Kids Say The Darndest Things

Hi! I'm Ashley and I'm a Communication Sciences and Disorders major in college. I aspire to work with children in the school or clincial setting. This blog is going to take a look at how socioeconomic status affects language and vocabulary acquisition in children. Enjoy!

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Sources Used

Peer Reviewed

http://www.sciencedirect.com.ezproxy.lib.usf.edu/science/article/pii/S0021992405000146?

http://www.sciencedirect.com.ezproxy.lib.usf.edu/science/article/pii/S0021992404000334?

http://eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/detail/detail?vid=6&sid=f1cc8a72-7005-4211-ac36-db8754da4ce9%40sessionmgr104&hid=104&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU%3d#AN=2015-19615-001&db=pdh

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com.ezproxy.lib.usf.edu/doi/10.1002/wcs.1393/full

http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.lib.usf.edu/eds/detail/detail?vid=5&sid=f1cc8a72-7005-4211-ac36-db8754da4ce9@sessionmgr104&hid=104&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU=#AN=2009-02701-020&db=pdh

Non Peer Reviewed

http://www.apa.org/topics/socioeconomic-status/

https://www.thoughtco.com/vocabulary-acquisition-1692490

http://www.naeyc.org/tyc/article/the-word-gap

http://www.asha.org/slp/schools/prof-consult/norms/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3659033/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charter_school

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It’s Been Fun

I would just like to take a minute to express some closing thoughts on this topic.

Firstly, socioeconomic status, race, and ethnicity all play a great hand in language and vocabulary acquisition in children. Although those are factors that cannot really be changed, at least not overnight in regards to SES, there are so many ways that children can still acquire language at home with their families. 

A few suggestions:

Read to your children every day. Keep books around the house for them. Let them play with books, pick them up, feel the spine and turn the pages. Familiarize them with literature as early as possible.

Talk to your children. Even if you think they can’t understand you, they can hear you. That’s a huge part of language acquisition. Participate in play with them. Utilize methods such as talk aloud and turn taking. Not only does it implement language, it’s also a great way to bond with them. 

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The chart above shows the amount of students in charter schools in comparison to traditional public schools based on race. 

Charter schools are schools that receive government funding but operate independently of the established public school system.

Thought the chart is out of date, you can see that children that go to charter schools are more likely to be Hispanic or African American.

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Culturally Complex Scenario #2

While we are on the topic of race and having just talked about education, let’s look at another culturally complex scenario. 

Again, you are an SLP working in the Tampa area. You are white, mono-linguistic in English and see primarily white, English speaking clients. A Latino client comes in explaining that her son is not scoring well in reading and thinks he may be falling behind in school because of it. She also includes that although the books they use at home are in English, she and her husband speak primarily in Spanish to each other, and to their son. You are concerned that you, speaking only English, will not be able to help their son to catch up, let alone excel, in language acquisition. 

What could you do?

1. Refer the parents to a different SLP who is fluent in Spanish as well as English. The downfall of this option is that it makes you, as an SLP, seem culturally incompetent. 

2. Tell the mother that you would be happy to treat her son, with the assistance of a fluent Spanish interpreter. The downside of this option would be having to outsource to find said interpreter as well as finding one who would be able to have a flexible schedule and would be reliable to show up for the treatment sessions. 

The option I would choose to go with is option 2. While outsourcing could take some time, it could help you as the SLP save face in regards to cultural competency as well as your willingness to help rather than simply finding someone else to take the job. In regards to the scheduling of treatment sessions, it would not be too difficult to find someone who could interpret sessions and have a flexible schedule. For this factor, it would just need to be made clear that would be for a client who is paying for therapy sessions and that timeliness and availability are of the utmost importance in order to take the job. 

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Race And Ethnicity?

We’ve talked about socioeconomic status and a little bit about education, but could race and ethnicity also have some sort of impact on language acquisition? Research believes so.

Fewer African American and Latino children demonstrate proficiency in expressive vocabulary than their European American and Asian American counterparts. African American and Latino children also scored lower on reading than children from aforementioned backgrounds. 

But how does race and ethnicity relate to socioeconomic status? Wouldn’t you think those two would be separate? Well, it turns out there is actually a great correlation. More African American and Latino children live in poverty, or at least lower socioeconomic status than European American and Asian American children. Due to this statistic, these children are far more likely to be at a greater risk of poor language and vocabulary achievement. 

http://eds.b.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.lib.usf.edu/eds/detail/detail?sid=c16e36fd-f734-4aae-a7c8-93ee44ff432b@sessionmgr102&vid=1&hid=111&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU=#AN=2015-19615-001&db=pdh

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What About Education?

We’ve covered the topic of language experiences at home, but what about the language acquisition that children do while in school?

One study was done to see how low socioeconomic status and history of otitis media effusion may impact early language experience. For the sake of this post, I will be focusing on socioeconomic status.

This study found that children in lower SES exhibited perceptual strategies typical of younger children who do not fall into the low SES category as well ass poorer abilities on tasks such as syllable and phoneme awareness.

In the ‘Continuing Education’ section of the appendix for this study, it is noted that children living in low socioeconomic conditions are expected to be delayed in language development due to deficits in linguistic experience.

Why do you think that is? Could socioeconomic status really prevent young children from going to school? I understand that college is costly, but elementary through high school is generally free, unless the child goes to a private school or academy. But before elementary school usually comes preschool. If children are not able to be enrolled in a preschool program due to their family’s socioeconomic status, they are missing out on a very important time for language acquisition.

You can find the entire study here:

http://www.sciencedirect.com.ezproxy.lib.usf.edu/science/article/pii/S0021992404000334

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Culturally Complex Scenario #1

So now that we have a good amount of background information, let’s take a look at a culturally complex scenario.

