26/11/2024
The term ‘word gap’ has given me the ick for years. Glad to see this conversation happening in such a public space.
Most of us have heard about that "word gap" study about how children from lower-income households hear far fewer words in their early years (and may never catch up to affluent kids academically) due to their "lower-quality" home language environments. Well... it turns out the methods of that study were bad science and racially biased.
Letting go of what we thought we knew is hard—especially with deeply entrenched ideas like the "word gap." But reexamining our assumptions is key to building a more just field.
Ready to find out what the evidence tells us about the [spoiler: much more nuanced] relationship between poverty and language ability? Head to https://www.theinformedslp.com/review/Is-socioeconomic-environment-actually-a-risk-factor-for-language-disorders to read our research review, "Is socioeconomic environment actually a risk factor for language disorders?" and earn 23 minutes of CE credit.
[Visual description: Image text reads, "Maybe it’s a “word gap”... or maybe it’s linguistic racism."]
