Hearing rich, sophisticated language in preschool continues to pay dividends for kids years later–with effects showing up on reading comprehension and word recognition tests in 4th grade.
That’s according to study in the journal Child Development digested on the website futurity.org. David Dickinson, professor of education at Vanderbilt University, and Michelle Porche of Wellesley College looked at the language experiences of children from low-income homes when they were in preschool and found “robust relations between early classroom support for language and later language and reading ability.”
“The frequency of sophisticated vocabulary use during informal conversations predicted children’s kindergarten vocabulary, which correlated with fourth grade word reading. The teachers’ use of sophisticated vocabulary also correlated with children’s kindergarten print ability, and through that word reading skill, the early vocabulary exposure indirectly affected fourth grade reading comprehension.”
The takeaway? “We need to take very seriously the importance of teaching language in the preschool years,” says Dickinson. We pretty much knew this already, but it never hurts to have more evidence. Likewise, it’s not news that the principal cause of the achievement gap is a language gap. The implications of this research are that oral language matters a lot, and that effective use of school time, if started soon enough, can mitigate some of the worst effects of the achievement gap. If a child from a relatively language-poor, low-income home is exposed to a rich verbal environment from the earliest days of school (a key rationale for the Core Knowledge Language Arts program, by the way) with quality preschool followed up by a strong, rich kindergarten and elementary education, the gap-closing results can–and should be–pronounced.
I don’t understand why you like this study but not the one showing that more books in the home improves achievement.
Comment by Tom Hoffman — August 23, 2011 @ 12:30 pm
Remind me why they’re analagous. This study is about active exposure to rich oral language. The other (if I recall correctly) inferred that simply having the physical books in the home was worthwhile intervention. Literate families (i.e. those who use rich oral language) tend to have books in the house. Simply placing books in the house wouldn’t cause a sudden outbreak of parents using rich oral language, would it?
I’m all for having lots of books in the homes of low-SES kids. I’m also for making sure that parents understand that reading with your child every day, engaging them in conversation and asking questions reaps cognitive benefits.
Comment by Robert Pondiscio — August 23, 2011 @ 12:34 pm
Does this also means that for high SES parents who use rich vocabularies at home, preschools and daycares can be a net loss? I mean all that time in an environment where (odds are) the adults have a less sophisticated vocabulary and use less sophisticated sentence structure than at home– when they could be home with a parent?
Or are we not supposed to suggest things like that, because it would undermine the whole “universal preschool” thing?
Comment by Deirdre Mundy — August 23, 2011 @ 3:36 pm
How do we as educators stress the importance of language interactions in the home, especially in the homes of the low SES?
Hart and Risley’s research reveals the amount of conversation in the home correlates positively with a family’s socioeconomic status. The higher the family’s income, the more language interactions are heard. The lower the family’s income, the fewer the language interactions. At age six, children from professional families had a 20,000-word vocabulary and children from welfare families had a 3,000-word vocabulary. The main problem with this study was its small sample.
Is kindergarten too late for these critical interactions?
Comment by Paul Hoss — August 23, 2011 @ 8:14 pm
Isn’t this a wider community literacy problem? When I have shopped i.e. CVS, grocery store, gas station in low versus high SES areas the language interaction can be radically different. I think the more critical issue that you see in low SES communities is a profound aliteratcy. General communities with varied, non-standard gramatical structures, very limited access to print sources. (Here in DC you don’t even see newspaper boxes in these neighborhoods)
Comment by Charlotte Osborn — August 24, 2011 @ 12:17 pm
Deirdre — Haven’t a lot of high SES parents always worried that day care might be a net loss for their kids? And I don’t think I’ve ever heard mandatory universal preschool proposed… It’s an interesting sleight of hand to turn this study into a slap against expanding preschool.
Comment by Rachel — August 24, 2011 @ 6:38 pm
“I don’t think I’ve ever heard mandatory universal preschool proposed.”
Kindergarten was once optional, but most states now make it mandatory. What’s to think that pre-k will be any different?
Comment by Crimson Wife — August 25, 2011 @ 1:03 am
My DH and I always talked to our kids with adult vocabulary and structure and our kids are continuing with the next generation. On a recent visit, C (one week past her third birthday) told her almost-5yo brother that he was ‘being inappropriate and uncooperative and there will be consequences!” She was right on both counts.
Even if there was universal preschool in low-SES areas, the chance of that level of verbal interaction – and the associated cultural knowledge and experiences – happening is almost nil. Particularly in the cities, schools are seen as jobs programs for the adults; and they often don’t function at that level. Check out DC, for an example, and UDC’s track record in el ed and early childhood ed. Those are the adults most likely to staff programs, just as they staff the current schools.
Comment by Anonymous — August 25, 2011 @ 11:15 am
My DH and I always spoke to our kids with adult vocabulary and sentence structure and they are continuing with the next generation. On a recent visit, C (one week past her 3rd birthday) told her almost-5yo brother that he was “being inappropriate and uncooperative and there will be consequences!” She was right on both counts.
As CO commented, the likelihood of preschools in low-SES communities offering this kind of language – and the associated cultural knowledge and experiences – is very low, simply because too many of the adults don’t have it. The cities see schools as jobs programs for adults in the community. Look at DC, for example and the track history of the UDC programs in el ed and early childhood ed; those grads would be the staff, as they are the staff of the current schools. A quick way for a middle-class adult to get into big trouble is to imply that the local language/culture needs to be improved; however true that might be. Remember the statement (now removed, I believe) on the Seattle schools website that stressing a future orientation was cultural imperialism.
Comment by momof4 — August 25, 2011 @ 11:45 am
[...] this post Hear Today, Score Tomorrow at the Core Knowledge education blog: Likewise, it’s now news that the principal cause of [...]
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