Children's Thinking Paper - ChAD 170 (4) (1)
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San Jose State University *
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170
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Linguistics
Date
Jan 9, 2024
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9
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Low-Income Households and Language Development
San Jose State Unitversity
ChAD 170: Cognitive Development in Context
Dr. John Jabagchourian
December 4, 2023
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Introduction
Several studies and theories have shown that a child’s environment can impact their
essential development. Lack of economic stability is becoming more prevalent globally. Many
individuals and families across the United States communities are low-income or living in
poverty. A family’s socioeconomic status (SES) can be used to predict a child’s ability and
capacity to accomplish academic achievements or master a language(s). Many other family
characteristics can also contribute to a child’s hindering or progress in language use and
development. With that being said, how exactly is language development impacted in children
from low-income families and communities? This is a vital piece of development to
acknowledge because, as previously mentioned, poverty and low-income households are
becoming more widespread in not only the United States but also globally. This paper will cover
the foundation of children’s language development throughout different ages along with
contextual factors (i.e. parental relationship/educational status, SES, and parental involvement)
of low-income children’s language development. To ensure resources for preventative measures,
it is crucial to understand the effects of low-income learning circumstances on linguistic and
communication development.
*Process of Early Language Development*
Believe it or not, the language development process starts at birth when newborns tend to
acknowledge language over other sounds. Within the first year, the utilization of sound
sequences, as well as gestures (i.e. babbling, cooing, and crying), are used by infants as forms of
communication. This occurs because their brains are too prematurely developed for full language
comprehension and usage of words and sentence structures (Siegler & Alibali, 2020). Following
the first year, language development in a child can quickly flourish as they begin to comprehend
a large number of basic vocabulary and apply it slowly by observing and imitating the people
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within their environment. Potential hurdles faced in language learning during childhood come
from barriers such as; overextension - using a single word about multiple concepts/objects rather
than different words for different things and underextension - not using a word enough. Although
a child from any environment can be at risk of facing barriers in language development, young
children are likely to quickly begin developing mapping abilities and make realizations to
grammatical rules. One subfactor of language development that is more complex is bilingualism.
This is the concept that children can be exposed to various languages, more specifically two.
When doing this, it is recommended to introduce the secondary language before puberty ages to
increase the chances of a positive experience for the child with the acquisition of another
language (Siegler & Alibali, 2020).
The continuous process of language development is shaped by and goes hand in hand
with cognitive construction. This means that the ability to comprehend and produce speech
comes from one’s understanding, knowledge, and reflections on experiences with multiple
aspects of language application (i.e. reading, writing, and/or speaking). The motivation behind a
child’s eagerness to engage with language can stem from familial language habits and usage.
How and what children engage with in the world along with the practice of language at home can
aid in the anticipation of their abilities with language acquisition. Language spoken at home
regularly assists in the process of children’s abilities to make sense of spoken words’
definitions/forms of usage, and words can be valuable in more than one context (Vernon-Feagans
et al.m 2012). The sooner children can understand language functions, the more this knowledge
will assist in their speaking development. The quicker they can begin speaking, the more
opportunities will be presented to actively practice tools such as pronouncing and enunciating
words. Being able to differentiate sounds and definitions of a variety of words will strengthen the
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child’s ability to apply grammatical structures and efficiently form useful sentences. Two
theories can be highlighted when attempting to understand language development; the Nativist
Theory – that communication tendencies are inborn and the Learning Theory – nurture
strengthens/shapes learning (Siegler & Alibali, 2020). Essential components of child
development include building on linguistic understanding and communication skills. Exposure to
diverse environments/ideas, access to a large range of vocabulary, and word application in
various contexts can ensure a positive experience with language learning.
Low-Income Impacts on Early Language Development
A study was conducted by Hirsh-Pasek et al. (2015) evaluating three factors of
interactions between dyads: 1) if successful low-income child language learners have more
quality experiences of language foundations through mother-child interactions, 2) comparisons
of impacts of the quantity of language exposure versus quality of communication, and 3) if
adequate language development outcome is more reliant to either quality of communication
foundation or quantity of language exposure, if not both. Examinations were done by watching
video records of 60 low-income parent-child interactions at 24 months and in-depth dives of data
for expressive language abilities at 36 months. After the videos were viewed, it was discussed
that low-income children at 24 months spoke very little or not at all. A total of 200 words were
spoken among 5 children. Given that language ability in early childhood and education is the
number one predictor of school readiness, the study has supported the idea that children living in
poverty do not hear as many words as their peers. This is strongly correlated to the fact that the
majority of the mothers in the study only received and completed low levels of education.
Therefore, it was made clear that the quantity of language exposure and quality of
communication foundations both impact language development. Low-income children’s
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language development is interrupted due to a lack of necessary resources and home structures to
build vocabulary and communication skills.