You are a Speech Language Pathologist working in the South Tampa area. You usually see patients who are in the higher socioeconomic status. A family in the lower socioeconomic status comes in for an evaluation of their child who they believe to be behind the curve in regards to language acquisition. Prior to meeting them, you learn that they do not currently have any form of health insurance, meaning that even if their child is in need of speech therapy, they will not be able to afford it.

So what can you do?

1. You could refer them to a different SLP who may be more accustomed to working with families in lower SES. This would not be good for your reputation, though, as you would seem culturally incompetent.

2. You could let them know up front that you will do the evaluation but treatment, should their child need it, would be too costly for people who do not have insurance.

3. You could do the evaluation and diagnose their child, but again, let them know that treatment, at least in office, would be too expensive. Before letting the family leave your office, you could sit down with them and educate the parents on different methods they could implement at home and set up a follow up evaluation after an allotted amount of time to see their child’s progress.

If I were the SLP in this scenario, I would most likely go with option number 3. It is a difficult decision to make, but that choice makes the most sense to me. It would push the parents to be more hands on in communicating with their child and it would only be one meeting every agreed amount of time for a re evaluation, rather than meeting once or twice a week and charging them for each treatment.

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It’s Not All In The SES

While yes, this blog does focus on how SES has an impact on language and vocabulary acquisition in children, we cannot attribute it so exclusively.  Who is to say that the parents do not also have a hand, or maybe not so much, in their child’s language acquisition?

There is a great relation between SES and the way mothers talk to their children. Mothers in the lower SES category have been found to speak less, use a more minimal vocabulary, be more direct, and ask their children less questions than those in the higher category. 

A study was conducted with participants between the ages of 16 and 30 months, equally distributed in high SES and mid SES groups. They were both presented with equally sized spontaneous speech samples and the children in the higher SES group produced a significantly greater amount of words and word types than those in the mid SES group.

This is not to say that parents are blatantly to blame for their children’s less than extensive vocabularies, especially at such young ages, but there is a strong correlation between SES and the amount of communication between parent and child. Mothers in higher SES talk more and use richer vocabularies when they speak to their children, whereas mothers in lower SES utilize a smaller vocabulary. 

http://www.sciencedirect.com.ezproxy.lib.usf.edu/science/article/pii/S0021992405000146

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In this video, I am asking my sister-in-law a few questions regarding her thoughts on how socioeconomic status may impact language acquisition in children. She is currently in the Speech Language Pathology Master’s program at Nova Southeastern University and has two children, 2 years and 7 months, and 1 year old. Special appearance by my 1 year old nephew. 

Some important points:

Reading, playing, and consistently conversing with your children is incredibly important.

If intervention is necessary for the child, don’t overload them with too much language and think that it’s helpful or that they will catch up more quickly. This can actually be counterproductive, as they go from having not enough interactivity, to having more than they may be able to handle.

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This is just one version of Sander’s chart. It depicts the ages at which the specified phonemes should be acquired and properly articulated. This is a generalized estimation and is definitely not one size fits all. Especially in the case of differing socioeconomic statuses. There have also been differences found between male and female children. 

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But How Are They Related?

Now that you have an understanding of what socioeconomic status and language and vocabulary acquisition are, I’m sure you’re probably wondering, “But how are they related?” Well, I’m glad you asked. 

You may not think that there is a connection between the amount of money a family makes and a child’s vocabulary, but there is actually a strong correlation.  By the age of 3, there is a 30 million word gap between children who come from wealthy families and children who come from poorer families.

A study, conducted by researchers at Stanford University, tested the language processing of 18 and 24 month old children using pictures and eye responses. The children from higher socioeconomic backgrounds performed far better than those in lower socioeconomic backgrounds. In fact, children at 24 months from lower SES performed at the same level as those at 18 months of age from higher SES. 

This could be because children in lower SES households experience and take part in less language exchange. Households with a higher SES exhibit more enriching conversations as well as interactions with their children. 

http://www.naeyc.org/tyc/article/the-word-gap 

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Let’s Get Started

Before we go too far into specifics here, I’d like to define a couple of key terms that will be used throughout this blog. There are two major topics that we will be focusing on, and they are socioeconomic status and language and vocabulary acquisition. 

So what do these things mean?

The American Psychological Association defines socioeconomic status as the social standing or class of an individual or group often measured as a combination of education, income, and occupation. I may also use the abbreviation, “SES,” to label this topic. 

Vocabulary acquisition is the process of learning the words of a language. 

Pretty simple stuff.

From this point on, we’re going to explore how these two topics are related to one another and the impact that socioeconomic status has on language and vocabulary acquisition. For the purpose of this blog, I will be focusing on the pediatric population. 

http://www.apa.org/topics/socioeconomic-status/

https://www.thoughtco.com/vocabulary-acquisition-1692490

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Hi Everyone!

I just want to take a minute to welcome any visitors to my blog and let you know what it’s all about. 

Since I began my journey in the Communication Sciences and Disorders major, I have known that I want to work with children. As an aspiring Speech Language Pathologist, I have taken a great interest in language acquisition and speaking. What a lot of people, specifically parents, seem to forget is that they have an incredible influence on their child’s language acquisition and vocabulary. What is even more looked over, is the fact that a family’s socioeconomic status may also have an impact on that language acquisition.

Throughout this blog, I will be looking into the effect that socioeconomic status has on a child’s language acquisition and vocabulary. I will also shed some light on different techniques that parents can implement to aid in vocabulary development, regardless of socioeconomic status.