Identifying Pathways between Socioeconomic Status and Language Development

Posted: 27 Jan 2017

See all articles by Amy Pace

Amy Pace

University of Washington

Rufan Luo

Temple University

Kathy Hirsh-Pasek

Temple University

Roberta Michnick Golinkoff

University of Delaware

Date Written: January 2017

Abstract

Children from low-income backgrounds consistently perform below their more advantaged peers on standardized measures of language ability, setting long-term trajectories that translate into gaps in academic achievement. Our primary goals in this review are to describe how and why this is so, in order to focus attention on ways to enrich early language experiences across socioeconomic strata. We first review the literature on the relation between socioeconomic status (SES) and language ability across domains in early childhood. We then identify three potential pathways by which SES might influence language development — child characteristics, parent–child interaction, and availability of learning resources — recognizing the complicated interaction between the child's own language learning skill and his/her environmental support. Finally, we review interventions that target these three pathways with an eye toward best practice. Future research should focus on the diversity of contexts in which children acquire language and adopt methods of language measurement that are sensitive to cultural variation.

Suggested Citation

Pace, Amy and Luo, Rufan and Hirsh-Pasek, Kathy and Golinkoff, Roberta Michnick, Identifying Pathways between Socioeconomic Status and Language Development (January 2017). Annual Review of Linguistics, Vol. 3, Issue 1, pp. 285-308, 2017, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2905698 or http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev-linguistics-011516-034226

Amy Pace (Contact Author)

University of Washington ( email )

Seattle, WA 98195
United States

Rufan Luo

Temple University ( email )

Philadelphia, PA 19122
United States

Kathy Hirsh-Pasek

Temple University ( email )

Philadelphia, PA 19122
United States

Roberta Michnick Golinkoff

University of Delaware ( email )

Newark, DE 19711
United States

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