The education word gap emerges by 18 months: findings from an Australian prospective study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The idea of the '30 million word gap' suggests families from more socioeconomically advantaged backgrounds engage in more verbal interactions with their child than disadvantaged families. Initial findings from the Language in Little Ones (LiLO) study up to 12 months showed no word gap between maternal education groups.

Methods

Families with either high or low maternal education were purposively recruited into a five-year prospective study. We report results from the first three waves of LiLO when children were 6, 12 and 18 months old. Day-long audio recordings, obtained using the Language Environment Analysis software, provided counts of adult words spoken to the child, child vocalizations and conversational turns.

Results

By the time children were 18 month

SUBMITTER: Brushe ME 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8139043 | biostudies-literature | 2021 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature