Huge ‘word gap’ holding back low-income children may not exist after all

A study contests the idea that poor kids hear fewer words than kids from higher-income families

young child with parent

WORD UP  A previous report that primary caregivers speak an average of 30 million more words to young children in middle-class and wealthy families, versus youngsters in poor families, doesn’t hold up on closer inspection, a new study finds.

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A scientific takedown of a famous finding known as the 30-million-word gap may upend popular notions of how kids learn vocabulary.