Dolean-Dacian et al. (2019) conducted a study that tracked 322 Roma children between
the ages of 7 through 9 years old, living in severe poverty in comparison to non-Roma Romanian
children. This study evaluated both monolingual and bilingual students. Reading skills were
evaluated by tracking the number of words and nonwords recited from a disconnected text that
was read correctly within 40 seconds. Researchers looked for the child's connectivity towards
rapid automatized naming, phonological awareness, letter knowledge, nonverbal IQ, and school
absenteeism. Roma children lacked abilities and efficiency in word reading. Surprisingly, there
were no significant differences between Roma, non-Roma, monolingual, and bilingual groups for
nonword reading. The Roma children evaluated showed a lack of growth in reading skills as well
as poor initial reading abilities and understanding. A few causes of these developmental
impairments originate from school absences, limited parental education, and lower access to
resources (e.g. books).
Rowe-L. Meredith (2008) conducted a study to discover why American parents from
different socioeconomic backgrounds have differing ways of communicating with their children.
Transcripts pulled from 47 dyad naturalistic interaction videos to provide clear visualization of
child-directed speech. Children's vocabulary comprehension skills were measured using the
Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test twice. Once at the age of 2-6 and one year later at age 3-6.
Low-SES families were noticed to have differentiating communicative environments compared
to those of high-SES families. Mothers in low-income homes were found to speak less and use
limited vocabulary when talking with their children. Children growing up in low-income homes
spoke roughly 700 words a day compared to 11,000 words for high-SES children. Low-SES
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mothers focus vocabulary on behavior management, which could positively impact a child’s
emotional recognition abilities but limits the practice of eliciting and maintaining conversations.
Parental Education & Engagement
Dore-Rebecca et al. (2023) conducted a longitudinal study that evaluates parent stressors
and their impacts/contributions to child language development. The study focuses on toddlers
0-24 months, language development abilities with consideration to parental stressors and
economic hardship. As exemplified through multiple studies, low-income households often have
less quality experiences with language exposure (Hirsh-Pasek et al., 2015). In response to the
initial lag in the display of vocabulary and communication rules, lags in language development
will continue to occur through to adult years. Economic hardship leads to high parental stress,
less parental responsiveness, and inconsistent parenting styles. It may be preferred during times
of high stress and economic struggles to involve care from non-parental adults to ensure
language interactions in various contexts and appropriate cognitive stimulation. Language
development in preschool years will be badly impaired if parents lack educational
accomplishments and time to tend to their child's needs.
Conclusion
In conclusion, a family’s SES comes with various dimensions that directly impact
children’s language development. Households living in poverty struggle to supply resources to
support children’s literacy needs. Being unaware of or unable to provide crucial structures of
language and communication can hinder a child’s experience in language learning as well as
cognitive abilities. Without a basic foundation of linguistics and communication skills, school
readiness and academic success are hinged. Low-income children lack educational
attainment/resources, parental involvement/flexibility, and face the external chaos of carrying
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household responsibilities. Although many dimensions contribute to low-income children’s
language development, the most common cause of slow development is to lack of access to
resources (e.g., time, energy, materials, learning space, and money). Low-income parents have to
work that much harder to attain the necessary information to expose their children to proper
language-building resources or programs to prepare their children for educational competence.
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References
Dolean, D., Melby-Lervåg, M., Tincas, I., Damsa, C., & Lervåg, A. (2019). Achievement gap:
Socioeconomic status affects reading development beyond language and cognition in
children facing poverty.
Learning and Instruction, 63, 101218–.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2019.101218
Dore, R. A., Purtell, K. M., Chen, J., & Justice, L. M. (2023). The Interplay among Parents’
Stress, Nonparental Child Care, and Child Language Development among Low-Income
Toddlers.
Early Education and Development
,
34
(6), 1447–1457.
https://doi.org/10.1080/10409289.2022.2106767
Hirsh-Pasek, K., Adamson, L. B., Bakeman, R., Owen, M. T., Golinkoff, R. M., Pace, A., Yust,
P. K. S., & Suma, K. (2015). The Contribution of Early Communication Quality to
Low-Income Children’s Language Success.
Psychological Science, 26(7),
1071–1083.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797615581493
ROWE, M. L. (2008). Child-directed speech: relation to socioeconomic status, knowledge of
child development, and child vocabulary skill.
Journal of Child Language, 35(1)
,
185–205.
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305000907008343
Siegler R., & Alibali, M (2020).
Children’s Thinking.
Hoboken: Pearson.
Vernon-Feagans, L., Garrett-Peters, P., Willoughby, M., & Mills-Koonce, R. (2012). Chaos,
poverty, and parenting: Predictors of early language development.
Early Childhood
Research Quarterly, 27(3)
, 339–351.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2011.11.001
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