does not help these children. Neither is calling an obvious deficit a "difference". These are issues that can be addressed with adjustments in school and at home. Parents and educators want to do the best for their kids but that can't happen if they are told that there is an issue.

[@lynnsantelmann950]

You missed the point. The point is that poor kids don't automatically have less back and forth conversation. Socioeconomic class isn't predictive for how parents interact with kids and in how children's language skills develop. The harm done by the original Hart & Risley study was that it was used to say that all poor kids grow up with such a deficit and that poor parents don't know how to talk to their kids.

[@adamdonovan5633]

@@lynnsantelmann950 Actually, socioeconomic conditions are probably the most important indicator of the POTENTIAL to succeed in the world. It's not that poor parents don't talk to their kids. The issue is that they are struggling to make it in the world, so their work takes them out of the home, and also that since poor parents are not generally educated themselves, the notion that talking to their kids makes a difference is not on their radar. The idea that this research is racist is just nonsense.

[@adamdonovan5633]

You've got that right. This "study" is yet another effort of the "woke" Left to label inconvenient facts as racist.

[@snax7760]

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[@kennywang171]

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